Developing coherence in community and clinical psychology: the integration of idealism and pragmatism

Illustrations of how ideas from community psychology may be integrated with clinical psychological thinking and practice are described from the perspective of a clinical psychologist working in the NHS. The intentions are to consider socially relevant conceptualizations of the causes of people's well-being and distress, and to develop ways of helping individuals and communities to clarify and address these causes. Incorporating an analysis of social power also necessitates a critical awareness of the limited potency of psychological interventions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Internal health locus of control predicts willingness to track health behaviors online and with smartphone applications

Given rising technology use across all demographic groups, digital interventions offer a potential strategy for increasing access to health information and care. Research is lacking on identifying individual differences that impact willingness to use digital interventions, which may affect patient engagement. Health locus of control, the amount of control an individual believes they have over their own health, may predict willingness to use mobile health (mHealth) applications (‘apps’) and online trackers. A cross-sectional study (n = 276) was conducted to assess college students’ health locus of control beliefs and willingness to use health apps and online trackers. Internal and powerful other health locus of control beliefs predicted willingness to use health apps and online trackers while chance health locus of control beliefs did not. Individuals with internal and powerful other health locus of control beliefs are more willing than those with chance health locus of control beliefs to utilize a form of technology to monitor or change health behaviors. Health locus of control is an easy-to-assess patient characteristic providers can measure to identify which patients are more likely to utilize mHealth apps and online trackers.     

An Elephant in the Consulting Room: Making Space for a Patient's Secret

Developing a private self is required for healthy development to proceed during childhood. However, when secrecy becomes a way of life, development becomes derailed. Secretiveness crowds out privacy during this critical phase of development for many reasons and the result is a secret self. This articles examines secrecy as an adaptive way to avoid shame, manage isolation, and hold onto the threads of identity, allowing for the preservation of a self. It also examines the ways in which secrecy creates emotional distance and prevents intimacy. To illustrate these ideas, I present my work with a patient who developed a secret self and came to treatment with a secret he has yet to reveal. Known between the therapist and patient as “the elephant in the room,” the secret became and remained central to the work and the therapeutic relationship.     

Is There a Correlation Between Static and Dynamic Postural Balance Among Young Male and Female Dancers?

Aimed to investigate whether young male and female dancers have different patterns of association between static and dynamic postural balance (PB), 60 dancers from the Australian Ballet School (14–19 years old) were tested for static and dynamic PB with head and lumbar accelerometers. Monotonic relationships between static and dynamic PB were found in head movements among young female dancers in all three directions, but were found for young male dancers in the mediolateral (ML) and anteroposterior (AP) directions only. In lumbar movements, monotonic relationships were found for young female dancers in the AP direction only. Comparing head with lumbar movements in static PB, young male dancers demonstrated monotonic relationships between head and lumbar movements in all 3 directions; however, young female dancers demonstrated monotonic relationships in the AP direction only. In the dynamic measurements, both male and female dancers demonstrated monotonic relationships between head and lumbar movements for all parameters measured in the ML and vertical directions (p < .05). In conclusions, among female dancers static PB ability is correlated with their dynamic ability, whereas among male dancers, no relationship between the static and dynamic PB in the AP direction exists. Male dancers showed head and lumbar coordination in the static PB movement, but both genders manifested no head and lumbar coordination in the AP direction measured for dynamic PB.     

Manipulations of vasopressin alter aggression differently across testing conditions in monogamous and non‐monogamous Peromyscus mice

Differences in the distribution of arginine vasopressin (AVP) and a subtype of AVP receptors, the V_1a receptor, may explain dissimilarities in social behavior of monogamous and non‐monogamous rodents. Intracerebroventricular infusions of AVP and a V_1a antagonist were used in sexually naive males of two mouse species, the monogamous and highly aggressive California mouse (Peromyscus californicus) and the non‐monogamous and less aggressive white‐footed mouse (P. leucopus), to begin testing the interaction between the social system of a species and the effects of AVP on aggression. Two testing conditions, the resident‐intruder aggression test (R‐I) and the neutral arena aggression test, were used because they may differ in function and underlying biological mechanisms. In the R‐I test, administration of the antagonist lengthened attack latencies in California mice. In contrast, blocking V_1a receptors did not alter attack latencies in the R‐I test in white‐footed mice or in the neutral arena aggression test in both species. AVP also did not alter aggression in either species in either behavioral test. Overall, these results suggest that AVP may be more likely to be associated with offensive aggression as measured in the R‐I test than with neutral arena aggression and that the effects of AVP manipulations may differ between monogamous and non‐monogamous rodents. Aggress. Behav. 31:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The evidential status of philosophical intuition

Philosophers have traditionally held that claims about necessities and possibilities are to be evaluated by consulting our philosophical intuitions; that is, those peculiarly compelling deliverances about possibilities that arise from a serious and reflective attempt to conceive of counterexamples to these claims. But many contemporary philosophers, particularly naturalists, argue that intuitions of this sort are unreliable, citing examples of once-intuitive, but now abandoned, philosophical theses, as well as recent psychological studies that seem to establish the general fallibility of intuition.In the first two sections of this paper, I evaluate these arguments, and also the counter-arguments of contemporary defenders of tradition. In the next two sections, I sketch an alternative account of the role of philosophical intuitions that incorporates elements of traditionalism and naturalism - and defend it against other such views. In the final section, however, I discuss intuitions about conscious experience, and acknowledge that my view may not extend comfortably to this case. This may seem unfortunate, since so much contemporary discussion of the epistemology of modality seems motivated by worries about the mind-body problem, and informed by the position one wishes to endorse. But, as I argue, if conscious experience is indeed an exception to the view I suggest in this paper, it is an exception that proves - and can illuminate - the rule.     

Research Productivity, Gender, Family, and Tenure in Organization Science Careers

In a sample of 162 associate professors of organization science, women in more research-oriented departments had published significantly more during their assistant professor periods than did those in less research-oriented departments, whereas this effect was not observed for men. In more research-oriented departments, men were more likely to have had families (partners and/or dependents) in their assistant professor periods than were women. Patterns in the data suggest that women published more than men in more research-oriented departments but less than men in less research-oriented departments. Findings are discussed in light of person–organization fit theories, gender theories, academic productivity, and gender differences research.     

Correspondence Bias and American Sentiment in the Wake of September 11, 20011

This experiment examined correspondence bias associated with the expression of pro‐ or anti‐American sentiment in the months following September 11, 2001. Participants read a pro‐ or anti‐United States essay written by a person whose name was varied to suggest that he either was or was not a Muslim. Participants were informed either that the position taken in the essay had been chosen or assigned. Inferences made about the essay writer's true opinions demonstrated strong and consistent correspondence bias only when participants believed the essay writer was not a Muslim. When participants believed the essay writer was a Muslim, correspondence bias was diminished on one measure and disappeared completely on another. These findings are consistent with the notion that participants were concerned about rushing to incorrect conclusions about a Muslim target person. The strong correspondence bias exhibited by participants making judgments about a non‐Muslim is consistent with Gilbert and Malone's (1995) assertion that unrealistic expectations lead to correspondence bias.