Psychological Society Research Articles

Evidence-Base Update of Psychosocial and Combination Treatments for Child and Adolescent Depression

ABSTRACT Objective This evidence-based update (EBU) builds on three previous reviews (1998, 2008, 2017) sponsored by the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology with the aim of evaluating the empirical support for psychosocial interventions for depression in youth. Method In the current review period (2014–2022), 25 randomized controlled trials (RCT) were identified: four in children and 21 in adolescents. Descriptive effect sizes and number-needed-to-treat (NNT) ratios were calculated for primary outcomes. Results were integrated with prior reviews, and cumulative evidence used to classify treatments as well-established, probably efficacious, possibly efficacious, or experimental. Published secondary analyses of predictors, moderators, and mediators were examined. Results For adolescents, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-A), CBT in combination with antidepressant medication, and collaborative care programs were all classified as well-established. The evidence was considerably weaker for children, with no treatments achieving well-established or probably efficacious status. New developments include greater exploration of parent- and family-mediated treatment models and increasing evidence on technology-assisted interventions. Data on predictors, moderators, and mediators continued to be focused on adolescent depression samples and drawn from a limited number of RCT datasets. Conclusion Since the prior EBU, there has been incremental progress in youth depression treatment research. There is an urgent need to: (a) develop innovative approaches to substantially improve on the modest effects seen in most RCTs, (b) expand the evidence base for children and other underserved groups, (c) craft evidence-based guidelines for choosing between interventions when multiple efficacious treatments do exist, and (d) address issues of treatment effectiveness and scalability to ameliorate the wide prevalence and high impact of depression in youth.

Considerations of Intersectionality in Psychological research

At the forefront of the increasingly popular intersectionality agenda in psychology is the wellbeing of individuals. The British Psychological Society states that a key principle of psychological research is to “consider societal benefits” and “contribute to the common good” (BPS, 2021). There is an abundance of evidence on the harmful outcomes of negative intergroup relations and systemic oppression on marginalised individuals. For example, marginalised groups often experience educational and economic disadvantages (Porter, 2011) alongside both physical and mental health disparities (English et al., 2022; Mitchell et al., 2021; Stevens-Watkins et al., 2014). Consequently, psychology as a discipline should prioritise advocating for a more equitable society.

Exploring worker subjectivity: shaping industrial and organizational psychology in post-apartheid South Africa

This article critically evaluates the role of industrial–organizational psychology in post-apartheid South Africa, advocating for a transformative framework that addresses the socio-political and historical inequalities in the workplace. The article highlights how industrial–organizational psychology has traditionally focused on organizational efficiency, often aligned with capitalist interests, while overlooking the socio-historical forces shaping worker experiences, particularly related to race, gender, and class. By introducing the concept of worker subjectivity, the article calls for a reimagined industrial–organizational psychology that integrates critical perspectives from psychology and management studies to better understand how workers navigate their identities and agency within broader socio-political structures. The author emphasizes the need to address the emotional and psychological dimensions of worker experiences, especially in the South African context marked by the legacies of colonialism and apartheid. By focusing on worker subjectivity, industrial–organizational psychology can move beyond traditional quantitative methods and engage with the complexities of workplace inequality. This approach aligns industrial–organizational psychology with the broader mission of the Psychological Society of South Africa to promote socially just and inclusive practices. The article also calls for interdisciplinary collaboration and the reformation of industrial–organizational psychology education to better equip practitioners with the tools needed to address the realities of post-apartheid workplaces.

Editorial: Introducing the British Psychological Society journals' landmark special issue on the United Nation's Sustainability Goals

Editorial: Introducing the British Psychological Society journals' landmark special issue on the United Nation's Sustainability Goals

Looking backwards, looking forwards: collective and critical conversations on psychology in South Africa

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), 11 of PsySSA’s past presidents, along with two facilitators, gathered in early 2024 for a roundtable discussion on psychology in South Africa. This article represents an edited transcript of that conversation. The guiding motif of the discussion – looking backwards, looking forwards – led discussants through the historical temporalities, institutional, professional and disciplinary debates, as well as the political concerns that face and have forged South African psychology. The discussants were specifically concerned with the challenges of unifying organised psychology; the generative forces, conflicts and antagonisms within psychology; psychology’s pedagogical and intellectual developments; and what it means to politicise psychology in and beyond South Africa. In looking ahead, the discussion concluded with an internationalist reflection on how psychology in South Africa contributes to global knowledges and praxes. The conversation was characterised by epistemic, sectoral and political tensions, as well as ambivalences and shifting centres of gravity, all of which reflect the accomplishments made within South African psychology, as well as psychology’s status as a strongly contested and patently unfinished organisational, disciplinary, professional, service and knowledge project.

An Interview with Jan Wiener.Conducted by Linda Carter on January 7, 2024.

Jan Wiener is a Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) trained Jungian analyst and Journal of Analytical Psychology Board member, highly esteemed in Jungian and psychoanalytic circles for her work as a practitioner, teacher, supervisor and writer as well as for her well-honed leadership skills, notably as a member of the executive committee and as a vice-president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), the international organizing body for Jungian analysts worldwide. Jan has made remarkable contributions to the personal and professional development of Jungians not only in the UK but also for those involved in the IAAP Developing Groups programme where she has been a pioneer, providing cross-cultural outreach to those seeking training in Russia, Taiwan, Serbia, Ukraine and Denmark. Success in Jan's many-faceted and full life has been facilitated by a natural authenticity, good sense of humour, hearty laugh and a welcoming attitude; these attributes have significantly aided in bridge-building and opening space for creative interactions within and between individuals and groups. Her development was influenced by a history of parents who fled from Vienna and Berlin to London, escaping persecution by the pre-war Nazi regime. Jan's aunt lived in close proximity and was a child analyst who worked closely with Anna Freud. As a young woman, Jan swam the English Channel and she has always been a sports lover, especially tennis. Her many talents extend to music and she is a trained opera singer who has recently been involved in an affordable educational programme in Cratoule, France, that fosters the expanding growth of amateurs who have the opportunity to learn from more established, experienced attendees. Jan has performed as a singer in addition to presenting her analytic work globally. She has many publications that centre around clinical practice, her forte. Well-known by those who have been in relationship with Jan personally and professionally is her exceptional capacity for presence in the moment while holding the long-view; this capacity as well as an inclusive attitude, perhaps born in part from family history, along with a keen intelligence, intuition and native talent, have led to a life-long commitment to service and generative partnerships that continue to bear fruit amongst those touched by her kind and generous soul.

Jung, the Rebirth Motif and Psychedelics I: Documenting Jung's Contact with the British Pioneers.

C. G. Jung wrote very little about psychedelic drugs and he took a sceptical view of them. However, he was sufficiently impressed by Aldous Huxley's 1954 account of taking mescaline, The Doors of Perception, to invite Huxley to visit him in Switzerland. Huxley declined Jung's invitation but Huxley's collaborator Humphry Osmond met Jung instead. This paper documents Jung's contact with the British pioneers of psychedelics research and presents the scant material illuminating his views about these drugs. It also determines the efforts of British psychiatrist Ronald Sandison, who was the first to develop an "explicitly Jungian approach" to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (Hill, 2013), and it highlights a connection between Sandison's initiative and the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP) through the involvement of two SAP members: Margot Cutner, Sandison's colleague, and Michael Fordham, who supervised a trainee working with one of Sandison's former patients. Despite Jung's objections to the use of psychedelics, Sandison and Cutner developed ground-breaking protocols during the 1950s and they were among the first to document the phenomenon of "spiritual rebirth symbolized in the birth experience known to many LSD therapists" (Sandison, 2001). In two companion papers, I consider Jung's treatment of the rebirth motif in his commentary on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which later became a central text in the psychedelic movement, and I chart the evolution in psychedelics research from an association with schizophrenia during the 1950s to the mystical paradigms of the 1960s and beyond.

Disrupting Racism and Global Exclusion in Academic Publishing: Recommendations and Resources for Authors, Reviewers, and Editors

Scholars have been working through multiple avenues to address longstanding and entrenched patterns of global and racial exclusion in psychology and academia more generally. As part of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s efforts to enhance inclusive excellence in its journals, the Anti Colorism/Eurocentrism in Methods and Practices (ACEMAP) task force worked to develop recommendations and resources to counteract racism and global exclusion in standard publication practices. In this paper, the task force describes a structure and process we developed for conducting committee work that centers marginalized perspectives while mitigating cultural taxation. We then describe our recommendations and openly accessible resources (e.g., resources for inclusive reviewing practices, writing about constraints on generalizability, drafting a globally inclusive demographic information survey, inclusive citation practices, and improving representation among editorial gatekeeping positions; recommendations and resource links are provided in Table 3). These recommendations and resources are both (a) tailored for a particular set of journals at a particular time and (b) useful as a foundation that can be continually adapted and improved for other journals and going forward. This paper provides concrete plans for readers looking to enhance inclusive excellence in their committee work, authorship, reviewing, and/or editing.

Defining and developing operational psychology competency.

Establishing competency in new or emerging areas of psychological practice is always difficult. For practitioners of operational psychology, it is even more challenging due to the requirement for highly specialized skills, novel applications, and the fact that many organizations employing operational psychologists operate in classified or sensitive settings. Despite the ethical obligation to do so, operational psychologists may face challenges in establishing and maintaining their credentials and competency. This article outlines the core competencies of operational psychology based on the extant literature, provides case examples illustrating their application, and identifies recommendations for training and consultation necessary for establishing and maintaining competence. Given the scarcity of current training opportunities, limited mentorship, and the lack of training standards, many operational psychologists may develop only some, but not all, of their specialty's core competencies. Furthermore, establishing and maintaining competency may take years of post-graduate study and experience for most practitioners. To accelerate this process and codify core competencies and training standards, the formation of an operational psychology society or association may be necessary. Such actions could create a collective agency among practitioners, securing advocacy for the needs and equities of this practice community, and advancing its policies, practices, and scholarship.

BPS DSEP position statement: Psychological skills training in youth sport

Young athletes have become an increasingly important client group for sport psychology practitioners and a population whose physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development should be carefully considered by a practitioner when delivering their services (Visek et al., 2009). The aim of this British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) position statement is to summarise existing knowledge about psychological skills training (PST) interventions and discuss optimal service provision of PST in youth sport. In the first section of this position statement, we provide a brief overview of the literature exploring PST during childhood (5–11 years), early adolescence (12–15 years), and mid-to-late adolescence (16–18 years). Within each sub-section, key developmental considerations (i.e. physical, cognitive, emotional, and social) are provided followed by short summaries of research on basic single strategy (i.e. goal setting, imagery, relaxation, and self-talk) and alternative strategy interventions (e.g. mindfulness, music, perceptual training, and self-modelling) with young athletes. In the second section, optimal service provision of PST is discussed by drawing upon practitioners’ experiences of working with young athletes, concluding with 10 recommendations for youth sport organisations, training and accrediting bodies, researchers, and practitioners.

Transferable skills for QSEP training. From marketing to Sport Psychology

This was a case study prepared for the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Qualification in Sport and Exercise Psychology (QSEP), and focuses on transferable skills from a marketing career. Through different delivery stages, examples illustrate where skills transferred or where adaptations were needed, informed by applied literature and BPS guidelines.

Digesting Psychology: Metadiscourse as a Recontextualising Tool in the Digital Communication of Disciplinary Research

Abstract Metadiscourse was initially conceived as a tool to explore mainly academic, monologic, written texts. When applied to the study of digital discourse, metadiscourse may reveal itself as a rather frustrating exploratory framework, firstly because of the problematised interaction between writer and reader in an online context where audiences are not easily identifiable and, secondly, because of the multimodal character of digital texts. In the present study, the role played by interactive metadiscoursal resources in online communication has been explored. For such purposes, the focus has been placed on a corpus of digital research digests published on the website of the British Psychological Society, the most important representative body of the profession in the United Kingdom. The study revolves around the function of interactive metadiscourse as a recontextualising tool to facilitate the understanding of complex disciplinary knowledge for potentially less expert readers. Several interactive resources (code glosses, evidentials, transition markers, and frame markers) are identified, which strategically contribute to the mediation of specialised information and which also take advantage of the affordances offered by digital platforms.

An integrated approach to coaching for individual thriving

The purpose of coaching psychology is to apply knowledge and methods from the psychological sciences to promote human thriving. This article builds on a presentation given at the British Psychological Society’s coaching psychology conference in June 2023. It begins by arguing for the need for an integrated model of thriving that is relevant for coaching. It then reviews the history of psychological research into thriving and associated concepts and presents an overview of current models of thriving in psychology. Finally, the paper proposes an integrated model of coaching for thriving: the 4Es of energy, engagement, expansion and exploration. This model is intended to help coaches operationalise the psychological research on thriving as a focus for coaching psychology practice and research.

The essential role of health psychologists in tackling climate change: Insights from the presentation by Esther K. Papies during the European Health Psychology Society Conference 2022*

The essential role of health psychologists in tackling climate change: Insights from the presentation by Esther K. Papies during the European Health Psychology Society Conference 2022*

European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) Conference Report by Lise-Marie Nassen

European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) Conference Report by Lise-Marie Nassen

Quality, Replicability, and Transparency in Research in Social Psychology

Abstract: In 2020, the Division of Social Psychology of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) published 11 methodological recommendations for improving the quality, replicability, and transparency of social psychological research. We evaluate these recommendations in a quantitative and qualitative survey conducted with members of the division ( N = 54). Most – but not all – recommendations are well-known and understood by these members of the division. For 73% of the recommendations, researchers indicated that they tend to apply them in their research. Perceived behavioral control was the strongest predictor of adherence and was generally high (82%). In the open comments, challenges and suggestions for improvement were expressed. Overall, the implementation of the recommendations progresses and respective norms emerge, but substantial challenges remain to be solved requiring collective efforts.

Gaining prescription rights: a qualitative survey mapping the views of UK counselling and clinical psychologists

ABSTRACT Objective The British Psychological Society (BPS) has been exploring whether its practitioner members are interested in gaining prescription rights for psychiatric drugs and what such a privilege might look like. This qualitative study aimed to survey the views of UK-based, qualified counselling and clinical psychologists. Method: Qualitative data was collected from 82 participants via an online survey (37 counselling and 45 clinical psychologists). Along with the survey items, the last question asked participants to select one of three answers (yes/no/unsure) in relation to whether they supported prescription rights for psychologists. The qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis, from a critical realist perspective, to develop 3 themes. Results Theme 1 explores how psychologists grapple with their professional identity within structures dominated by the medical model of distress, and constructions of the prescription rights debate as a crossroads for both discipline and profession. Theme 2 explores participants’ assumptions about psychiatric drugs as they seem to serve as a springboard to their views on prescription rights. Theme 3 examines the belief that gaining prescription rights will result in increased status and power for psychologists and what might be gained or lost as a result. Regarding the final question: 18 participants answered yes; 42 no; and 22 were unsure. Conclusion We advocate for increased criticality in how UK psychology continues to consider this issue. We caution against an optionality approach that might risk obscuring wider implications for psychology beyond the preferences of individual practitioners.

The Women of Trachis Jealousy, Hatred and Revenge in Sophocles' Tragedy Intrafamilial Marriage and the Husbands' Widow's Wills the Famous Oracle

In this tragedy by Sophocles, the real theme is the treatment of "prey women" and their influence on the psychological family situation and society in classical Athens. "The Women of Trachis" as well as "Oedipus Rex" and "Oedipus on Colonus" show what an enormously perceptive, in today's terms, psychologist and sociologist Sophocles was. In the fifth century BC, many wars were waged in Greece and prisoners were turned into slaves. Classical Greece thrived on slavery, which also included so-called prey woman. In The Women of Trachis Sophocles describes the jealousy of a wife, with the resulting actions, when the marriage is overstretched and the jealousy is increased through corresponding insults (over the decades). How hatred and revenge then gain the upper hand, ultimately leading to death. The intra-family marriage policy in Athens, which often leads to emotional and social unhappiness, is also a clear theme in the "Women of Trachis", long before Sophocles' two Oedipus tragedies. In his tragedies, Sophocles dealt with sociological themes and human suffering. The poets changed the mythology according to the requirements of their desired intention of the tragedy. The transformation of the myth consists in its integration into the polis and its new reference systems. The fact that the tragic poet sets the problems of his time in a past contributes to the possibility of the tragedy's reception. In the tragedies Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, for example, a reference to the social reality in Athens at the time is assumed. The tragedies that were performed at the Dionysia (festival) are characterized by an interpenetration of present and past. Tragedies were organized as competitions, so that the poets had to take the audience's sensitivities into account. Classical philologists are often prevented from producing realistic text analyses and interpretations by idealizing and glorifying Greek tragedies and thus not taking into account the social customs and laws of the time. If we think, that the Greeks had no interest in such a psychological process as how a decision comes about, we are seriously mistaken and we do not do justice to the great, psychologically astute tragedians. Without a sociological, psychological and medical approach, applied to the tragedies that contain such themes in Sophocles and also Euripides in excellent execution, we will not do justice to these brilliant poets. We are left with interpretations without a sociological and psychological understanding of Greek classicism.

"There are lots of new faces this year… I'm not entirely sure when I became one of the old ones": a psycho-ethnography of the self at #PoWESconf five years in.

Conferences have been discussed as spaces for academic work to extend beyond the confines of one's institution, fostering environments of collaborative working, learning, and social bond-making. The British Psychological Society's Psychology of Women and Equalities Section hosts an annual conference, attended by feminist scholars from around the world. Drawing on auto-ethnography and psycho-biography, this paper presents a 'psycho-ethnography of the self' with reflections centred on: 'Scholarship', 'Feminist Praxis'; '(Safe) Academic Spaces'; and 'Positioning the Self'. This article contributes to a small, but growing body of literature critically reflecting on conferences as spaces for personal and professional development and academic growth.

The Impact of Stress and Depression on Adolescents: An Empirical Study

Background: stress and depressive mood swings among adolescents have a serious influence in the later part of life. It is necessary to analyse the problems of adolescents in order to create psychologically strong society. The aim of study was to investigate the driving factors of stress and instable mood in adolescents. This also helped to reveal the educational and social barriers of adolescents. Research hypothesis: stress and depressive mood swings in adolescents mostly occur due to events in their habitual places, such as schools, public places, and family. Patients and methods: the primary data of the study was obtained from 138 school student adolescents. The gathered data of semi-structured questionnaire was analysed, using Quantitative Research Methodology, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science), statistical tests, like Correlation, ANOVA, and Descriptive statistics. Results: disasters of stress and depressive mood swings affect the lifestyle of adolescents. The study suggested that the family environment and academic problems were the vital psychological factor affecting the adolescents. Avoiding negative thoughts helps to increase one’s self esteem. Education improves the involvement in socialising. Conclusion: involvement of parents in education process contributes to create positive family environment, which in turn helps to identify solutions for improving one’s self esteem. Concentration on severe disasters of stress and depressive mood swings among adolescents facilitates the creation of a strong psychological society.