A Working Definition of Moral Progress

Essentially everyone agrees that the outlawing of slavery, or the beginning of women’s suffrage, or the defeat of Nazism constitute paradigmatic examples of moral progress in human history. But this consensus belies a deep division about the nature of moral progress more generally, a consequence of the foundational differences among and within normative traditions regarding the nature and scope of the ‘moral’ in moral progress. This essay proposes that philosophers might nonetheless converge on a working definition of moral progress by identifying a proxy property that reliably tracks moral progress, but which does not purport to be coextensive with the philosophically-relevant property. The aim of this essay is to identify this proxy property with emerging empirical measures of population welfare, and to show why this indicator of moral progress can garner overlapping consensus from a variety of normative traditions.     

Training and Consultation in Psychological Assessment With Professional Psychologists: Suggestions for Enhancing the Profession and Individual Practices

Once central to the identity and practice of clinical psychology, psychological assessment (PA) is currently more limited in professional practice and generally less emphasized in graduate training programs than in the past. Performance-based personality tests especially are taught and used less, even though scientific evidence of their utility and validity has never been stronger. We review research on training in PA and discuss challenges that contributed to its decreased popularity. We then review continuing education requirements for ethical practice in PA and recommend that PA should be reconceptualized as a specialty best practiced by psychologists who have the resources and time to maintain competency. We offer recommendations about how professional organizations concerned with PA can promote its practice and how individual expert clinicians can assist. We conclude by describing a collaborative model for providing group consultation in PA to practicing psychologists. If implemented widely, this model could help promote PA and raise its standard of practice.     

A preliminary study of emotional intelligence, empathy and exam performance in first year medical students

A group of 156 first year medical students completed measures of emotional intelligence (EI) and physician empathy, and a scale assessing their feelings about a communications skills course component. Females scored significantly higher than males on EI. Exam performance in the autumn term on a course component (Health and Society) covering general issues in medicine was positively and significantly related to EI score but there was no association between EI and exam performance later in the year. High EI students reported more positive feelings about the communication skills exercise. Females scored higher than males on the Health and Society component in autumn, spring and summer exams. Structural equation modelling showed direct effects of gender and EI on autumn term exam performance, but no direct effects other than previous exam performance on spring and summer term performance. EI also partially mediated the effect of gender on autumn term exam performance. These findings provide limited evidence for a link between EI and academic performance for this student group. More extensive work on associations between EI, academic success and adjustment throughout medical training would clearly be of interest.     

An innovative cognitive strategy to assist problem gamblers

The clinical and research literature suggests that cognitive and behavioural therapies are particularly helpful in assisting clients overcome problem gambling behaviour. Several articles have described the efficacy of a range of cognitive interventions, especially provision of information regarding rates of return and the odds of games and the exploration of irrational beliefs and myths and misconceptions regarding gambling activity. This paper describes in detail an innovative cognitive strategy which focuses on problem gambling clients' financial status. The strategy incorporates the use of illustrations, generally using a whiteboard, to highlight how problem gambling behaviour negatively impacts on financial wealth over time. Step by step instructions are provided, together with illustrations, to allow clinicians to incorporate the strategy in treatment with their own clients.     

Rationale and development of a general population well-being measure: Psychometric status of the GP-CORE in a student sample

This paper presents the rationale, development, and psychometric status of a non-clinical self-report measure for the general population (GP) - including students - derived from the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and hence termed the GP-CORE. In contrast to the CORE-OM, the GP-CORE does not comprise items denoting high-intensity of presenting problems or risk and thereby increases its acceptability in a non-clinical population. Uniquely, over half the items in the GP-CORE are positively keyed. Analyses showed the GP-CORE to have good reliability, to distinguish between clinical and non-clinical populations, and have convergent validity against the full version. Norms for student populations are presented. It is suggested that the GP-CORE has considerable utility as a means of tapping the psychological well being of students and can then interface with counselling and mental health services using the CORE-OM.     

Belief bias and figural bias in syllogistic reasoning

Belief bias is the tendency to be influenced by the believability of the conclusion when attempting to solve a syllogistic reasoning problem. Figural bias is the tendency to be influenced by the order in which the information is presented in the premises when attempting to solve a syllogistic reasoning problem. When studied simultaneously they enable an investigation of whether participants' reasoning on the syllogistic reasoning task is guided by the conclusion (backward reasoning) or the premises (forward reasoning). Experiments 1 and 2 found evidence of belief bias but not figural bias on the syllogistic evaluation task paradigm. Experiments 3 and 4 found evidence of figural bias but not belief bias on the syllogistic production task paradigm. The findings highlight that different task characteristics influence performance dependent upon the nature of task presentation. These findings are discussed in the context of current theories of belief bias in syllogistic reasoning.