Training needs of prospective school psychologists: The practitioners' viewpoint

Based on a national sample (N = 516) of practicing school psychologists who are members of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), present and future training needs for prospective school psychologists are addressed. Data from five research questions dealing with preferred course work, current course trends, rankings of categories of courses, practica, and internship are analyzed. The results indicate that, although assessment remains the dominant training need, roles for school psychologists have greatly expanded. The discussion is centered around roles expansion and how the profession may want to address the question of securing training, certification, and accreditation both now and in the future.     

Cognitive problem-solving and life event correlates of depressive symptoms in children

This study examined the relationship between a number of cognitive problem-solving and life event variables and depressive symptoms in a sample of non-referred grade school children. The results indicated that higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with an external locus of control, increased levels of objective and subjective life stress, and lower performance levels on an impersonal problem-solving task. Level of depressive symptoms was also found to be inversely related to socioeconomic status as measured by father's occupation. Contrary to prediction, no consistent relationship was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability.This research is based on the first author's master's thesis submitted under the supervision of the second author to the Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia.     

Predicting young women's role preference for parenting and work

Young women's motivations for two sex-role options were predicted with scores describing perceived rewards/costs of parenting. Using a sequence of multiple regression analyses it was found that the reward-cost perceptions of parenting and work were predictors of the two motivational options. Individual rewards/costs of parenting and work items were better predictors than summed items. It was found that a preference for the career choice was produced by not viewing parenting as rewarding. The preference for parenting choice was influenced most by perceiving parenting as rewarding. The perceived cost and rewards of work were not predictors of a career choice. The items found to be the best predictors for either the parenting or career choice all dealt with perceptions of parenting. It was concluded that these parenting perceptions are the key elements for young women's role motivations.     

AIDS and ‘dirt’: Reflections on the ethics of ritual cleanliness

AIDS and the responses and attitudes it evokes surpass the analytic abilities of standard bioethics. These responses and attitudes are explored in terms of literary and anthropological categories, such as dirt, disorder, pollution and ritual cleanliness. Implications for medical education are suggested.     

Hermeneutics in science and medicine: A thesis understated

Drew Leder's “Clinical Interpretation: The Hermeneutics of Medicine” [1] is an essay which understates its case and thereby opens itself to misinterpretation. This response to Leder argues for a more thorough-going hermeneutic for both medicine and science. At the conceptual as well as the practical level, modern medicine and its scientific foundations are hermeneutic enterprises. The purpose of this essay is to argue that we should not back away from this more radical thesis. Embracing it will result in less alienation of physicians from patients, and of physicians from the tasks of medicine.     

Intermanual interactions during simultaneous execution and programming of finger movements

In bimanual movements, some differences between the movements performed by the two hands cause interference, while others do not. Similarly, in choice between responses with the left and right hand some differences between the two movements increase RT, while others do not. It is suggested that both kinds of effects are, at least in part, due to the incompatibility between processes that determine characteristics of movements jointly for both hands and that are present during preparation as well as during execution. This hypothesis implies that during execution of one movement, programming of a different movement to be performed with the other hand should be impaired, as compared to a condition in which the successive movements of both hands are the same. this expectation was confirmed for finger movements of different forms where an effect on choice RT had been shown previously. On the other hand, interference between execution and programming is not to be expected when successive movements differ in characteristics that are likely to be specified separately for each hand, as indicated by a lacking effect in choice experiments. This expectation was confirmed for successive movements performed with different fingers of either hand as compared to movements performed with the same fingers.     

The dissociation of position and extent in Müller-Lyer figures

Three experiments were designed to determine whether Müller-Lyer figures cause a misperception of the positions of their fins and, if they do, whether it is commensurate with the distortion of extent. Observers marked the visible intersection of shaft and fins either with their unseen hands or with their visible hands after the figure had been removed from view. In the former case, no systematic distortions of position were evident. In the latter case, there were small, systematic distortions of position, which were significantly smaller when the observers fixated the target vertex than when they fixated the center of the figure. These differences are discussed in terms of the probable similarities between the control of eye movements and the control of pointing responses. Of particular importance is the finding that even the largest distortions of vertex position were much smaller than the distortions of shaft extent. The results appear to provide evidence of the independence of perceived position from perceived extent in Müller-Lyer figures and to contradict all existing theories of the illusion.