The ethical confrontation of the unethical forensic colleague

In the course of clinical and forensic work, psychologists sometimes discover serious weaknesses in knowledge, performance, or ethics in other psychologists' work. The ethical code of the American Psychological Association mandates confronting such a psychologist prior to making a professional complaint. This mandatory confrontation typically is omitted because of a sense of awkwardness or a fear of insulting the other psychologist. Education and training in psychology does not cover this sensitive and important area. In this article, sample templates of letters are provided to meet that ethical requirement and to begin to resolve problem behaviors by colleagues.     

c-fos mRNA induction in acute and chronic audiogenic stress: possible role of the orbitofrontal cortex in habituation

To study putative brain circuits involved in habituation to stress, rats were exposed daily (30 min for 15 days) to an environment in the presence (Chronic) or absence (Acute) of loud noise (105 dB sound pressure level--SPL A Scale). Behavioral and endocrine measures of stress were taken throughout this habituation period, and both measures displayed strong habituation in the Chronic group. All rats were killed immediately after the day 16 exposure, constituting an acute stressor for the Acute group, and regional brain activity was assessed using c-fos mRNA induction with in situ hybridization. Hearing damage could not easily explain these results because additional rats exposed to a similar stress protocol exhibited no changes in auditory brainstem evoked potentials. c-fos mRNA induction in the central auditory system was similar between the Acute and Chronic groups, particularly at lower auditory processing levels, also arguing against a simple reduction in auditory processing in the chronically stressed rats. However, c-fos mRNA expression was reduced in chronically, as compared to acutely, stressed rats in several regions previously implicated in audiogenic stress (lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, some preoptic areas, and the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus). Interestingly, the orbitofrontal cortex was the only region displaying higher c-fos mRNA induction in the chronically as compared to acutely stressed rats. This region has connections to several stress-responsive areas and may thus be a critical region actively inhibiting stress.     

Measures of self-efficacy and optimism in older adults with generalized anxiety

This study provides initial psychometric data for the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) and the Life Orientation Test (LOT) in a sample of older adults with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Participants included 76 adults, ages 60 to 80, who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for GAD. Self-efficacy and outcome expectancies were lower in older adults with GAD relative to published data from younger and older community samples. Both the SES and LOT demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for optimism and pessimism factors within the LOT and exploratory factor analysis of the SES suggested threefactors that overlap with previous findings. Overall, the data support the potential utility of these instruments in late-life GAD and set the stage forfuture investigations of generalized self-efficacy expectancies and outcome expectancies (or optimism) as they relate to the prediction of affect and behavior in this group.     

An outcome survey of psychology residency training program graduates of the University of Texas Houston Medical School

A survey of 71 graduates of the psychology residency program at The University of Texas Houston Medical School and the Texas Research Institute of Mental Science indicated that two-thirds of the respondents were involved in private practice, conducting primarily individual therapy, with assessment also playing a major role in their practice. Managed care had the effect of placing limits on the numbers of sessions available to patients, reducing income, and increasing paperwork associated with practice. Implications for training during residency are that individual therapy, using focused short-term approaches, and assessment should continue to be the primary clinical experiences for trainees, and that there should also be training in the business aspect of practice, including marketing.     

Religious implications of paranormal events occurring during chemically-induced ‘psychedelic’ experience

Pastoral Psychology -     

In the eye of the storm: race and genomics in research and practice

The difficulties of operationalizing race in research and practice for social, behavioral, and genetic researchers and practitioners are neither new nor related to recent genetic knowledge. For geneticists, the bases for understanding groups are clines, observed traits that gradually change in frequency between geographic regions without distinct identifiable population boundaries and population histories that carry information about the distribution of genetic variants. For psychologists, race may not exist or be a social and cultural construct associated with fluid social inferences. Because definitions of populations and race can be socially and biologically incongruent, the authors suggest that geneticists and social and behavioral scientists and clinicians attend to external validity issues by operationalizing population and racial categories and avoiding race proxies for other biological, social, and cultural constructs in research designs, data analyses, and clinical practice.     

The thrall of the negative and how to analyze it

From clinical material of patient-analyst pairs caught up in negativistic transference-countertransference enmeshment, the defensive functions of negativism are explored for both patient and analyst. Fascination with and dread of the negative intersect as patients struggle to avoid terrifying aspects of self and other. The analyst works to avoid being trapped in negativism within the dyad. Containing, metabolizing, and transforming the dyad's mutual destructiveness and mutual love enable analyst and patient to feel safer with both. How to play with the negative, to engage the patient in play at the intersection of destructive negativism and dangerous love, is described.     

In defense of cultural competency in psychotherapy and treatment

Cultural competency guidelines and policies are being widely established. Yet some critics have challenged the evidence for cultural competency and the lack of efficacy studies that demonstrate its outcomes. Various positions are examined that discuss cultural competency research. They include the need for more resources for research, scientific practices that overlook ethnic research findings, fruitfulness of theory-driven rather than population-based research, problems in defining cultural competency as a technique, and development of policies in the absence of research. Implications of these positions are discussed.