Examines the gap between empirical knowledge and theoretical explanations regarding psychological and social factors related to work, employment, and unemployment. Discusses the nature of the public debate about work and its relation to social research. Calls for an ordering device to counteract biased selection of research findings. (Author/GC)

Two factors, humanistically motivated science and the needs of a mass society for new caring and control resources, have led the profession of psychology into often contradictory assumptions, pushed it toward possibly unattainable goals, and left the field open to much criticism. (Author/GC)

The present social and political climate is marked by an increasing appreciation of human diversity and of society's need to accommodate such diversity. The social context for testing is thus fundamentally different from that in which standardized testing developed. Testing should now be more concerned with facilitating equal opportunity.…

New research methods have spawned social cognitive neuroscience. Social and emotional phenomena can now be studied at three levels. The study of neural mechanisms, cognitions, and social processes is integrated by interdisciplinary research endeavors, yielding new knowledge about stereotyping, attitude change, and how human beings process certain…

Comments on the article by Marsh and Hau (see record 2003-06802-005), who tested the negative effects of attending academically selective schools; that is, a student will have lowered academic self-concept in a selective school than in a nonselective school, a big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). The current author suggests that a major problem of…

Psychologists' work was cited in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). One criticism of the citation was that psychology could be used to overturn the Brown decision and return the country to segregation. A historical examination of such an attempt to overturn Brown in the early 1960s on the basis of new psychological…

Presents an overview of the contributors' reactions and summarizes the controversies which arose from the 1975 APA presidential address. Thoughts on behaviorism as well as evolutionary theory in American psychology are also presented. (Author/AM)

Examines issues being addressed by the profession of school psychology in the context of current sociopolitical, economic, legal, and societal developments. Reviews issues discussed and recommendations offered at the 1980 Spring Hill Symposium. (Author/GC)

Indicates that national statistics show declining numbers of unskilled jobs and large numbers of semiliterate and illiterate high school graduates; argues that minimum competency requirements can benefit both individuals and society. Observes that recent judicial decisions have usurped the right to set educational policy, which constitutionally…

This article criticizes the generally held assumption that psychological test scores are trait measures. Reasons for the continuing belief in this fallacy, as well as the social consequences of its general acceptance, are discussed. Suggestions for avoiding the test-trait fallacy are made. (EB)

The Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition has found that, if cross-cultural psychology has mounted a challenge to developmental psychology, it is because it has forced recognition of the fact that no context of observation, including the laboratory, is culturally neutral. Settings for behavior are embedded in larger systems of social…

In this article, the development of egocentrically motivated altruism as one pragmatic alternative for regulation of the relationship between individuals and society is discussed in terms of its implications for clinical psychology. (Author/WI)

An exciting period in mental and physical health research is beginning, resulting from a paradigm shift from an outdated biomedical reductionism approach to a more comprehensive biopsychosocial model, which emphasizes the unique interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors required to better understand health and illness. This…

A broader approach to research in human development is proposed that focuses on the progressive accommodation, throughout the life span, between the growing human organism and the changing environments in which it actually lives and grows. The approach emphasizes the use of rigorously designed experiments, both naturalistic and contrived,…

Draws from works by Bronfenbrenner, Tinbergen, and Burgess to conceptualize child maltreatment as a social-psychological phenomenon that is multiply determined by individual, family, community, and cultural forces. (Author/GC)