The third sex: Kathoey - Thailand's ladyboys

Review of Totman, R. (2003). The Third Sex: Kathoey – Thailand’s Ladyboys. London: Souvenir Press

Misconceptions and more

Caprice Lantz and Peter Reddy on how students can develop a ‘career focus’ in psychology

Educating Europe

In the UK most psychology undergraduates are women, most finish their education with a bachelor's degree, most do not enter professional psychology, and competition to do so at 21+ is fierce. This all raises many questions - not least about the nature of the discipline itself and the purpose of university education. Although they have unique features, other European countries, are grappling with similar issues. They all have interesting and varied responses within a common broad framework. These variations tell us something about higher education, about vocational preparation, and about the shape and future of the discipline.

Breaking out of the silo mentality

The return to methods focusing on language and experience following the dominance of experimental methods has in the last few decades led to debate, dialogue, and disagreement regarding the status of qualitative and quantitative methods. However, a recent focus on impact has brought an air of pragmatism to the research arena. In what ways, then, is psychology moving from entrenched mono methods approaches that have epitomised its development until recently, to describing and discussing ways in which mixed and pluralistic research can advance and contribute to further, deeper psychological understanding?.

What makes us human?

Review of "Being human: psychological and philosopthical perspectives" by Richard Gross.

Supporting learners’ agentic engagement with feedback:a systematic review and a taxonomy of recipience processes

Much has been written in the educational psychology literature about effective feedback and how to deliver it. However, it is equally important to understand how learners actively receive, engage with, and implement feedback. This article reports a systematic review of the research evidence pertaining to this issue. Through an analysis of 195 outputs published between 1985 and early 2014, we identified various factors that have been proposed to influence the likelihood of feedback being used. Furthermore, we identified diverse interventions with the common aim of supporting and promoting learners' agentic engagement with feedback processes. We outline the various components used in these interventions, and the reports of their successes and limitations. Moreover we propose a novel taxonomy of four recipience processes targeted by these interventions. This review and taxonomy provide a theoretical basis for conceptualizing learners' responsibility within feedback dialogues and for guiding the strategic design and evaluation of interventions. Receiving feedback on one's skills and understanding is an invaluable part of the learning process, benefiting learners far more than does simply receiving praise or punishment (Black & Wiliam, 1998 Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5, 7–74. doi:10.1080/0969595980050102[Taylor & Francis Online]; Hattie & Timperley, 2007 Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77, 81–112. doi:10.3102/003465430298487[CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]). Inevitably, the benefits of receiving feedback are not uniform across all circumstances, and so it is imperative to understand how these gains can be maximized. There is increasing consensus that a critical determinant of feedback effectiveness is the quality of learners' engagement with, and use of, the feedback they receive. However, studies investigating this engagement are underrepresented in academic research (Bounds et al., 2013 Bounds, R., Bush, C., Aghera, A., Rodriguez, N., Stansfield, R. B., & Santeen, S. A. (2013). Emergency medicine residents' self-assessments play a critical role when receiving feedback. Academic Emergency Medicine, 20, 1055–1061. doi:10.1111/acem.12231[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]), which leaves a “blind spot” in our understanding (Burke, 2009 Burke, D. (2009). Strategies for using feedback students bring to higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34, 41–50. doi:10.1080/02602930801895711[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]). With this blind spot in mind, the present work sets out to systematically map the research literature concerning learners' proactive recipience of feedback. We use the term “proactive recipience” here to connote a state or activity of engaging actively with feedback processes, thus emphasizing the fundamental contribution and responsibility of the learner (Winstone, Nash, Rowntree, & Parker, in press Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Rowntree, J., & Parker, M. (in press). ‘It'd be useful, but I wouldn't use it’: Barriers to university students' feedback seeking and recipience. Studies in Higher Education. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2015.1130032[Taylor & Francis Online]). In other words, just as Reeve and Tseng (2011 Reeve, J., & Tseng, M. (2011). Agency as a fourth aspect of student engagement during learning activities. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 257–267. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2011.05.002[CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]) defined “agentic engagement” as a “student's constructive contribution into the flow of the instruction they receive” (p. 258), likewise proactive recipience is a form of agentic engagement that involves the learner sharing responsibility for making feedback processes effective.

Does expert psychological testimony improve juror sensitivity to lineup suggestiveness?

Previous research has examined the validity of behavioral assumptions underlying the presumed effectiveness of safeguards against erroneous conviction resulting from mistaken eyewitness identification. In keeping with this agenda, this study examined juror sensitivity to lineup suggestiveness in the form of foil, instruction, and presentation biases and whether expert psychological testimony further sensitizes jurors to the factors that influence the likelihood of false identifications. One hundred and sixty jury eligible citizens watched versions of a videotaped trial that included information about the identification of the defendant by an eyewitness and that varied the suggestiveness of the eyewitness identification procedure. In addition, half of the mock-jurors heard the testimony of an expert psychologist regarding the factors that influence lineup suggestiveness. Mock-jurors rendered individual verdicts, rated the defendant's culpability and the suggestiveness and fairness of the identification procedure. Results indicated that jurors are somewhat sensitive to foil bias but are insensitive to instruction and presentation biases. No evidence was found to suggest that expert testimony leads to juror skepticism or juror sensitization. These results question the effectiveness of cross-examination and expert testimony as safeguards against erroneous convictions resulting from mistaken identification. ^

Using the Big -Five personality factors in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, California Psychological Inventory, and Inwald Personality Inventory to predict police performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the Big-Five personality taxonomy, as represented by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), California Psychological Inventory (CPI), and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) scales, predicted a variety of police officer job performance criteria. Data were collected archivally for 270 sworn police officers from a large Southeastern municipality. Predictive data consisted of scores on the MMPI, CPI, and IPI scales as grouped in terms of the Big-Five factors. The overall score on the Wonderlic was included in order to assess criterion variance accounted for by cognitive ability. Additionally, a psychologist's overall rating of predicted job fit was utilized to assess the variance accounted for by a psychological interview. Criterion data consisted of supervisory ratings of overall job performance, State Examination scores, police academy grades, and termination. Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that officers who are higher on Extroversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and lower on Neuroticism, otherwise known as the Big-Five factors, would outperform their peers across a variety of job performance criteria. Additionally, it was hypothesized that police officers who are higher in cognitive ability and masculinity, and lower in mania would also outperform their counterparts. Results indicated that many of the Big-Five factors, namely, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience, were predictive of several of the job performance criteria. Such findings imply that the Big-Five is a useful predictor of police officer job performance. Study limitations and implications for future research are discussed. ^

O processo de inserção dos psicólogos na assistência social em Natal/RN no período de 1972-2003

Since the rules of the National Social Assistance (PNAS) and the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS) in 2004/2005 the psychologist action as an essential professional teams in the services offered in this field. Althoug, there are indications of psychologists who worked on the assistence prior this time. This insertion had not systematized in the literature, not allowing the establishment of records of this linear trajectory. The objective of this paper is investigate the entrance and a psychologist working in social care services in Natal / RN , as well as the activities undertaken by them in the period 1972-2003 . This temporal boundary is justified because Natal initiate to have a psychologist from 1972 to 2003 was immediately prior to the landmarks of the 2004/2005 year. The research was divided into two stages: documentary and oral history. The first was through the consultation of 86 monographs of the Sector Documentation Social Service Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte , its intend identify what were the services that characterized the health care field and evidence of the presence of psychologists in these spaces. In the second stage, interviews with psychologists who worked 13 trailers to social assistance in order to investigate its performance, activities undertaken, the insertion process in the area, among other things were done. The material analysis was based on themes from a historical perspective. The results point to three major areas of integration of psychologists : in child exceptionality in which psychologists were linked to Brazilian Legion Social Assistance (LBA); the field of the minor through the State Foundation for the Well Being of Minors (center), and occupying positions of management and coordination in some welfare programs.

Serviços-escola de psicologia do Rio Grande do Norte: formação profissional e política pública de saúde em debate

The Psychology University Services is stablished normatively as an indispensable equipment to the recognition of the graduation courses of psychologists by the Brazilian Education Ministery. The Public Healthcare Policies (Universal Health System/SUS) constitutes itself as a input field of the professional category, but shows huge challenges in the formation of these professionals. The objective of this work is to analyse the functioning of the Psychology University Services (SEP) and the Superior Educational Institutions from Natal, understood as important formation devices to attend the actual demands of the psychologist's work on SUS. For this, it sought a) characterize the psychological practices developed in the SEP; b) relate the National Curricular Lines of Direction of the psychology courses to the skills and competences developed in the SEP to the performance on the public healthcare policies; c) mapping ways of including the SEP in the network designed by the healthcare policy. Interviews were performed with 13 academic supervisors, 8 field supervisors and technicians of superior level (TNC), along with 9 managers, being for of the Psychology University Services and 5 of the graduation programs. Questionnaires were also applied to 57 interns and 24 graduates. Besides that, two conversation circles were performed with the faculty and technician members from two of the Educational Institutions that were participating of the research, as well as a workshop with students and psychologists, promoted by the CRP 17. We observed that most part of the faculty members and managers know the DCN and comprehend that the formation is in process of change in what concerns to the extension of the formation to the performance of the psychologists in various contexts. However, most part of the TNC don't know about them. Moreover, the results point to the predominance of the assisting model based on the traditional clinic psychology, although the articulation with the public healthcare and social assistance networks can already be timidly visualized. Different modalities of practices in theses Psychology University Services were also detected, such as conversation groups, thematic workshops, organizational consultancies, team meetings with the interns and TNS in a daily basis, matriciament in mental health, therapeutic monitoring, among others. Yet, the SEP in Rio Grande do Norte are still isolated from the other courses that perform in the healthcare area and also from the services that compose the public healthcare and public policies.

O processo de subjetivação profissional durante os estágios supervisionados em psicologia

Internship is legally understood in Brazil as an overseen educational activity to be developed in a work setting aiming to prepare students to make productive work. According to the federal law number 11.788/08, its main aim is to provide students with competences directly related to the professional activity in a curricular context and to make students develop themselves to live as citizens and to work professionally. With a focus on the professionalizing internship, this research aimed at understanding the professional subjectiveness process of Psychology undergraduates at a public university in the state Minas Gerais during their internship and according to a critic perspective in schooling psychology. The importance of studying psychologist academic training above all the relationship between theory and practice is on the fact that the internship is his/her initial contact with the professional experience itself after four years of theoretical studies. Understood as a way of appropriating and internalizing theoretical and practical dimensions related to the psychologist profession and constructed by the individual, the concept of professional subjectiveness is viewed in the light of the cultural-historical theory, that is, as a result of the human being social constitution. Three Psychology s intern students and their respective overseers were interviewed during their internship period to talk about the process of professional constitution at this phase of the academic training. To do so, oral history proved to be an important methodological support, for it offers a means of giving voice to common people and letting them signify their multi-circumstantial experiences. Results reiterate the presence of subjectivity in the dynamics of an undergraduate training, but they showed that it is permeated by social relations established in his/her personal life story and professional trajectory, stemming from the professional choice, the relationship between intern and overseer, the professional activity properly considered, the psychotherapy, the rules, and from the institutionalization of knowledge, among others aspects that guide the professional subjectiveness during the internship. We verified that the training of a Psychology undergraduate includes multiple determinations that exceed the academic setting because it points out the breaking down of the professional dimensions and personal one dichotomy.