Graduate admissions criteria in psychology: an update

Ratings of importance were reviewed for nine graduate admissions criteria for the 573 graduate degree programs listed in American Psychological Association's Graduate Study in Psychology (2003). Overall, the three criteria receiving the highest percentages of importance ratings were letters of recommendation, statement of goals and objectives, and grade point average. Importance ratings varied depending on the degree programs offered. Results are discussed in terms of the advice offered students interested in admission to graduate school and the importance of students tailoring their graduate admissions process to their specific degree program.     

Psychophysical test for the independence of perception and action

Research has suggested that perception and action are independent (see M. A. Goodale & A. Haffenden, 1998). The authors used the Ebbinghaus illusion to test this hypothesis in 2 experiments. Verbal reports of perceived size were compared with maximum grip aperture during grasping (Experiment 1) and manual reports of perceived size (Experiment 2). A multidimensional signal detection analysis was used to distinguish among the possible interactions between the two processes in each experiment (H. Kadlec & J. T. Townsend, 1992a, 1992b). In Experiment 1, the percepts were independent, and there were no interactions between processes for verbal and visuomotor responses. In Experiment 2, the percepts associated with verbal and manual reports were independent, but the processes interacted at the levels of the stimulus information and the decision rules used to transform each percept into a response.     

Psychometric Properties of the Dutch BIS/BAS Scales

This study examined the reliability, factor structure, and convergent validity of the Dutch version of C. S. Carver and T. L. Whites (1994) Behavioral Approach System and Behavioral Inhibition System Scales (BIS/BAS Scales). For this purpose, the BIS/BAS Scales, a shortened version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory (DII) were administered to 246 undergraduate students in The Netherlands. The internal consistency of the BIS/BAS Scales was sufficient. Further, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the Dutch BIS/BAS Scales have a factor structure similar to the English version. Finally, BIS/BAS Scales were found to correlate in a theoretically meaningful way with extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and impulsivity.     

ADHD and college students: exploratory and confirmatory factor structures with student and parent data

Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were used to investigate the structure of the Student Report Inventory (SRI) and Parent Report Inventory (PRI) of the College Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Response Evaluation. The sample was composed of 1,080 college students and their parents and was stratified by ethnicity, gender, ability level, age, grade, region of residence, and psychoeducational classification status. Results varied according to the information source (self-report vs. parent). EFA uncovered and CFA confirmed 3 distinct and reliable dimensions for student reports: Inattention, Hyperactivity, and Impulsivity. By contrast, EFA and CFA uncovered a reliable 2-dimension structure for the parent-report data. Factor structures replicated across genders (3 factors for the SRI, and 2 factors for the PRI). Results are discussed in terms of the divergence of structures.     

Impact of a System of Care on a Community's Children's Social Services System

Researchers and practitioners have questioned how the implementation of a system of care influences the broader context of children's social services within a community. We examined the impact that the Dawn Project system of care had on children's services in Marion County, Indiana. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gain a broad understanding of stakeholder perspectives related to how system-level and other community leaders viewed system of care influences. Qualitative analyses uncovered several common themes including positive impact at the community level, challenges to implementation, and feelings of ambivalence related to program impact. Results were generally positive and suggested that most respondents saw core system of care principles beginning to emerge within the community related to the establishment of the care system. In addition, challenges to implementing the system of care also were uncovered, including some underlying resistance to system-level changes. Implications from our study highlight the importance of continuously working to enhance strengths and collaboration among systems, integrate and coordinate across systems and services, and authentically involve families at all levels.     

Culture-based perceptions of academic achievement among low-income elementary students

This study examined the influence of culture on students' perceptions of academic success. Students read scenarios depicting hypothetical classmates achieving success through the cultural themes of individualism, competition, communalism, or verve. Students reported their social endorsement for the hypothetical classmates. A 2x4 repeated measures analysis, examining the effects of cultural group and cultural theme on students' endorsement, revealed an interaction between the two variables. African American students were significantly more accepting of communal and vervistic high-achieving peers than European American students. European American students endorsed individualistic and competitive high achievers significantly more than African American students. These and other findings suggest that the value students attach to academic success should not be understood in the absence of cultural considerations.     

Recharging cognition with DC brain polarization

Electrical direct current (DC) has been applied to the human head throughout history for various reasons and with claims of behavioral effects and clinical benefits. This technique has recently been rediscovered and its effects validated with modern quantitative techniques and experimental designs. Despite the very weak current used, DC polarization applied to specific brain areas can alter verbal fluency, motor learning and perceptual thresholds, and can be used in conjunction with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Compact and safe, this old technique seems poised to allow major advances cognitive science and therapy.     

Imaging or imagining? A neuroethics challenge informed by genetics

From a twenty-first century partnership between bioethics and neuroscience, the modern field of neuroethics is emerging, and technologies enabling functional neuroimaging with unprecedented sensitivity have brought new ethical, social and legal issues to the forefront. Some issues, akin to those surrounding modern genetics, raise critical questions regarding prediction of disease, privacy and identity. However, with new and still-evolving insights into our neurobiology and previously unquantifiable features of profoundly personal behaviors such as social attitude, value and moral agency, the difficulty of carefully and properly interpreting the relationship between brain findings and our own self-concept is unprecedented. Therefore, while the ethics of genetics provides a legitimate starting point--even a backbone--for tackling ethical issues in neuroimaging, they do not suffice. Drawing on recent neuroimaging findings and their plausible real-world applications, we argue that interpretation of neuroimaging data is a key epistemological and ethical challenge. This challenge is two-fold. First, at the scientific level, the sheer complexity of neuroscience research poses challenges for integration of knowledge and meaningful interpretation of data. Second, at the social and cultural level, we find that interpretations of imaging studies are bound by cultural and anthropological frameworks. In particular, the introduction of concepts of self and personhood in neuroimaging illustrates the interaction of interpretation levels and is a major reason why ethical reflection on genetics will only partially help settle neuroethical issues. Indeed, ethical interpretation of such findings will necessitate not only traditional bioethical input but also a wider perspective on the construction of scientific knowledge.