Erik Eriksen is a remarkable individual. He has no college degrees yet is Professor of Human Development at Harvard University. He came to psychology via art, which explains why the reader will find him painting contexts and backgrounds rather than stating dull facts and concepts. He has been a training psychoanalyst for many years as well as a perceptive observer of cultural and social settings and their effect on growing up. This is not just a book on childhood. It is a panorama of our society. Anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war, and arrogance in young Nazis are scrutinized under the psychoanalytic magnifying glass. The material is well written and devoid of technical jargon. The theme of the volume is that it is human to have a long childhood which will leave a lifelong residue of emotional immaturity in man. Primitive groups and

Childhood and Society.

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Pedagosko i psiholosko testiranje i procjenjivanje spadaju među najvažnije doprinose znanosti o ponasanju nasem drustvu i pružaju temeljna i znacajna poboljsanja u odnosu na ranije postupke. Iako se ne može ustvrditi da su svi testovi dovoljno usavrseni niti da su sva testiranja razborita i korisna, postoji velika kolicina informacija koje ukazuju na ucinkovitost kvalitetnih instrumenata u onim situacijama u kojima je njihovo koristenje potkrijepljeno validacijskim podacima. Pravilna upotreba testova može dovesti do boljih odluka o pojedincima i programima nego sto bi to bio slucaj bez njihovog koristenja, a također i ukazati na put za siri i pravedniji pristup obrazovanju i zaposljavanju. Međutim, losa upotreba testova može dovesti do zamjetne stete nanesene ispitanicima i drugim sudionicima u procesu donosenja odluka na temelju testovnih podataka. Cilj Standarda je promoviranje kvalitetne i eticne upotrebe testova te uspostavljanje osnovice za ocjenu kvalitete postupaka testiranja. Svrha objavljivanja Standarda je uspostavljanje kriterija za evaluaciju testova, provedbe testiranja i posljedica upotrebe testova. Iako bi evaluacija prikladnosti testa ili njegove primjene trebala ovisiti prvenstveno o strucnim misljenjima, Standardi pružaju okvir koji osigurava obuhvacanje svih relevantnih pitanja. Bilo bi poželjno da svi autori, sponzori, nakladnici i korisnici profesionalnih testova usvoje Standarde te da poticu druge da ih također prihvate.

Standards for educational and psychological testing

The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/5/110/206.full.pdf

The american psychological association.

Using the research framework recommended by L. Rogler, R. Malgady, and D. Rodriguez (1989), the current paper examines the barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans. Beginning with the recognition that Asian Americans consists of numerous heterogeneous subgroups, the issue of the stereotype of Asian Americans as the “model minority” was also discussed. The primary focus of the paper is on Stages 2, 3, and 4 within the Rogler et al. (1989) model and the identification and discussion of cultural factors that hinder the delivery of mental health services to Asian Americans. The paper is therefore organized into these three sections: (a) help-seeking or mental health service utilization, (b) evaluation of mental health problems, and (c) psychotherapeutic services. In each of the sections, not only are the barriers to delivery of effective mental health services discussed but so are the research and methodological problems as well as some directions for future research. This critical review of the literature has been prepared with the goal of serving as a “blueprint” for us to pursue rigorous but relevant research to identify and reduce these cultural barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans.

Barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans.

Several culturally based variables were used to predict the patterns of help-seeking attitudes among a sample of Chinese-American students (TV = 219) in a large midwestern university. Cultural values operationalized by H. C. Triandis, R. Bontempo, M. J. Villareal, M. Asai, and N. Lucca's (1988) Individualism-Collectivism Scale, social support attitudes operationalized by A. Vaux's (1985) Network Orientation Scale, and the continuous variable of acculturation operationalized by the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (R. M. Suinn, K. Rickard-Figueroa, S. Lew, & P. Vigil, 1987) were selected as predictors of attitudes as measured by E. H. Fischer and J. L. Turner's (1970) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. Each of the 4 independent variables were found to be significant predictors of attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. The counseling and research implications of the results are discussed. Research on cross-cultural issues that have an impact on counseling and psychotherapy has gained an impetus only since the 1970s (Atkinson, 1985). Atkinson (1985) examined reviews that had critically summarized studies dealing with the relationship between cultural and counseling variables (Atkinson, 1983; Harrison, 1975; Sattler, 1977). Three important characteristics of the studies conducted before 1985 stood out. First, most of the research had focused on relations between African Americans and Caucasians and had not examined other racial and ethnic groups. Second, the settings in which a large proportion of the studies had been conducted were mental health outpatient clinics or psychiatric hospital inpatient units, not college counseling centers. Third, either a survey or an archival research design had been used in a majority of the studies. These observations can also be made about a large number of studies that have examined the role of ethnic and racial variables in areas of psychology other than those of counseling and psychotherapy. Atkinson (1985) recommended that researchers study a number of different ethnic and racial groups, investigate within-group variables, such as self-designated identity and cultural commitment, and do more research in college settings. These recommendations are valuable for studies on a number of psychological issues and processes. Some of these issues include attitudes, values, experiences, expectations, beliefs, and social-support systems of members of different ethnic groups (Root, 1985). These factors affect a number of behaviors, one of which is the act of seeking professional psychological help. Research has shown that members of non-Caucasian ethnic groups

Individualism-Collectivism, Social-Network Orientation, and Acculturation as Predictors of Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Among Chinese Americans

We review recent developments in the study of culture and personality measurement. Three approaches are described: an etic approach that focuses on establishing measurement equivalence in imported measures of personality, an emic (indigenous) approach that studies personality in specific cultures, and a combined emic-etic approach to personality. We propose the latter approach as a way of combining the methodological rigor of the etic approach and the cultural sensitivity of the emic approach. The combined approach is illustrated by two examples: the first with origins in Chinese culture and the second in South Africa. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the combined emic-etic approach for the study of culture and personality and for psychology as a science.

/pdf/toward-a-new-approach-to-the-study-of-personality-in-culture-lhlwpmp71t.pdf

Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture

This article is divided into three sections. The first section concerns the diagnosis and assessment of Asian-America ns and covers the following issues: (a) symptom expression, (b) therapist bias, (c) problems with the use of interpreters, and (d) problems with the use of clinical and personality tests. The second section, on counseling and psychotherapy, is divided into three subsections: (a) client variables, (b) therapist variables, and (c) counseling process and outcome. The subsection on client variables covers such issues as the personality of Asian-America ns, language problems, the acculturation process, and counseling expectations. The subsection on therapist variables includes discussion of therapist bias, training bias, lack of intercultural skills, and culture-specific knowledge. The therapy process and outcome subsection reviews empirical studies, clinical case studies, and articles with treatment strategies and recommendations. Research issues as well as research recommendations for each of the areas reviewed are identified and discussed in the third section.

Frederick T. L. Leong

Papers

Barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans.

Individualism-Collectivism, Social-Network Orientation, and Acculturation as Predictors of Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Among Chinese Americans

Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture

Counseling and psychotherapy with Asian-Americans: Review of the literature.

International Graduate Students, Stress, and Social Support.