A Reminder and a Suggestion

… concerned with the whole of man's life … dignity of a human being … develop harmoniously their physical, moral, and intellectual endowments … acquire a sense of responsibility in striving endlessly to form their own lives properly … foster a sense of values … to prepare for professional life … as they develop their own personality … stimulate students to act for themselves….     

study of taste perception

Taste stimulus identification was studied in order to more thoroughly examine human taste perception. Ten replicates of an array of 10 taste stimuli—NaCl, KCl, Na glutamate, quinine.HCl, citric acid, sucrose, aspartame, and NaCl-sucrose, acid-sucrose, and quinine-sucrose mixtures—were presented to normal subjects for identification from a list of corresponding stimulus names. Because perceptually similar substances are confused in identification tasks, the result was ataste confusion matrix. Consistency of identification for the 10 stimuli (T ₁₀) and for each stimulus pair (T ₂) was quantified with measures derived from information theory. Forty-two untrained subjects made an average of 57.4% correct identifications. An averageT ₁₀ of 2.25 of the maximum 3.32 bits and an averageT ₂ of 0.84 of a maximum 1.0 bit of information were transmitted. In a second experiment, 40 trained subjects per-formed better than 20 untrained subjects. The results suggested that the identification procedure may best be used to assess taste function following 1–2 training replicates. The patterns of taste confusion indicate that the 10 stimuli resemble one another to varying extents, yet each can be considered perceptually unique.     

Finding alternatives to the streets for the homeless mentally Ill: Efficacy at a state hospital intensive placement unit

The authors describe a sample of homeless mentally ill patients receiving extended psychiatric care on an intensive placement unit. Summaries of 246 discharges were reviewed to examine demographic and clinical factors associated with extended psychiatric care and postdischarge placement. It was found that homeless patients requiring extended care were often medically ill and substance abusing. Residential placements were accepted by most patients on discharge. It was determined that homeless psychiatric patients benefited from extended care on an inpatient unit designed to alleviate anxieties regarding living arrangements and psychiatric treatment systems historically rejected by this population.The authors wish to thank Charlotte Seltzer, CSW, for her cooperation on this project.     

Determination from Above

There are many historical concerns about freedom that have come to be deemphasized in the free will literature itself—for instance, worries around the tyranny of government or the alienation of capitalism. It is hard to see how the current free will literature respects these, or indeed how they could even find expression. This paper seeks to show how these and other concerns can be reintegrated into the debate by appealing to a levels ontology. Recently, Christian List and others have considered how the notion of levels could be relevant to the free will debate. Invariably, however, the focus is on the significance of facts at lower levels. The threats come from below, from fundamental physics or neuroscience. Here, I aim to show how we can frame many interesting concerns about free will in terms of threats from above. After arguing that determination from above is no less threatening, I catalogue such concerns that might constitute threats to our freedom. Doing this not only allows us to show how these concerns relate to those standardly discussed, but it pushes us to expand our conception of freedom.     

“State of happiness”? Petroreligion and petromelancholia in Norway

This article discusses the intersection between the symbol systems of petroculture and religion in development of the Norwegian oil age. The public TV series State of Happiness (2018-now) dramatizes Norway's adventure with oil and gas, beginning in 1969. Drawing parallels to Darren Dochuk's work on the mutual construction of petroculture and American religion in Anointed with Oil, this essay argues that State of Happiness retells the story of Norway's adventure with oil framed by some in terms of salvation, as a blessing and as the arrival of a better, messianic age. The characters in the series negotiate their religious commitments with the enchantments of the emerging petroculture in the Stavanger region, engaging the themes of Advent, Christmas, Baptism, and Trinity.     

History of the Association of Medical School Psychologists (AMSP), 1982–2005

This paper presents a brief history of the Association of Medical School Psychologists (AMSP) from the Association’s beginning in 1982 to the present day. Prior to 1982, there had been several unsuccessful efforts to form an association that would represent psychologists in academic medical centers. Attempts by psychiatry to limit the growing number and influence of psychologists in medical schools created a sense of threat among psychologists that catalyzed the formation of the Association. Membership was initially restricted to one senior psychologist from each medical school, a restriction that limited AMSP’s development, but AMSP later opened its doors to all academic medical center psychologists. The Association was rebuffed in initial efforts to join the Association of American Medical Colleges, and at a later date, to become a Division of the American Psychological Association (APA). In time, however, AMSP did establish formal ties to both of those organizations, and it has collaborated with APA in important surveys of academic medical center psychologists. Following a period in the late 1990’s when AMSP seemed likely to lose its way, the Association rebounded. AMSP now has an Administrative Director, a stable home base, and revised bylaws that assure greater stability and continuity of leadership. These developments, in conjunction with a strong working relationship with the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, have positioned AMSP to grow and more effectively serve the community of psychologists who work in academic medical centers.     

Training Genetic Counsellors to Deliver an Innovative Therapeutic Intervention: their Views and Experience of Facilitating Multi-Family Discussion Groups

Innovations in clinical genetics have increased diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of inherited genetic conditions (IGCs). This has led to an increased number of families seeking genetic testing and / or genetic counselling and increased the clinical load for genetic counsellors (GCs). Keeping pace with biomedical discoveries, interventions are required to support families to understand, communicate and cope with their Inherited Genetic Condition. The Socio-Psychological Research in Genomics (SPRinG) collaborative have developed a new intervention, based on multi-family discussion groups (MFDGs), to support families affected by IGCs and train GCs in its delivery. A potential challenge to implementing the intervention was whether GCs were willing and able to undergo the training to deliver the MFDG. In analysing three multi-perspective interviews with GCs, this paper evaluates the training received. Findings suggests that MFDGs are a potential valuable resource in supporting families to communicate genetic risk information and can enhance family function and emotional well-being. Furthermore, we demonstrate that it is feasible to train GCs in the delivery of the intervention and that it has the potential to be integrated into clinical practice. Its longer term implementation into routine clinical practice however relies on changes in both organisation of clinical genetics services and genetic counsellors’ professional development.