American Psychological Association Division Research Articles

Mentorship in rehabilitation psychology: Attitudes and perspectives.

To characterize how mentorship has been perceived, received, and practiced by individuals in the field of rehabilitation psychology across the career lifespan. Current members of the American Psychological Association Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) were invited to complete an electronic survey via REDCap assessing individual experiences and perspectives on mentorship. Thematic analysis was used to identify key constructs and themes. 39 participants (n = 25 mentors) completed the survey with valid responses. Participants spanned the career lifespan, ranging from predoctoral trainees to late-senior psychologists. Mentorship was generally perceived as helpful for both mentors and mentees. Several important qualities of mentors (e.g., availability, communication skills, self-disclosure, and emotional support) and mentees (e.g., flexibility, motivation, and openness to feedback) were identified. Among both groups, mentorship was viewed as especially beneficial for obtaining American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) board certification, which may reflect an aspect of mentoring unique to Division 22. Existing gaps in mentorship and key areas for improvement were also identified; access to mid- to late-career mentorship emerged as a notable gap in mentorship. Increased program structure, networking opportunities, and research mentorship were also identified as possible areas of growth. This study provides meaningful insights into mentorship within the field of rehabilitation psychology. Our findings demonstrate the value of mentorship across the career lifespan, and the beneficial role of mentorship in obtaining ABPP board certification. In addition, we identify key areas of growth that can inform and improve mentorship within the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest: Helen A. Neville.

"For her outstanding contributions in research, theory, and service to advance our awareness of color-blind racial ideology, Helen A. Neville's work is a model of psychology in the public interest. Her work supports efforts toward a solution to racism, one of the world's intransigent social problems. Dr. Neville and her colleagues pioneered conceptual models and measures that articulate the role of color evasion (ignoring race) and power evasion (denying structural racism) as key components of color-blind racial ideology that legitimizes racial inequality. Dr. Neville has integrated the science and practice of psychology to serve the public interest and advances social justice and human welfare as president of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 45, the Society for Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race, and president-elect of APA Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology. Dr. Neville has served the public interest through her exceptional editorial work in books and special issues and proposed guidelines on issues of culture, ethnicity, and race as an active member of distinguished APA committees. Dr. Neville and her colleagues have advanced our understanding of racial trauma and addressed their impact by promoting theory, research, training, policy, and interventions on radical hope, healing, and liberation." This award recognizes people who have advanced psychology as a science and/or profession by a single extraordinary achievement or a lifetime of outstanding contributions in the public interest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychologists conducting psychotherapy in 2022: Contemporary practices and historical patterns of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

This study updated and extended investigations from 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2012 on the contemporary psychotherapy practices and historical patterns of United States psychologists in the American Psychological Association Division of Psychotherapy/Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy. In 2022, 475 psychologists (48% response) completed an online questionnaire regarding their sociodemographic characteristics, professional activities, therapy formats, employment settings, theoretical orientations, personal therapy, and career satisfactions. Results showed an increasingly female and aging membership with primary employment in independent practices and universities. Psychotherapy, research/writing, and administration were the most frequent professional activities. Individual therapy remained the most common format, and the most popular theoretical orientations remained psychodynamic/relational (29%), integrative (27%), and cognitive (19%). Eighty-two percent of psychologists have undergone personal therapy at least once. Career satisfaction, likewise, has remained consistently high across the 40 years. The limitations and implications of these 40-year patterns are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Then and now: A 50-year retrospective thematic analysis of Society for Community Research and Action presidential addresses.

The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) is the primary professional home for community psychologists in the United Statesand increasingly around the world. Since the formation of the American Psychological Association Division 27: Community Psychology in 1966, now SCRA, 54 people have served in the Presidential role. Presidential leaders' annual addresses both reflect the current state of the field and have the ability to shape the future of both SCRA as an organization and community psychology as a discipline given their positions as leaders. This commentary explores the trajectory of SCRA as an organization via 33 available presidential addresses, 28 of which were published in the American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP). Using thematic analysis and drawing on both dialectical and life cycle organizational processes, three periods of SCRA and community psychology more broadly were identified: defining community psychology, applying community psychology, and re-imagining community psychology. Themes speak to tensions between the ideals of the society and the work of the society. We conclude by offering a series of questions for consideration as SCRA positions itself for the future.

Sigmund Tobias (1932-2023).

Memorializes Sigmund Tobias (1932-2023). A brilliant scholar and an insatiably curious researcher, as well as a kind and disciplined mentor, Sigmund Tobias contributed to American psychology and educational research by dint of his intellect, work ethic, and social values. Although his doctorate was in clinical psychology, Sig became an internationally recognized leader in the field of educational psychology. Sig published over 150 scholarly articles and was elected president of the American Psychological Association's Division for Educational Psychology in 1987. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Atypical jobs in psychology: Interview of Dr. Ellen Scrivner.

This publication highlights the career of Dr. Ellen Scrivner, a past president of American Psychological Association's (APA's) Division 18 and a pioneer in the specialty of police and public safety psychology. While psychologists' work with police and public safety may be typical now, Dr. Scrivner's journey and work were atypical when she embarked on her academic studies and began her career. Although initially intrigued by the science of changing behavior, she became more interested in changing the behaviors of organizations throughout her time as a psychology major in undergraduate studies. Dr. Scrivner followed this passion through her graduate studies and into her career. As a professional working with police in public safety, having a background in psychology has allowed Dr. Scrivner to better assist organizations in transitioning or creating different, coherent, and more effective patterns or practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Mortimer Mishkin (1926-2021).

Memorializes Mortimer Mishkin (1926-2021). A systems neuroscientist, Mishkin's most well-known contributions involve sensory neocortical processing systems for vision, audition, and somatic sensation, and their relationship with the formation and storage of memory systems in the brain; specifically, his discoveries (a) that the visual system extended beyond the primary visual area, (b) that the visual system was divided into two-the ventral and dorsal-processing streams (with Leslie Ungerleider), and (c) of the role of the medial temporal lobe in memory. Mishkin was on two dozen journal editorial boards and committees and was fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Psychological Association (APA), American Psychological Society (APS), and Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP). He was also past President of the Society for Neuroscience (SN) and of the APA Division 6. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Steven R. Tulkin (1943-2022).

Memorializes Steve R. Tulkin. (1943-2022). Steve was the first Director, in the nation, of the first Postdoctoral Master's of Science Program in Clinical Psychopharmacology, at Alliant International University (1999-2014). Many hundreds of psychologists, around the globe, have earned their Master's of Science in Clinical Psychopharmacology (MSCP) from Alliant. In 2007, Steve helped to create the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 18/Alliant partnership to fund Native psychologists in their training in Clinical Psychopharmacology, so as to facilitate their practice as prescribing psychologists on tribal lands. Steve left this world peacefully on January 17, 2022. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Acute nicotine reinforcement requires ability to discriminate the stimulus effects of nicotine.

This review of research on behavioral discrimination of nicotine and how it informs public health policy for reducing risk of tobacco dependence is adapted from Kenneth A. Perkins's American Psychological Association Division 28 (Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse) 2020 Med Associates Brady/Schuster Award Lecture. The author's initial programmatic clinical research on nicotine is introduced, especially efforts to develop and validate a novel method of acute nicotine dosing. After the public health rationale for characterizing the discriminative stimulus effects of nicotine in humans are described, details from two separate programs of research on nicotine discrimination in humans are presented. The first, conducted with nicotine dosing by nasal spray, documented that humans could discriminate nicotine administered rapidly, examined nicotine's neuropharmacological specificity, identified discrimination threshold dose in smokers and nonsmokers, and explored other conditions that might alter ability to discriminate its effects. The second, more recent program focused on threshold doses for discrimination of nicotine by cigarette smoking, a program that was very difficult to do until the past decade, and how nicotine's self-reported "reward" and preference via choice behavior relate to its discriminability. Differences due to menthol and degree of tobacco dependence were also examined. For each of these two programs, the main findings of selected studies are noted, followed by very recent work on nicotine discrimination and choice that informs Food and Drug Administration's efforts to formulate public policy to improve health and reduce the nearly half million American deaths per year due to persistent tobacco use. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Corrigendum Supports Therapeutic Contribution of Acupoint Tapping to EFTs' Observed Effects: Response to Spielmans (2021).

We published a meta-analysis of studies that examined the various components of an evidence-based therapy called emotional freedom techniques (EFTs). EFT uses elements of conventional therapies such as exposure and cognitive processing but includes the unique ingredient of acupoint stimulation using fingertip tapping. Six studies were identified, and three of these met the quality control criteria of the American Psychological Association's Division 12 Task Force for Empirically Validated Therapies. Meta-analysis found that the acupoint component of EFT was not an inert ingredient or inactive placebo but made an active contribution to the therapeutic effects noted in a research literature that now numbers over 100 clinical trials of EFT. Subsequent to publication, errors in the original analysis were identified, primarily incorrect standard deviations. A new analysis was performed by an independent statistician and found slightly greater effects than the original investigation. The results were published as a corrigendum, which was subsequently challenged by Spielmans. Here we examine the critiques of the corrigendum and original article. We find that although they may be of academic interest, they are irrelevant to the central research question of whether the acupoint component of EFT is inert or active. We reaffirm that the evidence clearly validates the contribution made by acupoint tapping to EFT's observed clinical effects.

Advances in Parapsychological Research 10 edited by Stanley Krippner, Adam J. Rock, Harris L. Friedman, and Nancy L. Zingrone

It’s been a long, strange road, especially for those who died but came back for another circuit, or remained alive and pursued mystic abilities for secret national intelligence service sponsors, or carefully tried to influence the past or forecast the future, or struggled with quantum theory because it looked eerily similar to magic in its weirdness even though mathematical experts denied any meaningful resemblance. Since 1977, this tussling with the improbable has been tracked in a series of volumes edited by Dr. Stanley Krippner, a Fellow in five American Psychological Association divisions. They are devoted to essays condensing and confronting claims of paranormal phenomena—to use a term deplored by many who regard such anomalies as normal, less Sixth Sense than First but frustratingly skittish. But the strange long road seems often to be covering the same rutted stretch, and its explorers grow weary. While the second volume appeared a year after the premier, pace slowed in the next seven volumes, and seemed all but exhausted by number 9, published sixteen years after its predecessor. The latest volume paused for eight more years. Granted, Dr. Krippner is now 88 years old, but still diligent and adventurous. So are his fellow editors and contributors, although sadly two of them (Professor William Roll, 1926-2012, and Professor Michael Persinger, 1945-2018) are dead and incommunicado. The most startling recurrent theme in this tenth volume is how much hard and conscientious empirical work in a number of varieties of psi leads to the conclusion that many psychic phenomena just are not as substantial as researchers have claimed for more than a century.

Edwin P. Hollander (1927-2020).

Memorializes Edwin P. Hollander (1927-2020). Hollander was a major figure in the study of group and organizational leadership. He received his BS from Case Western Reserve University in 1948, his MS in psychometrics, working with Robert Thorndike in 1950, and his PhD in social psychology from Columbia University in 1952. After serving as a naval aviation psychologist during the Korean War, Ed began his academic career at Carnegie Mellon, initiating work on leadership that led to a 20-year research program at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he was also founding director of the doctoral program in social/organizational psychology and provost of social sciences. In 1989, he became the City University of New York Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Baruch College until his retirement in 1999. During his career, he had many visiting appointments, including the Tavistock Institute, Harvard, Oxford, the National Academy of Sciences, and Istanbul University. Hollander also served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association and American Psychological Association (APA) Division 1, APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP), and on the Governing Council of the International Society of Political Psychology. He received a distinguished career award from the International Association of Applied Psychology, the International Leadership Association, the Network of Leadership Scholars, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Center for Creative Leadership. His landmark books, including Leaders, Groups, and Influence (1964) and Leadership Dynamics (1978), positioned leadership as an influence process occurring at the nexus of leader, followers, and organizational context. Ed emphasized the importance of an engaged followership to the study of leadership, rather than focusing primarily on the leader. He is perhaps best known for the idiosyncrasy credit model, a framework that details how follower perceptions affect leader behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

David Schnarch (1946–2020).

Presents the obituary of David Schnarch (1946-2020). A graduate of New York University, Dr. Schnarch then went to Michigan State University where he received his MA and PhD (1976) in clinical psychology. His early career included a 1-year appointment as a visiting professor at Indiana University followed by 17 years as an Associate Professor at the Louisiana State University Medical School, where he served in the Departments of Psychiatry and Urology. Dr. Schnarch and his family relocated to Evergreen, Colorado in 1995, where he and Dr. Morehouse cofounded the Marriage and Family Health Center. He is the author of five books, including: Constructing the Social Crucible: An Integration of Sexual and Marital Therapy and Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Emotionally Committed Relationships; Resurrecting Sex: Resolving Sexual Problems and Rejuvenating Your Relationship; Intimacy and Desire; and Brain Talk. In terms of professional memberships and service, Dr. Schnarch was a clinical member of the American Psychological Association and a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). He was Board Certified in Couple and Family psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dr. Schnarch was also a certified sex therapist (diplomate) with the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and served on their board of directors of for 8 years, chairing AASECT's Professional Education Committee. He also served on the editorial board of AAMFT's Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy. He is remembered by his colleagues for his wry sense of humor, generosity of spirit, unabashed honesty, and collegiality. He is remembered by the public for his landmark books integrating sex therapy with family systems theory. He leaves behind his wife Dr. Ruth Morehouse, a psychologist and former president of American Psychological Association's Division 43, Society for Couple and Family Psychology; his daughter Sarah Morehouse, and son-in-law Parker LeMire. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Bernard I. Murstein (1929–2020).

Presents the obituary of Bernard I. Murstein (1929-2020). Bernard earned his BS in psychology at the City College of New York, MS in psychology at the University of Miami (where he claimed to have been inducted into Psi Chi at a poolside ceremony), and PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1955. Bernard taught at Louisiana State University, the University of Portland, OR, and the University of Connecticut before joining the faculty of Connecticut College in 1963. He remained there until his retirement in 1999, except for a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Louvain in Belgium. Bernard published seven academic books, including Theories of Attraction and Love (1971), Love, Sex, and Marriage through the Ages (1974), Who Will Marry Whom? (1976), and Paths to Marriage (1986). He also published more than 130 journal articles and book chapters on psychological testing, interpersonal attraction, marital choice, sexual behavior, relationship styles, and marital adjustment. He is best known for his stimulusvalue-role theory (1970) of relationship development, which is cited in most textbooks on social psychology and intimate relationships. Bernard was elected to Fellow status in the American Psychological Association (Divisions 8, 12, and 43) and the Society for Projective Techniques. The Spanish Psychological Association named him one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century; his book Theory and Research in Projective Techniques (1963) was listed by Basic Sources of Information in the Social Sciences among the 50 most important books on psychology. He is survived by his wife Nelly Kashy Murstein, the Hanna Hakesbrink Professor Emerita of French at Connecticut College, his daughters Danielle and Collette, and three granddaughters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Progress will come in the balancing of needs: Professional desires, consumer demand, and why we have to specialize.

Conoley, Powers, and Gutkin (2020) have provided an assessment of the progress and lack thereof of school psychology as a profession toward school reformation, especially as related to their various earlier calls for changes in training and practice. Conoley and Gutkin especially (and I have been colleagues of both) have called for decades for an emphasis on working with teachers, other adults in the school system, and the school system itself to alter the delivery of education. In some earlier work, they have characterized this as adult school psychology. In many ways this is a reconceptualization of earlier mental health consultation models of school psychology practice that were not widely adopted for reasons Conoley et al. (2020) explain. School psychology has a long history of wanting to be seen and to practice differently from in a primary role of test and place, and indeed I would characterize the primary organizations that represent the profession (the National Association of Psychologists and the American Psychological Association's Division of School Psychology) as being in many ways antagonistic toward psychological testing. Yet, it is what most school psychologists are in fact hired to do as their primary role, and training in psychological testing and assessment is one of the key skills that sets us apart and distinguishes us from others in the schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

How the history of American Psychological Association Division 16 can shape the future of school psychology: Demonstrating organizational transformation.

Over the past 75 years, the history of Division 16 (School Psychology) has been integral to the science and practice of school psychology. As a constituent body of the American Psychological Association (APA), the division has advocated for role definitions and professional boundaries within APA and has represented the specialty of school psychology within the larger community of psychology. Since the convening of school psychology's Thayer Conference in 1955, the division has remained steadfastly committed to promoting the well-being of children. Toward this end, Division 16 has negotiated entry level debates between APA and the broad specialty of school psychology, sustained partnerships within and among APA and other organizations representing school mental health, elevated the place of technology in the profession of school psychology, and promoted the central importance of cultural competence and diversity within the discipline. The past contributions of Division 16 shape the future of the profession and the division in ways that are consistent with and add to Conoley, Power, and Gutkin's (2020) recommendations for strengthening school psychology's contributions to psychological health promotion and risk reduction in schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Michael A. Wallach (1933–2020).

Memorializes Michael A. Wallach (1933-2020). Mike spent most of his career as a professor of psychology at Duke University from 1962 to 2004. He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association's divisions of general psychology, experimental psychology, personality and social psychology, psychology of aesthetics, creativity and the arts, and educational psychology. Mike's early work included contributions on modes of thinking in young children, the distinction between intelligence and creativity, and risk-taking behavior. He also served as editor of the Journal of Personality from 1963 to 1972. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Rhoda K. Unger (1939–2019).

Memorializes Rhoda K. Unger (1939-2019). Unger was a feminist empiricist psychologist who advocated for the importance of asking the right questions. Her academic work, her activism, and her engagement with psychology as a discipline were all informed by a heartfelt and enduring commitment to social justice. Laudably, she mentored, encouraged, and supported countless early career feminist scholars as they found their way in the discipline. In 1998, Rhoda became professor emerita after almost 30 years at Montclair State University and joined Brandeis University as resident scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center. Across her career, she maintained a commitment to activism within psychology. She served as president of the American Psychological Association (APA) divisions the Society for the Psychology of Women (1980 -1981) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPPSI; 1998 -1999) and was the inaugural editor of the SPSSI journal Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Bertram Paul Karon (1930–2019).

Memorializes Bertram Paul Karon (1930-2019). Karon taught in the Psychology Department at Michigan State University (MSU) from 1962 until 2010. In 1988 Karon founded the Michigan Council for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, an organization dedicated to studying classical and contemporary psychoanalysis and training psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists. He was a fellow of several American Psychological Association (APA) divisions, served as president of Division 39 (Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology) in 1990-1991, and was on the APA Council of Representatives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Olivia Juliette Hooker (1915-2018).

Presents an obituary for Olivia Juliette Hooker (1915-2018). Olivia's capacity to overcome adversity began at age 6. During the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, the community that provided her affirmation and stability was destroyed. Olivia's father's store was a casualty. She, her family, and their entire community were traumatized. It was, nevertheless, a trauma she and her family overcame. In 1947, Olivia went on to earn a master's degree in psychological services from Teachers College at Columbia University. She earned a doctoral degree from the University of Rochester in 1961 and was one of two women to obtain a degree in clinical psychology. Olivia dedicated herself to the acceptance and understanding of developmental disabilities and was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association's Division 33, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She was also director of the Kennedy Child Center in New York, where she continued to serve the profession and the community. Her electrifying smile and her witty and wise stories about her life narrative will be long remembered. As a psychology intern in 1958 she left a lovely note with a box of cookies to welcome me in her absence. This simple gesture sparked an enduring professional and personal relationship that lasted till her death on November 21 2018. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).