PsycCRITIQUES Blog - RSS Feed

Is Mary Jane Really More Dangerous Than Meth?

Fred Heide — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:12:24 -0400

Ben Sessa's new book The Psychedelic Renaissance: Reassessing the Role of Psychedelic Drugs in 21st Century Psychiatry and Society argues that psychedelics have the potential to promote psychological growth. He points out that a number of important cultural figures (including the Beatles, Apple founder Steve Jobs, and Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson) have touted their value. In a double-blind study, participants reported that psilocybin induced experiences that were among the five most meaningful in their lives (Griffiths, Richards, Johnson, McCann, & Jesse, 2008). In addition, new evidence indicates the lasting therapeutic utility of substances such as MDMA for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (Mithoefer et al., 2013). Nonetheless, most psychedelics (including marijuana) are classified in the United States as Schedule I drugs, meaning that they have no currently accepted medical use and greater abuse potential than cocaine or methamphetamine. Should psychedelics remain under Schedule I? Or is it time for the Drug Enforcement Administration to change their status?

References

Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., Johnson, M. W., McCann, U. D., & Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22(6), 621-632. doi: 10.1177/0269881108094300

Mithoefer, M. C., Wagner, M. T., Mithoefer, A. T., Jerome, L., Martin, S. F., Yazar-Klosinski, B., . . . Doblin, R. (2013). Durability of improvement in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and absence of harmful effects or drug dependency after 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy: A prospective long-term follow-up study. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 27(1), 28-39. doi: 10.1177/0269881112456611

Read the Review

Cleansing the Doors of Misperception
By James Fadiman and Peter H. Addy
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(14)

Shame on Us

James H. Korn — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:21:36 -0400

I can't think of any one book that is a "must read" for all psychologists and psychology students. But I may have found one candidate: Jerome Kagan's Psychology's Ghosts: The Crisis in the Profession and the Way Back. In his review of this book, Robert Frank clearly summarizes Kagan's major ideas, including ignoring social class as a significant predictor of success, lack of specificity of our measures, weak generalizability from biased samples, and our limited view of cultural context. What kind of science is that?

In our undergraduate classrooms we tell students that psychology is a real science, and our graduate research programs admit students who will master narrow methods and sophisticated statistical manipulations. The APA accreditation system promotes a scientist–practitioner model that puts our practitioners on shaky ground, at least in Kagan's analysis.

How is it that a factor as important as social class is so often overlooked in our analyses and class discussions? I recently reviewed the book Controversy in the Psychology Classroom (review in April 3, 2013, issue of PsycCRITIQUES) that did not mention social class as a "hot topic." However, discussions of the relationship of class to success should disturb students at least as much as the topic of race.

Read the Review

Psychology Reconstructed
By Robert G. Frank
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(17)

U.S. Voter Competence: Room for Improvement

Eddie M. Clark — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:35:18 -0400

Catherine Scott reviewed Paul Goren's On Voter Competence and noted the large amount of research suggesting the incompetence of voters in the United States.

What can be done to increase voter competence? This would include not only making citizens who are less informed about the issues and candidates more informed, but also helping those already fairly well informed to become even more so. Should schools do more to socialize youths to vote? For example, my wife, a pre-kindergarten teacher, had her students engage in a mock voting activity at the time of the presidential election. Should elementary, junior high/middle, and high schools (and maybe even colleges) do more to inform students about the candidates and the issues in some nonpartisan fashion? Or, is voter competence really not the issue? Should schools, parents, and community organizations engage in activities to increase the motivation to vote? Finally, maybe the system works the way it should—those who care and are engaged in political issues vote; those who are not engaged do not vote.

Read the Review

Voting: Right or Privilege?
By Catherine Scott
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(13)

Is the Clinical vs. Actuarial Prediction Debate Really Dead?

Danny Wedding, PhD — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:26:23 -0400

In a fairly critical review of the 6th edition of David Faust's Coping With Psychiatric and Psychological Testimony (based on the original work by Jay Ziskin), David Shapiro takes Faust to task for "beating a dead horse," arguing that

the clinical versus actuarial debate has largely been silenced now. It has been replaced by the well-accepted concept of structured professional judgment in which contemporary research informs the structure of the interview.

Is the clinical vs. actuarial debate really dead, or are we still dealing with the issues Paul Meehl documented so cogently in his seminal 1954 book Clinical vs. Statistical Prediction? More than half a century later, don't many clinicians continue to rely almost exclusively on clinical judgment, ignoring actuarial and statistical models that could improve predictive accuracy? Do you agree with those critics who believe Coping With Psychiatric and Psychological Testimony hurts psychologists by providing ammunition to attorneys who want to make psychologists look foolish when they testify as expert witnesses, or did Ziskin and Faust make a major contribution to the field by forcing psychologists to improve their judgments, sharpen their arguments, moderate their claims to expertise, and adhere more tightly to scientific standards?

Read the Review

It Is Time to Stop Beating a Dead Horse
By David L. Shapiro
PsycCRITIQUES, 2012 Vol 57(35)

Exploring the Meaning of Racial Identity

Vetta Sanders Thompson — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:00:00 -0400

In her review of The Philosophy of Race, Kira Banks notes that author Albert Atkin highlights the "importance of racial identity (Cross & Vandiver, 2001; Helms, 1992; Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1997) as the social construction of race is accepted." Racial identity focuses on the ways that people think of themselves with regard to their racial group. Racial identity can have implications for social, political, and economic relations in society. Atkin's historical comparisons of "racial categorization across the globe" may suggest the need to examine the latest construction of race in the United States to include the category Hispanic, which has only a brief history in U.S. discourse on race. Is Hispanic a race or an ethnicity? Is there a distinction? When, how, and why did the category emerge? Indeed, who is White, Black, or Hispanic, and who decides?

Read the Review

Reflections on the "What" and "Why" of Race as a Construct
By Kira Hudson Banks
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(15)

Using the Minnesota Twin Study in Teaching and Therapy

James H. Korn — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:36:45 -0400

The Minnesota twin study could be ranked as one of the top 10 psychological research projects of the 20th century. John Hogan reviewed Born Together—Reared Apart: The Landmark Minnesota Twin Study, Nancy Segal's report of the history and major findings of that project. Through most of the last century, nativists and behaviorists each thought one side of the nature–nurture interaction had a significantly greater effect. Although the Minnesota research laid that certainty to rest, it left many important questions for consideration.

Hogan says, "The implications of the study are considerable." For example, how much does having "good" parents (genes and values) matter in raising good children? Sooner or later kids have to leave home and enter a violent, materialistic culture. Even religiosity and vocational interests have a genetic component.

Teachers of psychology can stir up powerful class discussions with the study results as a basis, and I would think that clinicians might find it useful in therapy sessions. Can you think of other examples of how the Minnesota twin study can be applied in teaching, therapy, and other settings?

Read the Review

Blame It on Darwin and His Cousin!
By John D. Hogan
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(10)

Addressing the Complexities of Intercountry Adoption

Nicole Thomson — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:19:04 -0400

Judith Gibbons and Karen Smith Rotabi's edited volume Intercountry Adoption: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes weaves together perspectives from a multi-disciplinary set of professionals to address the complex issue of intercountry adoption. The book's wide-ranging topics include race and culture, adoption policy, fraud and illicit practices, international child welfare, medical and psychosocial outcomes, and pragmatic recommendations for improving the adoption process. Given the complexities surrounding international adoption, reviewers Larry Gray and Kathryn Mariner point to the importance of moving toward creation of holistic intercountry adoptive care that operates from a biopsychosocial perspective. This approach should take into account adoption policy, international relations, and postadoption outcomes with a view to continually improving the process of intercountry adoption.

Do you agree or disagree with the need for this holistic approach that operates from a biopsychosocial perspective? What additional issues are important to consider for improving the process of intercountry adoption?

Read the Review

Intercountry Adoption: The Need for a Comprehensive and Holistic Approach
By Larry Gray and Kathryn Mariner
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(12)

The Death Penalty in America: No Resolution in Sight

Vetta Sanders Thompson — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:45:03 -0400

In the opening of his review of Deterrence and the Death Penalty, Brian L. Wilcox describes the death penalty as "one of the more contentious public policy issues in the United States." One factor that contributes to the contentious nature of the topic is the assertion that the death penalty deters future crime. I eagerly awaited this review because I wanted what Wilcox notes most readers of the actual book likely want—a definitive answer on the deterrent or lack of deterrent effects of the death penalty. It is surprising and disappointing that in over three decades of research there is no final answer. However, it may be the case that we are asking the wrong questions about our death penalty policies.

As experts on human behavior, can psychologists assist in developing testable theories that can help the nation in determining how we wish to control and/or address violent crime in society? Is the death penalty a necessary component of our criminal justice's response to violent crime?

Read the Review

Does the Death Penalty Deter Homicide?
By Brian L. Wilcox
PsycCRITIQUES, 2013 Vol 58(7)