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The teller, the tale and the told Steven Killick and Neil Frude on oral storytelling; and Richard Gottlieb’s analysis of the children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are
Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society
forum 818 news 826 book reviews 856 looking back 902
the restless brain 836 making up the mind 842 the path to prose 854 careers: psychotherapy and other stories 882
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The British Psychological Society Contact The British Psychological Society St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR Tel 0116 254 9568 Fax 0116 227 1314
Welcome to The Psychologist, the official monthly publication of The British Psychological Society. It provides a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulfil the main object of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’. It is supported by a website, www.thepsychologist.org.uk, where you can view this month’s issue, search the archive, listen, debate and seek information, contribute, subscribe, advertise, and more.
Society website www.bps.org.uk The Psychologist e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk General Society e-mail mail@bps.org.uk Advertising Reach 50,000 psychologists at very reasonable rates. For rates and deadlines, e-mail psyadvert@bps.org.uk or tel 0116 252 9552 For job advertising, in print or online at www.psychapp.co.uk, e-mail psychapp@bps.org.uk tel 0116 252 9550 September 2009 issue 46,736 dispatched Printed by Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, on 100 per cent recycled paper Please re-use or recycle See the online archive at www.thepsychologist.org.uk ISSN 0952-8229 © Copyright for all published material is held by The British Psychological Society, unless specifically stated otherwise. Authors, illustrators and photographers may use their own material elsewhere after publication without permission. The Society asks that the following note be included in any such use: ‘First published in The Psychologist, vol. no. and date. Published by The British Psychological Society – see www.thepsychologist.org.uk.’ As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The Psychologist may be photocopied by licensed institutional libraries for academic/teaching purposes. No permission is required. Permission is required and a reasonable fee charged for commercial use of articles by a third party. Please apply to the Society in writing. The publishers have endeavoured to trace the copyright holders of all illustrations in this publication. If we have unwittingly infringed copyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfied as to the owner’s title, to pay an appropriate fee.
Your publication needs you! You can shape the content in all parts of the publication – we rely on your submissions. In return we help you to get your message across to a large and diverse audience. ‘It's important for psychologists to develop ways of writing that really communicate: not just journal intricacy and not just glossy-magazine chat. The Psychologist offers a fine opportunity for this development. The editors are excellent, in their work with authors and in their production of this wonderful publication.’ Keith Oatley, University of Toronto
What are we looking for? Topics which will inform our wide audience, written in a style which will engage them. We aim to publish quality, accessible overviews of research and practice (but not ‘journal style’ reports of unpublished studies), along with a wide range of more personal formats. There are options to suit all areas and authors – contact the editor to discuss, on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk or via the Leicester office. We are also keen to receive news, letters, conference reports, pieces about careers, methods, teaching and learning, the history of psychology and more. Again, contact the editor.
How do I go about writing my piece? You may find it helps to contact the editor for advice on the approach you should take and
Editor Jon Sutton Assistant Editor Peter Dillon-Hooper Production Mike Thompson Staff journalist Christian Jarrett Advertising Sarah Stainton Kirsty Wright Editorial Assistant Debbie James
Associate Editors Articles Vaughan Bell, Kate Cavanagh, Marc Jones, Rebecca Knibb, Charlie Lewis, Amina Memon, Wendy Morgan, Tom Stafford, Miles Thomas, Monica Whitty, Barry Winter
how long the piece should be. You can also see www.thepsychologist.org.uk for guidance, and examples of different formats in the archive of past issues. To allow anonymous review, authors’ names and full contact details should not appear on the typescript, but should be presented on a separate page. Send your work as an attachment to psychologist@bps.org.uk, or post three copies to The Psychologist at the Society’s office.
What happens next? After an initial assessment of suitability by the editor, our feature articles are blind peerreviewed to ensure scientific quality. The editor reserves the right to edit all copy accepted for publication. However, this is a collaborative process with the author, aiming for the best possible end product in terms of layout and accessibility. An author or the editor may feel that an article is suitable for web-only presentation due to considerations of time, length or breadth of interest. For full details of the policy and procedures of The Psychologist, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk. If you feel these policies and procedures have not been followed, contact the editor on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, or the Chair of the Psychologist Policy Committee, Dr Paul Redford, on paul2.redford@uwe.ac.uk
Conferences Sandie Cleland Sarah Haywood International Nigel Foreman, Asifa Majid Interviews Nigel Hunt, Lance Workman History of Psychology Julie Perks
The Psychologist Policy Committee Paul Redford (Chair), Nik Chmiel, Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Jeremy Horwood, David Lavallee, Catherine Loveday, Stephen McGlynn, Sheelagh Strawbridge, Henck van Bilsen, Peter Wright, and Associate Editors
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forum 818 the narrowing focus of UK psychology; US healthcare reform; bias in testing; clinical terminology; proposal for a Community Psychology Section; and more news 826 heart attack survivors; online CBT; climate change; publication of Rorschach images; a special feature on the next big questions in psychology; and more media the benefits and ethics of involvement in the media, with Kairen Cullen
836 JAMES MENDELSSOHN, WWW.BEYONDTHEBORDER.COM
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The restless brain Christian Jarrett enters the strange and controversial world of the ‘default mode network’
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Making up the mind Chris Frith, winner of the Society’s 2008 Book Award, on how his ideas have developed, and the surprising implications
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Teach and learn: The path to prose Paul McCarthy offers some reflections on supervising writing in a PhD
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THE ISSUE Given that I am a psychologist turned wordsmith of sorts, it is a particular pleasure to introduce a collection of articles in this issue related to writing and storytelling. We have the Book Award article, a ‘Teach and learn’ on writing in a PhD, a ‘Careers’ piece with a clinical psychologist and novelist, and Steven Killick and Neil Frude examining the oral tradition. Finally, Richard Gottlieb’s ‘Eye on fiction’ tackles my favourite ever children’s book, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (which has been adapted for a new feature film, out this month). It has been described as ‘one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate, and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger’. It was an honour to contribute a box to Richard’s piece, and it reminded me why psychology and storytelling go so well together. Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor)
book reviews 856 saving our children from nature deficit disorder; memory; study skills; dementia; and a lifetime of intelligence society 862 President’s column; ethical code changes; going green with the DOP; and more careers life as a clinical psychologist and novelist, with Frank Tallis; the benefits of internships; building roads to success in mental health; the latest jobs, and how to advertise
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looking back 902 Barbara Tizard on John Bowlby: the origins of his ideas, their impact, and his often underestimated willingness to revise them one on one …with Jay Belsky
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see www.thepsychologist.org.uk for exclusive content this month
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The teller, the tale and the told Richard Gottlieb analyses the children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are 846 Steven Killick and Neil Frude on oral storytelling 850
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The narrowing focus of UK psychology? There is something insidious happening to British psychology that may be directly attributed to the RAE. The panel identified cognitive psychology and neuropsychology as most worthy of merit with the top 10 institutions publishing in these subject journals. Applied and professional psychological areas fared less well. How might we interpret this? We could argue about who was rating papers and by what criteria and we might want to challenge the privileging of these areas of psychology, but we should certainly discuss the consequences. Given the present economic down turn and the redirecting of money following the RAE, the panel’s judgement gave a steer to my department at the University of Surrey in identifying where to retrench following a
requirement to save money as well as fulfilling an aspiration for the university to be amongst the top 10 HE institutions nationally and the top 100 internationally. Notwithstanding a 30-year history of pioneering forensic psychology, two out of the current four posts have been lost, and I fear Surrey’s contribution to this field is seriously depleted. I am aware of at least two other
universities that will be losing some forensic psychology capability. I have just returned from an international conference where colleagues were amazed at these losses and the implications for the research and knowledge base of not only forensic but other applied and professional areas of activity. Clinical courses have limited scope to be research productive given the heavy demands to support trainees and the interface with the NHS. Will these too be at risk? There is in my view a serious danger
US healthcare reform – your support needed
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Many readers will be aware of the debate currently raging in the United States concerning the proposed implementation of a government-backed health insurance scheme to provide coverage to the estimated 49 million uninsured Americans, and to provide choice for the under-insured. I, and many colleagues, have been surprised at the vehement resistance with which a proposal of nationalised health care has been met by some in the United States. For example, anti-reform protesters have taken such measures as bringing semi-automatic weapons to rallies, and have misrepresented the NHS by suggesting that we employ ‘death panels’ to judge the viability of life for elderly people. It is little wonder that in this fraught context, with the stakes so geographically distant and misrepresentations running rampant, British psychologists have thus far been reticent to comment on American healthcare reform. Yet as psychologists, we are placed to provide great insight to those in America
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These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for discussion and debate, and we welcome your contributions.
currently wrestling with healthcare reform, whatever our area of practice – clinical, forensic, research, and so on. Many of us work or have worked in the NHS; nearly all of us use it; and, crucially, we all enjoy the right to high-quality care free at the point of access, including the care of psychologists and psychological therapists. Even as we continue to address issues in our own service provision, we cannot but recognise that high-quality psychological support in Britain is much more freely available. The American debate has thus far neglected the immense benefit to society wrought from accessible psychological services; here, British psychologists can have a powerful voice. We are able to comment on some of those barriers with which millions of Americans struggle every day: I insurance coverage linked to employment: clearly a barrier for those with long-term illnesses and other vulnerable people; I expensive costs for prescription medication;
Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to psychologist@bps.org.uk; or write to the Leicester office.
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expensive co-payments for appointments; appeals concerning care being handled within an insurance company focusing on economic cost–benefit analyses rather than individual well-being; psychological issues caused or exacerbated by stressors and other factors emanating from undertreatment of medical conditions; failure to include comprehensive psychological services within many basic insurance plans.
The president of the American Psychological Association, James H. Bray, writes that ‘every American should have access to quality health care that includes mental and behavioral health promotion, screening and referral, prevention, early intervention, treatment and wellness services across the lifespan’. The APA is focusing upon the integration of psychological services into primary care, and has offered limited support for the socalled ‘public option’. However, given the
Letters over 500 words are less likely to be published. The editor reserves the right to edit or publish extracts from letters. Letters to the editor are not normally acknowledged, and space does
not permit the publication of every letter received. However, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk to contribute to our discussion forum (members only).
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in narrowing the focus of British psychology and relegating non experimental paradigms to the margins and in doing so minimise psychology’s contribution to our national life. Not every student wishes to pursue an academic postgraduate route, rather many wish to develop professional credentials and/or apply their psychological knowledge in areas other than psychology. Do other colleagues share my concerns? I invite members of the Society to engage in a debate through The Psychologist to discuss these important questions so that we do not sleepwalk into a diminishing of our discipline. Jennifer Brown (until December) Professor of Forensic Psychology University of Surrey
inequitable nature of services under the current system, driven by private insurance companies with government support on offer only to the over-65s and the very poor, it is difficult to foresee how the aim of universal access to psychological services can be implemented without adopting a public option. As an American resident in the UK, I am keenly aware both of the great advantages bestowed by the British system and of the struggles which my friends, family and fellow citizens fight every day back home. As we all know, access to psychological care is a matter of core well-being, and sometimes a matter of life and death. I invite colleagues who share my concern about the availability of psychological services to all peoples, to participate in the drafting of an open letter in support of a public option along the lines of the NHS, to be submitted to the Obama administration and major American media outlets. Anyone interested should please contact me at rebeccagraber@gmail.com for further information. Rebecca Graber Institute of Psychological Sciences University of Leeds
Reducing bias in testing I was interested to read the article by Jacob Hirsh, ‘Choosing the right tools to find the right people’, in the September issue – it is a very welcome change to have an article on occupational psychology in The Psychologist. While I congratulate Hirsh on the balance of his article and strongly endorse his emphasis on the importance of using the right tools in selection, I would take issue with his implied claim to have discovered the use of forced-choice item formats for controlling the response biases associated with Likert response formats in high stakes assessment. He states that ‘[b]iasresistant questionnaires such as this may prove very useful for assessing personality in competitive environments’. It is perhaps symptomatic of the Atlantic divide that those working in North America are just now ‘discovering’ the use of forced-choice as an alternative to Likert scales, when this approach was pioneered in the UK by my predecessors in SHL over 25 years ago (the OPQ Concept model was published in 1984). Not only did SHL develop parallel forcedchoice and single-stimulus versions of OPQ but they took the radical step – at the time – of recommending forced-choice for use in high stakes settings, such as selection testing, and single-stimulus ratings for use in low stakes settings, Jacob Hirsh stated that non-verbal tests of cognitive ability do not discriminate against respondents from different cultural backgrounds. Although this was the intention of such tests, empirical scrutiny has proven such assertion unjustified. IQ scores have been increasing with each generation and the effect is most profound on performance measures. Flynn (1987) has estimated that non-verbal IQ scores augment as much as 20 points within 30 years. This
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such as personal development or career guidance. This was the complete reverse of conventional wisdom at the time. Subsequent research has proved this to be the right approach. Over the past three or four years we are beginning to see papers emerging at SIOP (the main US occupational psychology conference) on the potential merits of using forced-choice methods. However, one issue with the use of forced-choice formats, which Hirsh does not raise in his article, is the fact that the scale scores produced are ipsative in nature if conventional scoring methods are used. This is not a practical issue for instruments like OPQ32, where the number of scales is sufficient to offset the effects of constraints on overall scale scores, but would be a serious issue for an instrument designed just to measure the Big Five. Anna Brown and I have been leading developments in the application of multidimensional item response theory (IRT) models to the scoring of forcedchoice instruments. We are now able to use IRT to get normative trait scores from forced-choice item data that in the past could only yield ipsative scale scores. This means that we are now able to get all the benefits of control over response bias that forced-choice formats provide without having the consequent disadvantages of ipsative scale scores. Dave Bartram Research Director, SHL Group Ltd
phenomenon is undoubtedly due to an environmental cause. Although efforts to address specific environmental factors remain predominantly speculative, it is likely that one’s culture is a strong determinant. Progressive generations experience societal changes that increment non-verbal IQ scores in particular. Since non-verbal IQ scores have consistently been shown to be susceptible to environmental factors, their position as a
culturally indifferent test of mental ability must be disputed. It is therefore surprising that the Society still provides space for declarations of the ‘culture-free’ nature of non-verbal IQ testing, as well as the assumption that such a psychometric tool will aid equality in selection procedures. Alan William Gray Durham University Reference Flynn, J. (1987) Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 171–191.
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Reality TV – the problem of informed consent Máire Messenger Davies (Forum, May 2009), followed by Helen Hughes and Rose Challenger (Forum, August 2009) have identified a problem which must concern psychologists. Broadcasts (over mass access channels and now, increasingly, via the internet) explore some human dramas that have occurred autonomously, and others that have been contrived by producers. The broadcast
display of stress and distress, conflict and anxiety (which the press play a part in underlining, by publicising it as ‘stories’) is believed to draw in viewers. Before the 2003 Broadcasting Act, ushering in Ofcom’s apparent role of regulator of content quality, the BBC and the Independent Television Commission oversaw a market swelling with underfunded competitors; these were
FORUM THE REAL WORLD Forget Afghanistan, the recession, the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The big news over the last month was, of course, the final demise of Big Brother. Now Big Brother aroused strong emotions both for and (particularly amongst discerning folks like ourselves) against. But who, interested in the understanding of human conduct, could fail to be fascinated by the systematic and comprehensive observation of people over an extended period? And Big Brother threw up many fascinating and profound issues: the collapse of the private and public spheres; the dilemmas of trying to satisfy multiple audiences all at once, the tensions between individual and group processes. Notably, in one series the housemates were divided into two groups. In an almost perfect replication of Sherif’s findings in the classic Boys Camp studies, past personal friendships and enmities dissolved. As measured by eviction choices, loyalty was almost exclusively reserved for the ingroup and hostility directed almost exclusively to the outgroup. A textbook illustration. But the ‘experts’ chose to ignore this. Indeed one actually claimed that ‘now, in the group, their true selves will come out’. And there’s the rub. The behaviours may have been fascinating, but they were relentlessly trivialised by the commentary. Big Brother was presented as a soap opera with different stock characters, and this individualistic narrative left no place for analysing how people reacted to the total institution of the Big Brother House. Most interesting, perhaps, was the way in which contestants could never act as contestants because they could never escape the lure of collectivity. They would speak endlessly about ‘game playing’ and ‘winning the prize’, but they ultimately seemed more concerned with the acceptance and approbation of their fellows. They would gain little pleasure from trying to eliminate fellow contestants and would usually seem highly distressed at having to nominate them. The very notion of betrayal presupposed some group bond and some norm of loyalty. So hard as Big Brother tried to set up a dog-eat-dog world, and hard as the producers strived to portray people as competitive individuals, it ultimately demonstrated the opposite. The impulse to sociality and collectivity runs deep in the human condition. It can even survive Big Brother. Steve Reicher is at the University of St Andrews. Alex Haslam is at the University of Exeter. Share your views on this and other ‘real world’ psychological issues – e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk.
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encouraged within an increasingly ‘light touch’ attitude to regulation; after 2003 the position is now even more lax, so any sensibility and restraint with regard to treating those who appear in broadcasts, humanely, remains to be identified and if possible safeguarded by those with special interests, qualifications and competence. Professor Messenger Davies hopes that informed consent is a crucial safeguard for proper treatment of Alison Lapper – could there be a those who appear in jeopardy to third parties from her what are mistakenly informed consent? labelled as ‘reality’ programmes. However, we presented a case based on evidence going back over which Messenger Davies two decades (McVey et al., referred, Boys and Girls Alone; 2001) that there are two limits but for the two reasons to this notion; one lies in the referred to above it is unlikely phenomenon of ‘retrospective that such ‘consent’ validly falsification of informed absolves the consciences of consent’ (which is where the broadcasters. participants sometimes realise To improve the plight of after the item has been shown, participants and of their third that they would not have parties, there is scope for consented to display, had they psychologists, at least, to known its consequences); the influence the myriad ‘media other is the jeopardy to third studies’ courses so that future parties of those who have broadcasters become more agreed to publication of their careful of those whom they own, ‘private’ lives and feelings might (mis)use. This issue has (consider the husband and been brought to the attention children of Jade Goody, or the of the society quite long ago small son of Alison Lapper (Wober, 1978) and on a whose nude statue stood for grander stage more recently over a year on the Fourth (McVey et al., 2001) J.M. Wober Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London NW3 for examples). A very recent example of the problem for References the third party is that of the McVey, C., McKechnie, J. & Wober, J.M. footballer George Best’s sister; (2001, March). Informed consent: The a televised play, well received effect of the media on ‘documentaryby critics as a sensitive display soap’ participants, friends and of a human drama, was said families. Paper given at the (items in the Guardian, and Centenary Conference of the British Financial Times) to have Psychological Society, Glasgow. particularly hurt her by the characterisation of her mother. Wober, J.M. (1978). Psychologists and the intrusion of broadcast There may have been ‘prygrammes’ on personal privacy. informed consent by parents Bulletin of the British Psychological and guardians of the children Society, 31, 1–2. in the Channel 4 series, to
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Policy on clinical terminology Since most of the letters published in September’s Psychologist were supportive of David Pilgrim’s position, I felt it was important to redress the balance. Pilgrim states: ‘A diagnosis is a social negotiation with unequal power relationships determining the outcome [which] contributes to the stigmatisation of people labelled…’ (Forum, August 2009); while Anne Cooke refers to ‘phenomena traditionally seen as biological defects…rendering those affected somehow less than human’ (Forum, September 2009). I wonder if they would say the same about clearly medical diagnoses, such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis? The fact that medical conditions have a biological origin does not in itself confer any stigma on the sufferer: if people suffering from a chronic physical illness or disability do feel stigmatised, they do not blame their diagnosis for this, but attitudes to the condition itself. Yet for some reason psychological conditions are viewed differently. The question of whether, or to what extent, psychoses have a biological origin is surely an empirical one, and despite what many psychologists claim, the issue
is far from settled: interestingly the BPS document referred to by Cooke (www.bps.org.uk/3ndn) recognises the likely contribution of biological factors, stating that ‘[p]eople may have greater or lesser levels of vulnerability to this type of experience’ and that ‘[s]ocial, biological and psychological causes of psychotic experiences are all important, and interact with one another’. Similarly, the question of whether or not schizophrenia is a useful term is a theoretical one, vigorously debated within and outside psychiatry. But these issues should not be confused with political matters such as public attitudes towards those who suffer from psychoses. Theoretical conceptualisations of conditions are either helpful or unhelpful in understanding the condition, but not in themselves oppressive or stigmatising: if it does turn out that some people have a greater biological predisposition to develop specific psychological problems when faced with stressful life events (a conclusion that personally I find hard to avoid), why should this imply any more stigma than if their problems are entirely due to their life experiences? With regard to the policy that The Psychologist should adopt in relation to
terminology, while we can accept that psychiatric terminology is problematic, could I suggest that as a profession we are in danger of isolating ourselves from other mental health professionals if we refuse to use terms that are in common usage? It is healthy to debate these issues with our non-psychologist colleagues, many of whom would share our doubts; it is not healthy, in my opinion, to ban certain terms, which merely closes down debate. Interestingly, distinguished clinical psychologists who work in the field are happy to continue using the term schizophrenia without quotation marks or qualifiers such as ‘people diagnosed with…’ (e.g. Kuipers et al., 2006), which implies that Pilgrim’s views by no means represent a consensus within the profession. Stephen Bamford Sheffield Reference Kuipers, E., Garety, P., Fowler, D. et al. (2006): Cognitive, emotional, and social processes in psychosis: Refining cognitive behavioral therapy for persistent positive symptoms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32(Supplement 1), S24–S31.
Where is the dignity? I read with some concern the second headline on the front page of the Daily Mail (20 August), ‘Did a man win the women’s 800m?’, accompanied by a photo of the women’s 800m gold medal winner Caster Semenya. My immediate thought was of the psychological impact on Caster. An announcement was made a few hours before she ran, at the world championships in Berlin, by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that ‘they had requested a gender test’. The distress that must have been felt when a very public suggestion was made that you might not be who you think you are, can only be imagined; and not only that it was just before the most significant race of her life,
The catalyst for the gender test was the phenomenal time Caster ran in the African junior championships and the physical changes the South African had experienced. It is without any surprise that certain elements of the media felt that this item of news was so significant that it should warrant a headline on the front page, and be covered in further detail inside. On a refreshing note, a more balanced reporting style was taken by the Evening Standard (20 August), which covered this as a small article deep inside its sport section. There are two key issues here; the first, when, if at all has the IAAF considered the emotional well-being of Caster? Surely the tests should have been conducted and the results obtained before making
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an announcement? What of the ethical issues of publicly making a statement that Semenya may have both male and female chromosomes? The psychological impact of waiting for these results on anybody would be intense, let alone in the glare of the world’s media. The IAAF offered little consolation by the way of stating that ‘their main priority is to see the athlete treated with the respect and sensitivity she deserves and uphold the standards of the sport’. There appears to be an amazing lack of insight into the emotional well-being of Caster. This is not a doping investigation but a question that some in the sport have that examines who Caster is. Her self-identity is being publicly challenged. If the IAAF wanted to treat her with
dignity they claim, they would have been well advised to ask for advice from any psychologist about the emotional distress the situation would present. The only mention of health professionals is with regard to the three doctors who will be examining her internally and externally. The second key issue is discrimination. Is Caster being discriminated against as a woman, on the basis that a woman’s body does not have the physical capacity to allow her to run such exceptional times? The ethical, discriminatory and psychological implications are very real and I am intrigued to see what fellow members of our profession think. Phil Woods University of East London
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Support wanted for proposed Community Psychology Section Community psychologists are found throughout Europe, North America, Central America, South America and Australasia, and community psychology is formally recognised by many national psychology professional organisations, including the American Psychological Association, the Australian Psychological Society and the New Zealand Psychological Society. In Europe the European Community Psychology Association is formally recognised by the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations. Until now community
psychology has not been formally recognised in the UK, and the purpose of this letter is to seek support from BPS members for the establishment of a Community Psychology Section. Community psychologists: are concerned with the consequences for individuals, groups and communities of our social, organisational, cultural, sociostructural and politico-discursive arrangements; try to understand the interconnections between those
obituary
David McCarrell Campbell (1943–2009) David Campbell, an inspiring clinical psychologist and one of the most respected and influential family therapists in the UK, has died, aged 65, of cancer. David was esteemed as a clinician of particular warmth and humanity, and as an exceptionally gifted trainer and supervisor. While he became best know for his writing and editing in the family therapy field, he remained strongly identified with the clinical psychology profession and taught a succession of clinical psychology trainees at the Tavistock in his 36 years working there. Born in Chicago, the younger of two brothers, David came to Britain after qualifying as a clinical psychologist in Boston in the early 1970s. Initially trained in child psychotherapy, he quickly became aware of the need to address the contexts and relationships within which children live when they present with psychological difficulties. With colleagues he began to develop the family therapy service and trainings offered at the Tavistock Clinic in London, and, with his colleague Ros Draper, became the main proponent in the UK of what became known as the ‘Milan approach’. Wearing lightly his great knowledge and breadth of experience, he brought a distinctive kind of grace and wisdom to all his activities. As a systemic thinker, he believed passionately in the generative potential of constructing ideas with others and he came to represent, personally and professionally, a commitment to helping people to see the ways in which they were connected to each other across apparent difference. Always calmly thoughtful and quietly spoken, he had a genuine and tenacious curiosity about, and respect for, other people’s perspectives, and this underpinned his striking modesty about his achievements and influence. He constantly questioned and revised his own ideas, bringing new influences to bear. His latest work drew on ‘positioning theory’, developed by Rom Harré, as a way of exploring conflict in both consultancy and clinical settings. He was a workaholic, but also a devoted family man. He loved travel, especially to Scandinavian countries where the style of life and humour suited him, and water sports, which he pursued at his family house on a lake in northern Michigan. Throughout the 20 months with which David lived and struggled with his cancer, he demonstrated an impressive openness to talking and writing about his illness. This was the last way in which he was able to touch, unforgettably, the lives of the very many people to whom he is irreplaceable. Bernadette Wren Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
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arrangements and how people understand themselves and their social world; and use that understanding to promote wellbeing, health and social justice through non-individual intervention. Some UK psychologists work like this without recognising their work as encompassing community psychology approaches, and others may wish to extend their knowledge and skills to work in this way. A proposal to form a Community Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society has been made to the Society. The requisite number of Fellows, Associate Fellows and Chartered Psychologists has written in support of the proposal, and the proposal has been approved by the Board of Trustees. For a Community Psychology Section of the Society to be established, it is a requirement that 1 per cent of the Society’s membership express a desire to become a Member of the proposed Section. If this happens, the proposal to form the Section will be put to a vote at a General Meeting of the Society. The aims of a BPS community psychology section would include: I promoting the study and understanding of community psychology at public, undergraduate and postgraduate levels; I raising awareness of issues, including government policies and global developments, affecting the psychological health, education, and development of UK society; I fostering exchange of ideas through educational events such as workshops, conferences, symposia and training; I communicating the impact of inequalities on psychosocial functioning and challenging the dominance of individually focused models of psychosocial adjustment and intervention; and I facilitating community engagement, lobbying, advocacy and policy engagement. Please contact the Society (e-mail: CommPsych@bps.org.uk) expressing an interest in becoming a Member of the proposed Community Psychology Section. David Fryer University of Stirling
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Am I OK? I was pleased to see the note about the ‘Am I Normal?’ website briefly described in your August issue (p.660). In the light of this I would like to introduce you to our www.am-i-ok.co.uk site. The site has been up and running since March 2007 and has been drawing up to 16,000 hits per month. It took several years to be developed and has been vetted by solicitors, and the prototype content by the NHS Litigation Authority. It is a signpost site that provides young people with a description of psychological risk resulting from critical
incidents in their lives, plus a checklist of early warning signs. It effectively gives them tools and guidance to self-refer, directing them to their GPs and to our service. Apart from the above core functions of the site, it also contains ‘Others’ stories’, a list of useful websites, a list of whom else the person can talk to and how to contact their GP (in the UK). It also has an e-mail feedback option to help us to keep the design and the process within the thinking of the age group. Keith Butler Buckinghamshire Early Intervention Service
Take your PIC Having read Benjamin Gardner’s article (‘Incentivised snowballing’, September 2009) it was interesting to see that in line with general population trends, psychology appears to becoming gradually more technologically proficient. Acutely, this could be attributed to the continued dissemination of technology into our everyday lives. Chronically, such trends may continue due to cohort effects. It is my view that such effects, alongside the continued assimilation of information and communications technologies (ICT) into our everyday lives, should encourage reflections about how ICT can be integrated into different stages of the research process. This reflection was something reinforced to me by during my doctoral research. This research sought to encourage vulnerable adolescents to record a series of vlogs (a form of video dairies) in their own homes. Understandably, ethical and safeguarding issues were a clear priority for all stakeholders, with each adding their own requirements in terms of what information needed to be communicated to this vulnerable population. Following a pilot meeting with a group demographically similar to that of the target population, it became clear that despite my best efforts to synthesise this into accessible information, the young people were not able to fully understand
what they would be needed to do. For this reason Participant Information Clips (PIC) were created. These short movie clips (for examples, see www.simonhammond.co.uk/contact.php) were shown to participants, outlining the wide variety of information deemed vital in an accessible way. Conversing with the participants in this manner provided inherent flexibility and a non-authoritarian medium of information delivery. Of course the effectiveness of PIC does need to be explored. However, beyond this process, future applications could see PIC being used to supplement or replace standardised instructions and debriefing in some internet-mediated research or face-to-face environments as appropriate. Alternatively, as in my own research, PIC could be used to communicate information to young people in an accessible and participant friendly manner. The use of PIC could not only improve participant experience but also promote the dissemination of the aims and implications of the studies to participants in an accessible and informative manner. Simon P. Hammond University of East Anglia
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COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD I I have the following sets of journals that I would be happy to give away to anyone prepared to come and collect them. Journal of Occupational Psychology/Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (1985 to June 2007, Vol. 58 No. 1 – Vol. 80 Part 2); Personnel Psychology (1995 to Winter 2007, Vol. 48 No. 1 – Vol. 60 No. 4); Journal of Applied Psychology (1987 to November 2007, Vol. 72 No. 1 – Vol. 92 No. 6); Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1986 to January 2007, Vol. 50 No. 1 – Vol. 92 No. 1). They are all in good condition, although some articles have been highlighted. They can be collected from Central London or West Hampstead. Charles Woodruffe charles.woodruffe@humanassets.co.uk, 020 7434 2122 I Have you considered the possibility of giving a little of your time to help beleaguered Palestinians? We are a small Palestinian NGO which runs programmes for families and children with psychological and psychiatric problems. Almost all Palestinian therapists have had no training in CBT. Consequently we wish to set up a workshop to provide good CBT training for our therapists and to others working in this district. We are based in Bethlehem in the West Bank, some eight miles from Jerusalem, and can offer you travel expenses and accommodation. If you have experience in CBT training can you offer a week of your time? John Gleisner gleisner@paradise.net.nz I We are a group of psychological therapists with a shared interest in how psychodynamic approaches may contribute to the treatment of psychosis and who are planning a research study in the UK looking at the effects of supportive psychodynamic therapy (SPT) developed in Denmark as part of the Danish National Schizophrenia Project. To this end we are looking for additional therapists who may be interested to contribute to this study. You have to have had a minimum of two years of supervised experience of psychodynamic practice and access to clients with psychosis. Supervision will be provided. Further information is available from Alison.summers@lancashirecare.nhs.uk. Rowena Mattan Airedale General Hospital
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Recovery Research Network There is an opportunity to join a network of recovery-focused mental health researchers in England. The NHS National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has funded a five-year (2009 to 2014) programme of research around recovery in adult mental health service, called REFOCUS. This provides an infrastructure to create a new informal network to support recovery-focused research relevant to mental health services. The agreed aims of the network are: To create new robust research around recovery. This will involve conceptual and empirical work, importing critical tools from other disciplines (e.g. anthropological, historical, philosophical, sociological) and perspectives. Preliminary topics include conceptual understandings of recovery, methodological approaches, empirical studies, and approaches to changing organisation culture and professional practice. Specific tasks may include collaborations to produce new
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grant applications, holding events with international speakers, providing a meeting-point for researchers from different scientific areas (e.g. health services, research, well-being, social inclusion, identity) to develop collaborative links, or cosupervising PhD students. A particular, but not exclusive, focus will be on developing evidence through randomised control trials and systematic reviews about key recovery domains (e.g. hope, empowerment, identity, personal, responsibility, meaning, etc.), with the goal of informing clinical guidelines and changing the policy and practice culture. To increase access to existing research around recovery. This may involve the development of a web-based resource of academic studies and internet resources, holding conferences or workshops to
disseminate findings, or creating accessible syntheses of research. At present the network has 64 members, and it first met in April 2009. The level of involvement will be entirely up to each member, with no ongoing commitment. We recognise the central significance of values to a recovery orientation and will aim to develop the activity of this research network on those same values. If you are interested in joining then please contact Kelly Davies by e-mail at: Kelly.davies@iop.kcl.ac.uk. Ed O’Meara Institute of Psychiatry King’s College London
Prices frozen for 2010 New online options Largest ever circulation Effective and easy
The British Psychological Society 2010 MEDIA PACK
Available to download now from www.bps.org.uk/media10
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Media responsibility to get it right Although rape appears to occur relatively infrequently compared with other violent crimes, accounting for less than 1 per cent of all police recorded crime, offences towards women during 2008/09 still stood at a staggering 12,165 (Walker et al., 2009). Furthermore, in a review of the investigation and prosecution of 573 rape offences, the victim knew the perpetrator in 85.7 per cent of the cases (HMCPS & HMIC, 2007). In view of these statistics, I conducted a study for my MSc to identify factors specific to males that may increase their likelihood of committing acquaintance rape. The study found that individual differences played a large part in whether men engaged in sexually aggressive behaviour. Factors specific to women, such as their dress,
alcohol intake, and sexual history, however, had little to no effect on whether male participants engaged in sexually coercive behaviour. Rather, men’s personality and their own sexual history were the strongest predictors of sexual aggression. These are important findings, particularly given that a survey conducted by Amnesty International found that about a third of all people surveyed believed a woman was to blame for being raped if she was drunk, was dressed provocatively, was flirtatious or had an extensive sexual history (AIUK, 2005). The present study redresses the balance of responsibility and indicates that women should not be blamed for being raped. However, the findings my MSc study were erroneously reported by the Daily
Telegraph (see Media page, September 2009). The report clearly placed the blame with women and fuelled the general belief that women are indeed responsible for being raped. The effect of this socalled ‘information’ could be devastating, causing even more people to believe that a victim is to blame if s/he is raped. Moreover, victims may be less willing to report rape. They might blame themselves for the attack or think that nobody will believe them. It is essential that reporters take into consideration the effects that their articles might have on public opinion. Additionally, given the media’s power to influence the public, the media should strive to accurately portray research results.
Editor’s note: You can read a full, ‘online-only’ article on this topic from Sophia Shaw and colleagues with this month’s issue at www.thepsychologist.org.uk. References AIUK (2005). Sexual assault research summary report. Retrieved (27/07/09) from tinyurl.com/kl7way HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPS) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) (2007). Without consent: A report on the joint review of the investigation and prosecution of rape offences. Retrieved (27/07/09) from tinyurl.com/nbpngl Walker, A., Flatley, J., Kershaw, C. & Moon, D. (2009). Crime in England and Wales 2008/09. Volume 1: Findings from the British Crime Survey and police recorded crime. London: Home Office.
Sophia Shaw University of Leicester
HPC – any business case? I recently wrote to the Health Professionals Council (HPC), having been asked for membership payment. My simple question was ‘What can the HPC do for business psychologists and why does it need £120 from me over the next 18 months?’. The answer from the HPC Customer Services Manager was as follows: We are a UK-wide health regulator, created by a piece of legislation called the ‘Health Professions Order’. We are a statutory organisation, run by a Council that is made up of registered health professionals and members of the public. We were set up to protect the public and we do this by: I Setting standards for 14 health professions; I Approving courses which run here in the United Kingdom (UK); I Keeping an approved Register of health professionals who meet our standards; and I Taking action against registered health professionals who do not meet our standards It is our job to make sure that
whenever a member of the public is treated by a health professional, anywhere in the UK, they can be sure that the health professional meets our standards and that we can take action if things go wrong. Being registered with us means that registrants can use a ‘protected title’. Each profession has one or more protected titles which can only be used by people on our Register. Should you be required to use the protected title of Occupational Psychologist in the future you would need to be registered with the HPC. The terms Business Psychologist and Chartered Psychologist are not protected titles and you do not need to be registered to use them.
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I This response fails to answer either part of my original question. To give you some idea of my professional practice, here are some upcoming entries in my diary. I
Working with a group of ownermanagers in Morocco on issues to do with leadership, partnership and
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ownership, helping them to shape their strategic and cultural imperatives and to surface some of the personal agendas that need to be explored more openly. Supporting a leadership programme in Rome (as an associate), providing individual and group feedback on observed behaviours, linking them to business goals and existing planning activities, and helping individuals to develop personal development plans for the forthcoming year. Running an ‘Executive Circle’ for nine European leaders from a multinational IT company, the third in a series of four meetings to explore leadership in action, networking and remote management. A one-to-one coaching session in London with the Marketing Director of a FTSE100 company.
I would be interested to hear anyone’s view on what the HPC can do for me and why it is worth £120 to join (even though I note I am already registered!). Hugo Pound Managing Director, r.d.i direct ltd
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What becomes of the broken-hearted? The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has called for better funding of rehabilitation for heart attack survivors following publication of research in the British Journal of Health Psychology (BJHP) that documented rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in patients recovering from a heart attack (http://bit.ly/YSUtR). Dr Susan Ayers at the University of Sussex and her colleagues surveyed 74 patients who’d had a heart attack in the previous 12 weeks and found that 16 per cent of them met formal diagnostic criteria for acute PTSD, whilst 18 per cent reported moderate to severe PTSD-related symptoms. Patients who believed that their heart attack would have a permanent, negative effect on their lives and who resorted to ineffective coping strategies based on avoidance, tended to have more PTSD symptoms. Other factors, less strongly associated with PTSD symptomatology, included the perceived severity and danger of the heart attack and a prior history of psychological problems or trauma. The research was cross-sectional, so it’s possible, for example, that PTSD symptom severity influences coping styles and perceptions about the long-term consequences of the heart attack, rather than the other way around. In the UK the normal channel for
receiving psychological care after a heart attack is via so-called cardiac rehabilitation. Government targets outlined in 2000 were for 85 per cent of patients to be referred to rehab programmes. However, in
August the British Heart Foundation released the results of an audit showing that just 34 per cent of 83,540 heart attack sufferers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had taken part in a cardiac rehabilitation programme.
Moreover, just 9 per cent of these programmes met the minimal requirements for psychological support. Dr Mike Knapton, Associate Medical Director at the BHF, said: ‘Recovery from a heart attack isn’t over when a patient leaves hospital, and heart patients should be receiving the ongoing support they need. Referral to cardiac rehabilitation should be a routine part of treating heart patients, and until this happens they will continue to miss out.’ ‘This [BJHP] study adds to the substantial evidence that psychological factors are important in recovery and mortality following myocardial infarctions,’ Dr Ayers told The Psychologist. ‘Our study is one of a few that suggest anxiety symptoms may be as prevalent among heart attack survivors as symptoms of depression. The impact of these symptoms on recovery therefore warrants further investigation. Screening programmes should consider screening for anxiety symptoms, such as PTSD, as well as depression, after myocardial infarction.’ Ayers added: ‘Rehabilitation programmes that include some aspect of psychological intervention appear to be effective at reducing anxiety and depression, and possibly non-fatal reinfarctions – but not mortality.’ CJ
Facebook and jealousy There’s an awful lot written about the potential psychological dangers of websites like Twitter and Facebook, most of it based on conjecture rather than research. But now an actual study has been published providing tentative evidence that time spent on Facebook is associated with increased romantic jealousy (Cyberpsychology and Behaviour: http://bit.ly/4ovLcE). Amy Muise and colleagues at the University of Guelph in Canada surveyed 308
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undergraduates (231 female; aged 17 to 24) and found that even after controlling for pertinent personality variables such as trait jealousy and low self-esteem, and relationship variables such as commitment, time spent on Facebook still independently accounted for 2 per cent of the variance in the amount of Facebookrelated jealousy. ‘This finding is notable considering the predictive power of trait jealousy,’ the researchers said. The researchers surmised that the more time students spent
on the site, the more jealousy they experienced, thus triggering another bout of Facebook time. Open-ended questioning of the students appeared to back up the quantitative data. ‘I was already a bit jealous and insecure, but I think that Facebook has definitely made me much much worse,’ one student said. Muise’s team said it would be interesting to investigate whether similar findings would apply with an older sample outside of a university
context. ‘One thing is sure,’ they said ‘Facebook provides a superb forum for the study of relational jealousy, and our study only serves as a starting point.’ CJ
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Working memory predicts learning outcomes
Online CBT Despite having the weight of science and government behind it, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) remains difficult for many to access. Information technology has the potential to ease this problem, as CBT does not need to be delivered face-to-face and is adaptable to self-help materials. Computerised CBT programmes, although effective, can be difficult to tailor to individual patient needs, and are associated with low rates of adherence. Another option is to conduct CBT in real time online – a method that a new randomised control trial published in The Lancet (see tinyurl.com/mzh3da) has shown to be effective. David Kessler (University of Bristol) and his team recruited 297 individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of depression from general practices in Bristol, London and Warwickshire. They found that 38 per cent of people assigned to an online intervention condition recovered from depression at four-month follow-up, compared with 24 per cent of those on the waiting list receiving usual GP care. These gains were maintained at eight months, and quality of life and measures of functional health status showed improvement at both follow-up points. ‘The number of patients for whom online CBT is feasible and attractive will grow,’ the authors wrote. ‘It could be useful in areas where access to psychological treatment is scarce, and for patients whose first language is not English. It could make access to psychotherapies more equitable by providing a service to patients in areas or even countries where psychological treatment is not readily available. Real-time online CBT offers the flexibility and responsiveness of face-to-face CBT and is appropriate for people with severe symptoms. It affords an opportunity for reflection and review as part of the therapeutic process, which could enhance its effectiveness.’ Participants in the treatment condition received up to 10 sessions of CBT, delivered by psychologists working for the organisation PsychologyOnline. The company was set up in 2001 by British Psychological Society members Sue Wright and Nadine Field. They welcomed the findings, telling The Psychologist: ‘We have persevered with PsychologyOnline because we believed that the method was effective, although we knew that the research was needed to prove this as it was so radical. We are hoping that, because we have seen it help so many people so far, it can be recognised by NICE in order to be implemented more widely within the NHS.’ JS
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Working memory is a better predictor of children’s later academic success than IQ, according to a paper that’s currently under review at the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. In 2001 Tracy Alloway, now at the University of Stirling, and Ross Alloway at Edinburgh University measured the working memory and IQ of 200 children aged approximately five years. Verbal working memory was measured using the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), which involves verifying the truthfulness of between one and seven sentences (e.g. ‘bananas live in water’), whilst also remembering the last word in each of the sentences. Six years later, the researchers again measured the children’s working memory ability and IQ and also observed their reading, spelling and maths performance. Of all the measures taken, verbal working memory at age five was the strongest predictor of learning outcomes at age 11, accounting for between 10 and 20 per cent of variation in performance. The new results are consistent with recent research by Alloway involving students with learning difficulties who were tested at two-years follow-up; children with dyspraxia; and children with reading difficulties. Alloway told us she believes testing working memory has this predictive power because it measures people’s potential to learn, not what they have already learned. ‘If a student struggles on a working memory task, it is not because they don’t know the answer, it is because their
working memory “space” is not big enough to hold all the information in,’ she explained. ‘On a related note,’ she said, ‘there is evidence to suggest that working memory may be a culture-fair measure of cognitive ability. For example, it’s relatively impervious to environmental influence such as the quality of social and intellectual stimulation in the home, the number of years spent in preschool education and financial background.’ Indeed, the new results showed that whereas IQ was associated with social background (as measured by a mother’s years in education), working memory was independent of this factor. Alloway told The Psychologist that her findings have clear implications for education. ‘At present, working memory problems tend to be misdiagnosed, with teachers labelling students as “unmotivated” or “lazy”,’ she said. ‘However, with the availability of standardised tools for educators – for example, the AWMA – it is now much easier for teachers to quickly identify working memory problems.’ She added: ‘There has also been exciting evidence of the efficacy of training working memory to see transfer gains in IQ and academic attainment. This offers real hope to students who might otherwise have been dismissed as “not bright”.’ CJ
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RESEARCH FUNDING NEWS The ESRC has now launched its new Postgraduate Training and Development Guidelines. Part of the new Postgraduate Training Framework is the creation of Doctoral Training Centres (DTC) and Doctoral Training Units (DTU) that will provide all future postgraduate training for subjects within the ESRCs remit, including psychology. The application process for institutions to apply to be a DTC or a DTU is now open. The closing date for applications is 11 March 2010. I tinyurl.com/rc74v7 The National Institutes of Health (US) have a call out for research into the Role of Human–Animal Interaction in Child Health and Development (R01). This seeks to develop the research base on how children perceive, relate to and think about animals; how pets in the home impact on children’s social and emotional development and health; and whether and under what conditions therapeutic uses of animals are safe and effective. UK researchers are eligible to apply. The deadline for Letters of Intent is 19 October 2009 and for full applications, 19 November 2009. I tinyurl.com/mb9vr3 Grants are available to support Starting Independent Researchers from the European Research Council. The grant scheme aims to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish or consolidate a research team. Grants are available for life science research (application deadline 18 November 2009) and social science and humanities (application deadline 9 December 2009). I tinyurl.com/5yuh5b The British Academy has a variety of funding opportunities: Overseas Conference Grants. Up to £900 towards travel expenses for scholars delivering a paper at an international conference. Deadline for submissions 16 November 2009. International Visits and Joint Projects. Funding to either visit or undertake joint projects in many European, Commonwealth or other nations. Deadline 18 November 2009. Small Research Grants. Funding of between £500 and £7500 for individual or collaborative projects. Deadline 23 November 2009. Postdoctoral Fellowships. Fellowships to allow outstanding early career researchers to strengthen their experience of research and teaching in a university environment. Deadline 26 November 2009. Visiting Scholars Grants. Grants to allow early-career scholars from overseas to undertake research visits to the UK. Deadline for submissions 3 December 2009. Conference Support Grants. Grants to support key speaker expenses and other conference related expenses. Deadline 1 December 2009. I For further details of all the schemes see the British Academy website www.britac.ac.uk/funding/index.cfm
info
The Parkinson’s Disease Society provides Training Fellowships for health and social care professionals to undertake research training relevant to Parkinson’s disease. Applicants should be aiming to gain a high degree like a PhD or MPhil and must be linked with a research unit or department with a proven track record in Parkinson’s research. The closing date for applications is 4 December 2009. For further details see the website. I tinyurl.com/lhqhh5
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For more, see www.bps.org.uk/funds Funding bodies should e-mail news to Elizabeth Beech on elibee@bps.org.uk for possible inclusion
Blots to consider Fall-out from the online publication of the Rorschach ink-blots on Wikipedia has continued late into the summer. Recent reports claim the Canadian doctor, James Heilman, who posted the Rorschach images online, is to be investigated by his local authorities, after formal complaints by psychologists. The saga first drew media attention when Heilman posted all 10 inkblots on Wikipedia in July, together with common responses to them. His controversial posting followed months of online debate over whether or not a single Rorschach inkblot should be published. The Rorschach continues to command a far larger following among psychologists in the United States than in the UK, and advocates there were outraged, with many complaining that the publication of the inkblots and common answers would render the test useless, thus undermining years of research building up normative data on people’s responses to the images. However, research-oriented psychologists were largely unmoved. Professor James Wood of the University of Texas at El Paso is co-author of an authoritative meta-analysis of projective tests (http://bit.ly/g8BGH), including the Rorschach, published in 2000, and continues to publish widely on the topic. He told The Psychologist: ‘It’s hard to see how the exposure of this generally useless test on the web is likely to cause much harm to anyone.’ The current situation has arisen because the original Rorschach inkblots are nearly 90 years old and no longer protected by copyright. ‘The obvious solution,’ Wood said, ‘would be to update the test and create a new set of copyrightprotected stimuli, as happens routinely with other major psychological instruments. However, devoted Rorschach users have long resisted this solution.’ Modern scoring of the inkblots accords to John Exner’s ‘Comprehensive System’ developed in the 1970s. An updated review of the scientific evidence supporting use of this system was published by Wood and colleagues in 2006, showing that whilst the Rorschach displays validity for 20 scoring categories, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a further 160 scoring categories lack validity (http://bit.ly/2g6ZPQ). ‘Perhaps most importantly,’ Wood told us, ‘findings from more than 70 studies have now confirmed that the child and adult norms for Exner’s Comprehensive System for the Rorschach are seriously in error and tend to mistakenly identify most individuals as psychologically disturbed.’ However, the President of the British Rorschach Society, Dr Justine McCarthy Woods, said: ‘I would question whether it is appropriate for lay editors without any expertise in psychology to decide unilaterally the validity or utility of a professional instrument,’ she said. ‘It could set a precedent for information from other psychological tests being posted on Wikipedia.’ She challenged Professor Wood’s claim that the test was useless: ‘The overwhelming consensus of scientists and practitioners is that the Rorschach is an important tool in the psychological assessment armamentarium, and that it possesses validity comparable to other…psychological tests and even to many commonly used medical instruments [see http://bit.ly/6FnRt].’ Dr McCarthy Woods also disagreed with Wood’s assertion that the Rorschach mistakenly identifies most individuals as psychologically disturbed. ‘This has been previously refuted in The Psychologist, in March 2008, and new norms have been developed [see http://bit.ly/M08uE],’ she said. ‘In fact, the Rorschach is a psychological tool which serves a vital function in mitigating human suffering and helping people identify the sources of their mental confusion and emotional pain.’ CJ
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Opposition to state regulation The Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy – an organisation established earlier this year to oppose the planned statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy – claims that over 2000 psychotherapists and counsellors have now signed their petition opposing state
regulation. Counselling and psychotherapy are due to be regulated by the Health Professions Council (HPC), the same body that recently assumed the statutory regulation of psychologists. The news comes as a letter with over 30 signatories was published in the July issue of
Climate change The American Psychological Association has published an authoritative task force report on climate change: Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges. Task force chair, Janet Swim of Pennsylvania State University, said: ‘What is unique about current global climate change is the role of human behaviour. We must look at the reasons people are not acting in order to understand how to get people to act.’ The report is partly a summary of the existing psychological research into human behaviour and climate change and partly a call to arms, including the provision of advice on how psychologists can make their input more influential. ‘Psychologists can be dramatically more effective if they connect psychological work to concepts developed in the broader climate research community and collaborate with scientists from other fields,’ the report says. ‘Although psychologists have been doing work on climate change and related subjects for decades... the relevance of psychological contributions is not yet established or widely accepted.’ Among the specific recommendations made to psychologists working in this field, the report suggests using the language of the wider climate research community. For example, whereas psychologists typically report their findings in terms of statistical significance or effect size, the report says that what matters for the climate change field is the strength of effects or causes in environmental terms. ‘For example,’ it advises, ‘a good indicator of the importance of psychological variables for understanding human contributions to climate change is the amount of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions they can explain.’ CJ
Therapy Today, the monthly publication of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), seeking clarification from the organisation that it will continue to support members who opt not to join the HPC. ‘[W]e are not against regulation per se but are opposed to the model imposed by the Government’ the correspondents said. ‘We do not believe HPC regulation will add anything of significant value to the work of therapists nor to the experience of clients, certainly nothing sufficient to outweigh the damage it is likely to inflict, damage already being done in three closely related government initiatives in the psy-domain: NICE guidelines, the IAPT scheme and Skills for Health’s “competences in development” for the psychological therapies.’ ‘To be clear,’ the letter continues, ‘some of us are considering refusing to register with HPC – a conscientious objection of sorts – supported in our stance by principle, evidence and reasoned argument.’ BACP Chair, Dr Lynne Gabriel of York St John University, told The Psychologist that her
organisation wants the best possible model for regulation, but that the model proposed via the Professional Liaison Group acting on behalf of the HPC ‘is not right for us or for the profession’ – a view she has shared in a letter to BACP members. Gabriel said: ‘The proposed Standards of Proficiency present unexamined differentiation between counsellors and psychotherapists – differentiation that enhances myths and assumptions that abound in relation to the statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy. One unhelpful impact of the differentiation is that it is likely to confuse the public and current or future clients/patients, as well as employers of counsellors and psychotherapists.’ She added: ‘In support of our circa 32,300 practitioner members, as well as our circa 1150 organisational members, we see it as crucial that we offer evidence and reasoned argument in response to the HPC consultation and aim to dispel the many unexamined myths that undermine individuals’ capacity to make informed choices about statutory regulation.’ CJ
A-LEVEL RESULTS Psychology overtook General Studies this year to become the fourth most popular A-level subject in the UK, taken by 52,872 students, up from 52,706 in 2008. Only English, Maths and Biology were taken by more students – 91,815, 72,475 and 55,485, respectively. Unlike many other subjects, there was actually a small reduction in the proportion of Psychology A-level students obtaining an A grade: 19.2 per cent this year compared with 19.3 per cent last year. However, in line with most other subjects, there was an increase in the number of psychology students who achieved a C grade or above: 68.8 per cent this year compared with 67.7 per cent in 2008. Among the other science and maths subjects, Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths all showed increases in student numbers. CJ I The full results are at www.jcq.org.uk
I www.apa.org/releases/climate-change.pdf
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The next big questions in psychology Christian Jarrett and Jon Sutton report on a recent special issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science
he same American journal that earlier this year asked psychologists how their discipline could be improved (see www.bps.org.uk/persp) – Perspectives on Psychological Science – has since published another round of brainstorming contributions, this time on ‘The next big questions in psychology’. With a few nips and tucks, we’ve summarised the majority of the contributions into four themes: how we can improve ourselves; why people vary; social interaction; and approaches to psychology. See what you think, then send your ideas to psychologist@bps.org.uk
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Improving humankind Perhaps the boldest of the contributions was offered by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues at Emory University in relation to reducing cognitive biases. Their argument is that extremism is fuelled by mental flaws, such as the ‘confirmation bias’, in which we disproportionately attend to information that supports our current view. ‘At the risk of sounding hopelessly idealistic,’ they write, ‘one might... be so bold to suggest that if researchers found debiasing to be efficacious and implemented it on a grand scale, it could prove to be psychology’s most important contribution to reducing ideological extremism and both inter- and intragroup conflict.’ On a near identical note, Katherine Milkman at the University of Pennsylvania and her colleagues argue that after years of successful research exposing the flaws in our thinking, much of it by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, the time has come to focus on how decision making can be improved. The modest amount of prior research on this topic has formed two types, they say: interventions, such as taking an outsider’s perspective and considering the opposite view, which are designed to switch a person from an automatic, impulsive way of thinking to a more conscious, considered style of thought; and
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environmental changes, as espoused by books like Nudge, which create a ‘choice architecture’ whereby people’s inherent decision-making biases lead to desired outcomes (for example, making organ donor schemes opt-out rather than opt-in). Also on the topic of judgement and decision making, Martin Seligman and Michael Kahana at the University of Pennsylvania say there is promise in the idea of using virtual simulations to teach expert intuition that would normally emerge only from years of experience. Daniel Bernstein and Elizabeth Loftus propose that the next big question in their field is how to tell whether a memory is true or false. Prior research has revealed neural correlates of true and false memories, but has tended to involve pallid material (rather than juicy real-life memories) and has depended on averaging over hundreds of trials. There’s been modest success with identifying false memories in the form of deliberate lies,
they explain, but less with untruths told by a ‘liar’ who believes what they’re uttering. A final approach has been to look at ways that true and false statements differ in content, with the former tending to contain more sensory detail. Crucially, none of these methods are reliable enough to be used without independent corroboration. Being reconstructed and pieced together, ‘in essence, all memory is false to some degree,’ Bernstein and Loftus write. ‘Our job as memory researchers and as human beings is to determine the portion of memory that reflects reality and the portion that reflects interference and bias.’ Meanwhile, Timothy Wilson at the University of Virginia says he hopes psychology will finally get over its ‘Freudophobia’ and start getting to grips with self-knowledge. To date, efforts in this field are disjointed and there are big gaps, he argues. ‘I am unaware of any research on how well people can predict how their personalities will change as they age,’ Wilson gives as one example. Research that helps people understand themselves better would be beneficial, he says, given that people with larger discrepancies in their implicit and explicit self-concepts tend to be more anxious and less happy. This theme of improving the way we live is encapsulated by Nansook Park and Christopher Peterson at the University of Michigan in their clarion call for more positive psychology. Besides studying distress and pathology, ‘[w]e still need to know much more about the rest of the
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human condition and those parts that make life most worth living,’ they write. ‘The good life is not the troubled life avoided or undone,’ they argue, adding that in uncovering what it means to live well, psychology needs more longitudinal studies, more collaboration between specialisms and more focus on behaviours rather than processes.
Why people vary Untangling the relative contribution of nature and nurture to human development has occupied the careers of countless psychologists. Based on several of the contributions to the special issue, it’s a project that remains as pertinent and daunting as ever. Jay Belsky and Michael Pluess at Birkbeck University of London highlight the fascinating issue of individual differences in children’s sensitivity to their environment. Normally this is discussed in terms of some children being more vulnerable than others to adverse circumstances, but Belsky and Pluess review a range of behavioural and genetic research showing that the same children who are affected by negative circumstances also tend to thrive in quality conditions. In other words, children vary in their responsiveness to the environment, be it positive or negative. What’s more, other research shows that this tendency is influenced by conditions in the womb, which, in turn, are affected by maternal experiences, including stress. In one final twist, whether or not a fetus responds to these influences in utero, potentially becoming more sensitive to the environment in early childhood, could depend on their genetic make-up, thus bringing the role of nature back into play. On a related note, Kenneth Dodge says one of the most important questions facing psychology is to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the way that the MAOA gene interacts with exposure to maltreatment in childhood, thus leading to increased risk for the development of conduct disorder. Dodge highlights possible mechanisms in the brain, in social cognition and autonomic arousal, leading him to predict that ‘the greatest possible contributions to science in the coming decade will be made by scientific teams that are able to combine multiple disciplinary perspectives and methods to understand how psychopathology develops.’ This view was echoed by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser in her contribution about psychoneuroimmunology. We already know that stress and depression affect
health – just consider the finding that wounds take longer to heal when people are stressed – but there are many unanswered questions about how stress and psychopathology interact with environmental factors like diet and pollution to affect our immune systems and ageing processes, Kiecolt-Glaser says. ‘We need to put greater emphasis on cross-discipline training for our students,’ she argues, ‘underscoring the importance of getting a strong foundation in basic biological science.’ Gregory Smith at the University of Kentucky provided a clinical psychologist’s perspective on this theme of how nature and nurture interact to influence a person. ‘One fundamental task for clinical psychological science,’ he says, ‘is understanding why different individuals progress along different life trajectories.’ Smith adds that progress in genetics has opened up exciting new possibilities but that psychology needs to catch up by providing ‘sound theories and precise measures of coherent, homogenous, elemental psychological constructs.’ In particular, Smith says there is a need to abandon psychiatric diagnostic categories as the basis for clinical science research because, he argues, many of them ‘consist of sets of moderately or weakly related symptoms that often appear to have different aetiologies from each other.’
Social interaction Others believe psychology should turn the spotlight outwards, to our interactions with others. Sheldon Cohen and Denise Janicki-Deverts at Carnegie Mellon University point out that ‘we have known about the importance of social integration (engaging in diverse types of relationships) for health and longevity for 30 years. Yet, we still do not know why having a more diverse social network would have a positive influence on our health, and we have yet to design effective interventions that influence key components of the network and in turn physical health.’ The authors say that the size, consistency and range of reported relationships lead us to talk about them as if they were causal. ‘However, the truth is, we do not know this,’ they write. There are surprisingly few experimental studies testing the possibility that network interventions – increasing the diversity and extent of our social networks, or decreasing conflict and loneliness – would be beneficial to our health. Those that do exist seldom draw inspiration from the evidence reported in the correlational literature, by using natural social
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networks: instead, they tend to facilitate interactions with strangers facing the same or similar threats (such as cancer patients). The authors say that psychologists should be ‘designing and testing social experiments and developing theory and empirical tests of how our social networks ‘’get under the skin’’ to influence disease and mortality.’ In years to come, such social networks could well include the occasional android friend. A psychologist (Neal J. Roese) and artificial intelligence researcher (Eyal Amir) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign write that ‘in 50 years we suspect androids of substantial sophistication to populate our world and participate in everyday social interactions’. The science of psychology will, they say, face a remarkable new set of challenges in grappling with human–android interaction. How would we cope with not knowing whether we were talking to an android or a real person? The AI needed to grasp the complexity of human emotion is perhaps the highest of all AI hurdles, so perhaps we would resolve this ‘sentience ambiguity’ with an angry attack. The authors warn that ‘culture filled with advanced androids might well be an angry one.’ But don’t rush to the bunkers just yet: Roese and Amir see the ‘threshold of indistinguishability – the moment at which technology can create an android that is indistinguishable from human beings – as more than 100 years away from current technology (maybe much further), with roadblocks centering most pivotally on the material science underlying artificial skin and the computational challenges of computer vision and natural language AI.’
Approaches to psychology It doesn’t really matter what the topic of study is if you go about it the wrong way, and several contributors to the special issue focus on this bigger picture. For example, Lisa Oakes (University of California) looks at the ‘humpty dumpty problem’: after years of studying infant cognitive abilities in isolation, how do we put the developing cognitive system back together again? For example, infants remember the items they have attended to and perceived, and their emotional state will influence their perception and representation of the events they encounter. So how do psychologists develop tasks and experimental designs that will uncover the co-development of these different abilities? Oakes points to studies that alter an infant’s motor experience in order to assess the impact in other areas, and the difficulty of doing this
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in a cognitive sense: ‘We can put ‘’sticky honour, by Nisbett and Cohen. He advises mittens’’ on prereaching infants and we that we should not see research can put prewalking infants in walkers, contributions as ‘flawless monuments that but how do we give infants a we can be proud of boost in remembering, 20 years later. An perceiving, or controlling experiment is just attention? That is, how do we a sampling from an create ‘’cognitive sticky mittens’’?’ enormous set of Another contributor possible suggesting psychology has gone parameters. In too far down a route of isolating retrospect, the variables, ‘methodological great experiments sophistication’ and ‘faultless capture a truth experiments’ is Paul Rozin, from about the world, the University of Pennsylvania. but it is the These accomplishments are a problem selection, critical part of psychology, Rozin not the elegance, argues, and they are well and that primarily appropriately taught by determines the psychologists. ‘However, they are Sticky mittens – can we greatness. We only a part of science and should create similar boosts for should just ask memory not comprise the almost one simple exclusive criteria for evaluating question about any research. In particular, discovery of paper, a grant, or a psychologist: To what fundamental phenomena, such as degree is our enterprise advanced by the functional relations that apply to the real work in question?’ world and have generality, should have a In a similar vein, David Funder higher priority in psychology.’ Rozin gives (University of California, Riverside) the example of research on the culture of proposes a simple research agenda
focusing on important questions that may seem naive or obvious. He believes that we have an ‘extremely uneven empirical map of the behavioral terrain, in which a few areas are represented in exquisite detail (e.g. self description, reaction time, memory recall) and many others are left almost completely blank’. Funder cites Roy Baumeister’s list of behaviours lying within the relatively unexplored territory: ‘helping, hurting, playing, working, taking, eating, risking, waiting, flirting, goofing off, showing off, giving up, screwing up, compromising, selling, persevering, pleading, tricking, outhustling, sandbagging, refusing, and the rest’. To allow the map to be redrawn, Funder says that journal reviewers and granting agencies will need to give higher priority to descriptive – and mostly correlational – research that measures interesting and consequential behaviours across a realistic range of situational variables. ‘Careful methodology and appropriate data analysis remain essential, but perhaps the requirement that every study must test a tightly specified theory can be relaxed for while. Why not give it a shot?’
BPSShop BPS Shop is now open for business. The online BPS Shop is an exciting new development that will make life a lot easier for you. It’s a one-stop shop where you can book your place on Society conferences and BPS Learning Centre courses, and download Society publications.
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Blogging on brain and behaviour The British Psychological Society’s free Research Digest service: blog, email, Twitter and Facebook ‘An amazingly useful and interesting resource’ Ben Goldacre, The Guardian
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MEDIA
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If they come for you in the morning… Kairen Cullen on the benefits and ethics of involvement with the media t is 4.30am and I am in a taxi, Icentral travelling at speed through a deserted London, towards Television
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Centre on the South Bank. I drowsily go over the ideas I have prepared for appearing on GMTV, on a piece about holidays and arguments of all things! How did this happen? In my work as an educational psychologist, whose speciality for a long time was somewhat naively and reductively labelled ‘behaviour’, a key idea upon which I based my practice was encapsulated in Kurt Lewin’s familiar equation, B = f(P, S), i.e. behaviour is a function of the person and their situation. I was never in much doubt that if I was to understand and work with children’s, young people’s and adults’ ‘behaviour’, then it was never going to be possible to contribute to any change without being cognisant of their worlds, in which media played such an important part. This interest led to me taking on the role of press officer for the Division of Educational and Child Psychology and to volunteering to become one of about a thousand chartered psychologists listed on the Society’s media database who are willing to speak to the media. In my view the benefits of involvement with the media are huge. Bringing psychology to society and increasing public understanding of and increasing access to psychology are central aims for the Society. On a personal basis, I find the work intellectually stimulating, topical, varied and meaningful. The media employ many psychology graduates, mainly as researchers at this time, who are generally bright young people using their well-honed research skills to create some interesting questions and
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This is the page of the Society’s Press Committee, which aims to promote and discuss psychology in the media.
perspectives. When asked to contribute an applied psychologist’s perspective, depending on the timescale for the request, I use a variety of methods for responding. I research the question presented, using a blend of ethnographic-style questions and conversations with whomever I can engage at this point, trawling my memory banks of practice materials from past projects and multiple case studies, and I spend some time doing some literature research. Yesterday, when the GMTV researcher rang and asked if I could contribute to their breakfast news item on holidays and arguments complete with Keith Chegwin from a Butlins camp, I was confident I could bring a bit of psychologically informed thinking to the table. I was also confident that I would offer some angles that the programme makers had not thought of, more than likely reflecting some of the human complexities and paradoxes a nonpsychologist would be likely to miss. Many of the points I had discussed with the researcher the day before were there in the programme presenters’ questions and comments. It is very common, in my experience, for editorial control to overlook the need to acknowledge where programme material comes from. It is also common for comments and views to be distorted or not represented accurately. However, I have rarely found it be the case that this arises from
If you would like to comment on a recent newspaper article, TV or radio programme involving psychology, if you have tips for
anything other than just not understanding, or, less kindly, ignorance. It is therefore all the more reason for appropriately qualified and supervised professional psychologists to be involved. I know from discussion with colleagues and from reading recent correspondence in The Psychologist that some disquiet exists in the profession about media practices involving psychology. The Society makes available some excellent advice and training for work with the media (see www.bps.org.uk/media-info). However, there is still a long way to go in ensuring that the big issues of manipulation of participants, exposure of vulnerable participants, representation and inclusion, confidentiality, libel and slander, competency, and professional control and boundaries are addressed in the interface between the media and psychologists’ work. The BPS Ethics Committee and the Media and Press Committee are currently collaborating in a new project in which it is proposed that a media ethics reference group be formed. This would be proactive in giving support and guidance to members and also in ensuring a wider message to the public, including those directly involved in the media of the need for professional psychology bound by a clear code of ethics and conduct. The three of four minutes allocated to holidays and arguments slide away. Andrew, the presenter is making a joke and thanking me for my comments. I can barely recall what I actually said and am fairly sure none of my lot at home asleep in bed will be able to tell me. I know I got some of my favourite points in – the importance of good communication, preparation, dealing with different expectations and wishes, keeping a positive focus, i.e. making the most of having a good time, being together, doing something different and having a change. I could have mentioned the Society’s key principles: respect, competence, responsibility, integrity and competence but perhaps it was preferable to model and live them out.
others based on experiences, or if you know of a forthcoming programme or broadcast, please contact the ‘Media’ page
coordinating editor, Fiona Jones (Chair of the Society’s Press Committee), on f.a.jones@leeds.ac.uk
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Media Training Courses 2009 Working with the media? Want to gain some valuable tips and experience? Whether you are a complete beginner or looking to update your skills, you will find our training sessions stimulating and enjoyable.
An Introduction to Working with the Media A one-day immersion in the media - newspapers, magazines, radio and television - with lots of hands-on experience, organised by the Press Committee of the British Psychological Society. This course is designed to give a general introduction to how the media operates, as well as introducing some of the skills necessary in media liaison e.g. press release writing and interview techniques. Members: £200/£180 early (inc. VAT). Dates available: 1 December 09. Non-members: £240/£220 early (inc. VAT).
Broadcast Interview Skills The course is organised on behalf of the Press Committee of the British Psychological Society. It is particularly aimed at individuals who want to do more broadcast work. It will focus on radio interviews, but will also cover TV interview techniques. Delegates will be provided with plenty of practical opportunity to get in front of the microphone and to gain experience of actually being interviewed. Members: £250/£220 early (inc. VAT). Dates available: 7 December 09. Non-members: £280/£260 early (inc. VAT). All courses take place in London and include lunch and course materials. Registration form and further details from: Jasmin Sore, Communications Department Administrator. Tel: 0116 252 9581; E-mail: jasmin.sore@bps.org.uk
RICHMAN EMDR-TRAINING Fully accredited EMDR trainings for Psychologists EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) and EMDR-Europe Association (EMDR-E) accredited trainings conducted by Alexandra (Sandi) Richman, Chartered Clinical Psychologist. Learn how to integrate this evidence-based therapy into your existing clinical skills. EMDR is a very effective treatment for PTSD and anxiety disorders. Richman EMDR Training offer small interactive EMDR trainings (maximum 20 participants), incorporating the complete ‘standard’ EMDR training accredited and approved by EMDRIA/EMDR-Europe plus an Intermediate workshop between the Level I and Level II training. After Level I participants are able to practice EMDR. The Intermediate day revises the protocol and offers supervision of case material. The Level II training teaches EMDR with more complex cases. EMDR Trainings are as follows: (London unless otherwise indicated) Level I (Part I) 8–10 October 2009; 26–28 November 2009; 18–20 February 2010; 4–6 March 2010 (Glasgow) Intermediate (Part 2) 3 December 2009; 28 January 2010 Level II (Part 3) 30 September–2 October 2009; 19–21 November 2009; 21–23 January 2010; 1–3 March 2010 (Glasgow); 15–17 April 2010 For more information contact Mary Cullinane, Training Co-ordinator Tel: 020 7372 3572 email: mary@alexandrarichman.com www.emdr-training.com
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MSc Clinical Applications of Psychology Newman University College’s highly popular MSc course provides modules in aspects of psychology relevant to clinical practice and is for those students intending to apply to Doctoral training programmes in clinical psychology. Delivered part-time, on-line with occasional weekend workshops, this course will improve your understanding of professional issues, ethics and diversity, considering the current and developing structure of clinical psychology in the UK, as well as covering modules in Research Methods, Adult Psychopathology, Neuropsychological Assessment, Clinical Forensic Psychopathology and Childhood Psychopathology. For further information please visit: www.newman.ac.uk/clinical Lorna Dodd t: +44 (0) 121 476 1181 ext. 2453 e: info#psychology@newman.ac.uk
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The restless brain Christian Jarrett enters the strange and controversial world of the ‘default mode network’
unctional brain imaging promised to lift the lid on the black box. Psychologists responded in earnest, prodding the brain and watching which areas light up and which stay dark. But what if the brain’s most important functions are intrinsic, only occurring when we’re ‘at rest’? The recent discovery of an energy-guzzling default mode network (DMN) that ramps up several gears when we disengage from the outside world has rendered such a scenario plausible, perhaps probable. Physics had to come to terms with the fact that most of what the universe is
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Christoff, K., Gordon, A.M., Smallwood, J. et al. (2009). Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering. PNAS, 106, 8719-8724. Damasio, D. & Van Hoesen, G. (1983). Emotional disturbances associated with focal lesions of the frontal lobe. In K. Heilman & P. Satz (Eds.) Neuropsychology of human emotion (pp.85–110). New York: Guilford Press.
made of is as yet virtually unstudied and unknown. Perhaps resting brain activity, and the mind-wandering it gives rise to, is psychology’s very own dark matter. The question looks set to divide the brain sciences. Neuroscientists are heralding the dawn of a paradigm shift while leading psychologists remain sceptical.
The network The DMN describes a swathe of brain regions, including parts of the prefrontal cortex, the midline and the parietal and medial temporal cortices, which paradoxically are more active when we’re at rest compared with when we’re engaged in a taxing, externally focused task. The network was first named and documented formally in a 2001 paper by Marcus Raichle, at Washington University in St Louis, and colleagues. ‘What began to trouble people like me,’ says Raichle, ‘was that even if you just had somebody lying in the scanner with their eyes open or closed and they weren’t doing anything other than being awake and then you asked them to do something demanding, not only did the areas that you might expect light up, but areas went down – that was the opening for us.’ Evidence that the brain remains active when we disengage from the outside world can be traced back at least as far as the 1950s to a paper by Louis Sokoloff and Seymour Kety. The pair used a classic technique involving
Gilbert, S.J., Dumontheil, I., Simons, J.S. et al. (2007). Comment on ‘Wandering minds’. Science, 317, 43b. Gilbert, S.J., Williamson, I.D.M., Dumontheil, I. et al. (2007). Distinct regions of medial rostral prefrontal cortex supporting social and nonsocial functions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2, 217–226. Greicius, M.D., Flores, B.H., Menon, V. et al. (2007). Resting-state functional
nitrous oxide to show that, metabolically speaking, students’ brains were just as active when at ‘rest’ as during a mental arithmetic task. We now know that the brain uses 20 per cent of the body’s energy consumption even though it only accounts for 2 per cent of the body’s mass, and that this barely changes regardless of whether we’re engaged in a demanding mental task or we’re resting. ‘When you’re lying quietly and then we ask you to do something – move your hand, talk, read, whatever – and we measure the total cost of running your brain, we can’t see much of a difference,’ says Raichle. ‘So what’s emerging here is this notion that a large part of the functional activity of the brain – neurons talking to each other – is ongoing all of the time, and the input/output of the system is only a small addition to that.’ The further discovery that there might be a specific network, active at rest and suppressed when we’re outwardly engaged, emerged more recently. Gordon Shulman – a former student of psychologist and attention pioneer Mike Posner – had the idea in the late 90s of combining imaging results from nine different studies, involving 134 people, in an attempt to find a system that was present whenever attention was engaged. ‘It was the biggest collection of PET data put altogether that’s ever been done,’ says Raichle, a long-time colleague of Shulman’s. ‘To Posner’s disappointment, that attention system didn’t emerge out of these brain scans. But what did emerge was a very consistent set of areas, now known as the DMN, that became less active during any demanding task, such as reading or moving your hand.’ Raichle says the implication that there was this brain system that flickered to life when we disengage from external tasks met with immediate resistance from the psychological community. He believes this is in part because of the dominant view in the 80s and 90s, and to some extent today also, that to study brain function you present a stimulus or you ask subjects to
connectivity in major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 62, 429–437. Greicius, M.D., Srivastava, G., Reiss, A.L. & Menon, V. (2004). DMN activity distinguishes Alzheimer’s from healthy aging. PNAS, 101, 4637–4642. Hagmann, P., Cammoun, L., Gigandet, X. et al. (2008). Mapping the structural core of human cerebral cortex. PLoS Biology, 6, e159. Kennedy, D.P., Redcay, E. & Courchesne,
E. (2006). Failing to deactivate. PNAS, 103, 8275–8280. Mason, M.F., Norton, M.I., Van Horn, J.D. et al. (2007). Wandering minds. Science, 315, 393–395. McKiernan, K.A., Kaufman, J.N., KuceraThompson, J. & Binde, J.R. (2003). A parametric manipulation of factors affecting task-induced deactivation in functional neuroimaging. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15, 394–408.
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do something. ‘There was this mindset that you’re turning the brain on,’ he says. A common criticism was that the resting activity of what we now know as the default network, rather than being truly intrinsic, must instead reflect some uncontrolled activation. Raichle considered this and came up with a way that he thinks shows default brain activity is more than unconstrained activation. His argument is based on the levels of oxygen supply and demand in the brain, and specifically his observation that this supply and demand is in near total balance when we’re ‘at rest’, disengaged from the outside world. It was these ideas that were published in his now classic 2001 paper. ‘The paper basically said the DMN, in the conventional way of looking at things, is not “activated” in this resting state,’ Raichle explains, ‘therefore it must represent something about the intrinsic activity of the brain that it’s organised in that state.’
(see ‘Watching the mind wander’, overleaf). ‘What I’ve noticed in the last five Many psychologists and neuroscientists now routinely scan the to six years’, Smallwood brain at rest. Here’s a sample of recent default-mode-related says, ‘is that when I findings from disparate fields. used to talk about this model people would say Autism: In 2006 Daniel Kennedy (University of California) and it’s interesting but colleagues reported that children with autism failed to show essentially an ‘deactivation’ in the DMN when engaged in a Stroop-like task epiphenomenon. The compared with rest, whereas the deactivation was seen as concept of the DMN usual in control participants. The researchers said the result has changed that. It’s was likely to be due to the children with autism having reduced brought to everybody’s DMN activity at rest – an anomaly they argued might play a attention that an awful causal role in the children’s social impairment. lot of what the brain is doing is to do with Depression: Could resting-state brain activity help identify imaginative processing patients with depression who are unlikely to respond to that we can’t necessarily treatment? A brain-imaging study by Michael Greicius (Stanford observe, and there are University) and colleagues revealed abnormal patterns within some aspects which you the DMN of patients with major depression – exaggerated can’t study without connectivity between a region called the subgenual cingulate, accepting that they known to be involved in emotion processing, and the rest of the occur spontaneously.’ DMN. This was especially the case among those patients who’d Raichle himself has been depressed for longer. proposed that one of The influence the key functions Alzheimer’s disease: In another study, Greicius and colleagues The paper ‘A default mode of brain subserved by the default found reduced resting-state activity in the hippocampus and function’, published in the Proceedings of mode network may well posterior cingulate of Alzheimer’s patients compared with the National Academy of Sciences, dropped be mind-wandering, controls. They argued that scanning resting-state brain activity like a bomb and its reverberations have and especially thinking could prove to be a sensitive way of detecting the disease. been felt ever since. A casual PubMed about the future. He search with the term ‘default mode refers to a case study, Comparative studies: Chimpanzees show greater activity in the network’ reveals 31 studies have been first documented by DMN during rest compared with during externally focused published on the topic in the first three Antonio Damasio, in cognitive tasks, in a similar way to humans. James Rilling and months of 2009 alone. Today the idea of which a stroke patient, colleagues made the observation in a 2007 study after a default system inspires new approaches with damage to a part comparing the resting brain activity of eight humans and five to research on depression, Alzheimer’s of the DMN, recovered chimps. Species differences were also apparent. For example, disease, mental time travel, autism, and described her the chimps showed less left-side activity, probably because they comparative research and many other experience as being lack language. topics (see ‘Findings’). One area of unable to have any psychology that’s probably felt the thoughts – almost as influence more keenly than most is in if her ability to mindthe study of mind-wandering. wander had been lost. more practised tasks. Next Mason’s team Jonathan Smallwood, a Scottish The possibility that the DMN may scanned the same participants under psychologist currently working at the support mind-wandering was tested similar conditions, as they performed University of California, has been explicitly in 2007. Malia Mason and either novel or practised tasks. They studying mind-wandering for most of colleagues first asked participants to found that the DMN was more active his academic career. In particular, he and report how often their minds wandered during the highly practised tasks and that his colleagues have been interested in the during either highly practised or novel this was particularly the case among those idea that attention flips back and forth tasks. As you might expect, mindparticipants who claimed to mind-wander between an internal and external focus wandering was more prevalent during more. ‘Since Raichle made his claims in 2001, people had been floating around the idea that off-task thoughts and dayal. (1997). Common blood flow Morcom, A.M. & Fletcher, P.C. (2007). Does dreams are subserved by the DMN,’ says changes across visual tasks. Journal of the brain have a baseline? Smallwood. ‘But the Mason paper, and Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 648–663. Neuroimage, 37, 1073–1082. to some extent a 2003 study by Kristen Smallwood, J. & Schooler, J.W. (2006). The Raichle, M.E., Macleod, A.M., Snyder, A.Z. McKiernan (which showed increased restless mind. Psychological Bulletin, et al. (2001). A default mode of brain 132, 946–958. function. PNAS, 98, 676–682. DMN activity during easier tasks) made Sokoloff, L., Mangold, R., Wechsler, R. et Rilling, J.K., Barks, S.K., Parr, L.A. et al. a leap, in the sense they made this the al. (1955). The effect of mental (2007). A comparison of resting-state focus of their investigation; before then arithmetic on cerebral circulation and brain activity in humans and it was just speculation.’ metabolism. Journal of Clinical chimpanzees. PNAS, 104, 17146-17151. All of sudden, it seems, mindInvestigation, 34, 1101–1108. Shulman, G.L., Fiez, J.A., Corbetta, M. et wandering, day-dreaming, mental time
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rest is discovered; psychologists respond they’ll only be engaged in internal by showing renewed interest in intrinsic processes just doesn’t accord with my mental activity. But the reality is a little subjective experience when I’ve been in more complicated. When Malia Mason’s a scanner,’ says Gilbert. ‘If you’re given 2007 paper linking the DMN with mindnothing to do, especially if it’s your first wandering was published, it was time, you’re suddenly a bit anxious, accompanied by a critical commentary by you’re wondering what’s going on, there psychologist Sam Gilbert at UCL and his are also these beeps and strange noises, colleagues, including cognitive and you may be waiting for something neuroscience luminary Chris Frith. to come up on the screen. So it’s just as Gilbert and his colleagues argued plausible that you’re actually in a state that what Mason’s group had inferred where you’re really looking out for was mind-wandering activity could just something in the environment.’ as plausibly be What the discussions construed as enhanced about Mason and watchfulness – in colleagues’ paper betray “what the mind is doing other words, an is a growing unease when it is turned in on exaggerated focus on among large quarters itself is a vitally important the outside world. of the psychological topic for investigation” Supporting this community that it can alternative view, ever be a good thing to Gilbert’s team pointed focus on scanning people’s to research they’d conducted showing brains when they are at rest. After all, if that in a simple reaction-time task, medial there’s room for multiple and contrasting prefrontal cortex activity (a key part of interpretations about the mental processes the DMN) was actually higher when involved during a practised task (as in the performance was better, consistent with Mason study) then the scope for the idea that this brain activity reflected disagreement about the possible mental The sceptics increased watchfulness. activities involved ‘at rest’ must surely be In a simple world, the story could end ‘This idea that if you put people in even greater. here: Brain network that’s more active at the scanner and give them nothing to do, ‘The growth in the DMN literature has provoked good questions and good experiments,’ says Gilbert, ‘but I don’t think that studying rest itself is a particularly useful thing to do. If you’re interested in self-initiated behaviour, then Instruct a participant to mind-wander: if they obey, then paradoxically, they’re not really you can study that experimentally – you mind-wandering. What’s more, give a participant a boring task and ask them to indicate when just have to come up with good tasks for they’re mind-wandering and by definition the moment you get a signal means they’re not how to do it in a careful and controlled mind-wandering any longer. So just how do psychologists study such an intractable form of way. The DMN literature reflects, in a mental behaviour? ‘We’ve looked at this issue with the view that attention isn’t static but can way, a decognitivisation of cognitive ebb and flow,’ says Jonathan Smallwood. ‘So we’ve attempted to come up with tools to find neuroscience.’ out how and when people switch to an offline mode.’ These methodological concerns were One such tool used by Smallwood is called the SART (sustained attention to response expressed most explicitly and forcefully task), originally developed by Ian Robertson at Trinity College Dublin and Tom Manly at the in a 2007 paper ‘Does the brain have University of Cambridge as a way to study cognitive deficits arising from head injuries. ‘One a baseline? Why we should be resisting of the clever things about the SART’, Smallwood says, ‘is that it turns the attentional process a rest’ by Alexa Morcom, now at the backwards so people have to withhold a response to a target, and this allows us to identify University of Edinburgh, and Paul those moments when a person has failed to attend.’ Fletcher at the University of Cambridge. A typical SART task will require participants to respond to the numbers 0 to 9, but Morcom, a psychologist, investigates excluding the number 3. An inappropriate response to 3 acts as a marker for an attentional memory decline and ageing, and the lapse and the period preceding an error is a strong candidate for a mind-wandering episode. DMN first came to her attention when Another approach is to use thought probes, which involves unexpectedly asking a other researchers started talking about the participant to report what they were just thinking about – whether they were ‘on task’ or if DMN changing with ageing. ‘It sounded their minds had wandered. An obvious disadvantage with this approach is that participants like some kind of theory about brain will soon cotton on to the purpose of the research, which is likely to have an effect on their ageing but when I looked closely I tendency to mind-wander. realised that it wasn’t really telling me Earlier this year, Smallwood and colleagues combined brain imaging with use of thought anything,’ Morcom says. ‘The DMN probes and measures of attentional lapses to show that default mode network regions are theory is very unpsychological. I didn’t activated during mind-wandering episodes. In other studies they’ve looked at the links feel I’d learned anything about what these between mind-wandering and creativity and comprehension. Together with Jonathan regions are doing and how they might Schooler, Smallwood is currently developing a model to explain why we sometimes catch actually be underpinning memory ourselves in the act of mind-wandering and sometimes don’t. ‘One idea is that the brain decline.’ needs to periodically take stock of what it’s doing,’ he says. Morcom and Fletcher’s paper acknowledged the potential diagnostic utility of scanning the brain at rest. But travel, prospective thinking, call it what you will, have become the focus of heated research in psychology. ‘There’s a whole new field opening up,’ says Smallwood. ‘There’s all these different buzz words, different approaches, but what’s underlying all of them is the understanding that we’re beginning to get the tools and concepts to look at imaginative and introspective thought that’s really been ignored for various reasons.’ In Marcus Raichle’s view, the discovery of the DMN has indeed led to something of a paradigm shift as psychology wakes up to the fact that, far from being a passive input/output device, the brain is constantly anticipating the future and bringing a rich context to its interactions with the world. ‘Only eight per cent of the terminals in the visual cortex come from the outside world,’ he observes. ‘This should make people pause for a moment – how come everything is so clear? It’s because of what the brain brings to the table.’
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beyond that, the pair argued in detail that raised the profile of these so-called studying the resting brain has no use to intrinsic processes, then that can only cognitive neuroscience whatsoever. In be a good thing. The points of contention, their view there is nothing inherently the state of play, revolves around whether special or mysterious about the ‘resting scanning people at rest is the way to study state’ of the brain. They also rejected these intrinsic processes, and whether the Raichle’s claims that the DMN being DMN, as it was originally conceived, really ‘active’, but not ‘activated’, in the resting exists at all. state means that it therefore reflects a ‘I think there are lots of important baseline, intrinsic mode of operation. mental functions that we perform every ‘When Raichle says these [DMN] day that haven’t been studied enough,’ regions are not “activated” at rest, Morcom says. ‘But I don’t think the idea although they are active, he’s making a of the default mode or the idea of doing technical point about the balance between research using a resting state follows from the oxygen supply and demand in these these functions being really interesting.’ areas and indeed the whole brain,’ Sam Gilbert agrees: ‘It would be great Morcom explains. ‘But while there’s this to figure out what’s going on in these balance, the level of neural activity varies widely in the DMN and across the brain. So although the blood flow balance may be special at rest, there’s no reason to think that the same is true of the neural function.’ If Morcom and Fletcher are right, this would suggest that there isn’t anything special about the brain activity observed at ‘rest’ – it doesn’t deserved to be placed in a category all of its own. In fact, by this account, the most important distinguishing feature of neural activity at rest is that no one really knows what participants are doing with their minds during this time. Alexa Morcom says the DMN theory is ‘very What about the ‘tip of the unpsychological’ iceberg’ observation – the idea that DMN brain regions. But I’m not sure that the majority of brain metabolism fuels it is constructive to do study after study intrinsic activity, and that externally where we just ask people to rest. At the focused tasks make little difference? moment it’s very poorly understood what Morcom agrees that we need to find out cognitive processes contribute to what more about the bulk of the iceberg, but aspects of DMN activity. In all likelihood, she points out that that bulk is present when we’re at rest we’re engaged in both during evoked or extrinsic tasks too. ‘To internally oriented and externally my knowledge we’ve got nothing to say oriented processes. The way to that this meaningful metabolic activity understand these processes is to have that is substantial is special to rest.’ she better experimental controls.’ says, ‘It follows logically that the bulk of Gilbert’s own approach has been to this iceberg is present across many use carefully controlled tasks to carve up different cognitive states, of which rest is the DMN into its functional subregions. only one, and therefore I don’t see why He’s focused on a medial prefrontal region they link it specifically to rest. I think the that’s associated with theory of mind – question of what all this activity represents that is, thinking about other people’s is extremely interesting and there needs mental states. He and his colleagues had to be more research into neural activity participants manipulate information that that might not be the result or the was either visible on a screen or held substrate of information processing, but purely in their heads, and they were might somehow support it.’ further led to believe that they were either working alone or collaborating with The state of play another. Gilbert found that the brain area Technical issues aside, what everyone activated when looking at a screen versus appears to agree on is that what the mind processing your own thoughts was as is doing when it’s turned in on itself is little as five millimetres away from the a vitally important topic for investigation. area that was activated when thinking If the discovery of a postulated DMN has about other people’s thoughts. The
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regions were almost on top of each other but it was still possible to separate them out according to their functionality. ‘So when you dig into this network you can start seeing amazing functional specialisations,’ Gilbert says, ‘and I think we should be spending more time carving up this network rather than considering it as a homogeneous whole.’ However, Marcus Raichle and other DMN advocates, remain undeterred. They continue to believe that studying the brain at rest holds the key to many secrets. In fact, there is an entirely new field now in which investigators look for correlations in resting state activity between brain regions so as to create a functional map of the brain. Raichle points me to a noteworthy paper published last year in PLoS Biology, which is just the latest to take this approach. Patric Hagmann and colleagues used diffusion tensor imaging (DSI) to create beautifully intricate maps of the dense cortical pathways within the cerebral cortex of five participants, and crucially, they then used fMRI to scan the same participants at rest. ‘We found a close correspondence between the strengths of structural connections derived from DSI and functional connections derived from resting state fMRI in the same participants,’ Hagmann’s team concluded. In other words, neuroscientists like Hagmann are using the resting state as a functional template with which to inform their structural findings – exactly what psychologists like Morcom and Gilbert say they shouldn’t be doing. The onward march of the DMN doesn’t end there. A further development has been to look at the resting state correlations between brain regions over longer periods than are usually studied in conventional brain-imaging tasks. These studies are revealing coordinated resting activity pulsing between disparate brain regions about once every 10 seconds. ‘The sense I have about this is that there is a paradigm shift going on here,’ says Raichle. ‘We’re beginning to recognise that there are actually slow cortical potentials which have been largely ignored. There’s this coherent activity in the brain which has begun to define in an elegant way not only the relationships within systems like the DMN or the visual system, but the relationships between these systems. It’s like the groundswell of the ocean.’ I Dr Christian Jarrett is The Psychologist’s staff journalist. chrber@bps.org.uk
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Charlie Waller Institute 2009/2010 programme 1-day workshop £125; 2-day workshop £240; conferences £60/100 For more information please contact: cwi@reading.ac.uk or call 0118 378 6668 www.reading.ac.uk/charliewaller 5 & 6 October 2009 Cardiff £335
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History & Philosophy of Psychology Section Annual Conference 2010 30th March–1st April University of Edinburgh
CALL FOR PAPERS The British Psychological Society’s History & Philosophy of Psychology Section invites submissions for its 2010 annual conference to be held in the Psychology Building in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
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Visit www.presentmind.org for the latest dates and to fill out our online application form. We also We also offer: offer: ssupervision/training upervision/training tthrough hrough o online n li n e w webinar ebi nar vvirtual irtual cclassrooms lassrooms ((contact contact u uss ffor or d details) etails) Studio One, 7 Chalcot Road, Primrose Hill, London NW1 Freephone: 0800 849 6723 email: info@presentmind.org
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We invite proposals for individual papers or symposia in any area dealing with conceptual and historical issues in psychology, broadly defined. This year, we would particularly welcome submissions on the history of concepts and categories of mental health and illness, and psychology in Scotland. The conference is open to independent and professional scholars in all relevant fields, not just Section or British Psychological Society members. A limited number of bursaries will be available to students who have had their paper accepted for presentation. The keynote speaker will be Professor Richard Bentall who will also be discussing his recent book Doctoring the Mind (2009). All submissions (200 word abstracts) should be sent via email to Dr Geoff Bunn at: g.bunn@mmu.ac.uk The deadline for submissions is Tuesday 1st December 2009.
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newly developed brain-imaging technique of positron emission tomography (PET). Using this technique, to which our group added functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), after moving to the Wellcome Trust Imaging Centre at UCL, I was able to look directly at the neural basis of cognitive processes. (What we measure Chris Frith, winner of the Society’s 2008 Book Award with Making Up the Mind, with PET and fMRI is not neural activity, on how his ideas have developed, and the surprising implications but changes in blood flow that occur as a result of changes in neural activity.) These were wonderful new techniques, My book Making Up the Mind is lthough I originally trained as a but to use them properly required partly a scientific autobiography, clinical psychologist, in the days considerably more thought than was describing a career that seems to when this was a 13-month course applied initially. So it became obvious very have taken a satisfyingly circular leading to a diploma, my subsequent soon that applying these new imaging course. This has progressed from career has been devoted to research, techniques to the study of schizophrenia an interest in the newest although always in a medical setting. would be fruitless since we knew so little mathematical approaches to human I have been particularly fortunate in about the relationship between brain behaviour, to the study of that I have worked in multidisciplinary function and mental activity. Ironically, schizophrenia via behaviourism and groups. Tea-time conversations, in those considering we are measuring objective, clinical psychology, to cognitive days when there was still tea-time, physical activity, the restrictions on what neuropsychology and new covered everything from you can do while lying techniques of brain imaging. Now synapses and in a brain scanner make I find myself almost back where neurotransmitters to it easier to study “it is the study of I began, as I embark on a project to consciousness and subjective experiences consciousness that will model human social interactions in expressed emotion. rather than objective help us to understand terms of Bayesian learning My work on behaviour. In many schizophrenia” algorithms, and watch in schizophrenia began of the early studies admiration as colleagues achieve almost by chance when volunteers lay in the so much with this approach. Hans Eysenck assigned scanner and imagined me this topic for the new addition of his making movements (Stephan et al., 1995) Handbook of Abnormal Psychology. My or imagined seeing faces (O’Craven & research aimed to understand the typical Kanwisher, 2000). symptoms associated with this diagnosis in terms of neuropsychology. It took a while Experimental psychology has revealed How do we know about the to dawn on me that, even as a psychologist much about the cognitive processes that world? interested in behaviour and introspection, underlie faculties such as perception Another unexpected advantage of I was actually studying how the brain and decision making. Can we scanning is the ability to look at brain works. Whatever the ultimate causes of understand group perception and group activity that occurs without awareness. schizophrenia, there is a neural basis to decision making, starting with groups of Of course, there are elegant behavioural symptoms such as hallucinations and two, in terms of these same processes? paradigms for looking at effects of delusions. In my book The Cognitive unconscious processing, but once you Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia (Frith, have asked your volunteers whether they 1992) I developed some ideas about the www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Frith/Booksite/ noticed some stimulus that was irrelevant cognitive basis of hallucinations and index.html to the task they were performing, their delusions and speculated on their neural Fletcher, P.C. & Frith, C.D. (2009). focus of attention is irrevocably altered. correlates. Perceiving is believing: A Bayesian With the scanner you can measure At this time I was incredibly fortunate approach to explaining the positive whether stimuli outside awareness elicit to be given the chance to move to the symptoms of schizophrenia. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 48–58. brain activity without ever mentioning MRC Cyclotron Unit. At that time this was these stimuli to the volunteers. Such the only place in the UK with access to the
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328–337. Blakemore, S.J., Bristow, D., Bird, G. et al. (2005). Somatosensory activations during the observation of touch and a case of vision-touch synaesthesia. Brain, 128, 1571–1583. Chartrand, T.L. & Bargh, J.A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception– behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893–910.
Dimberg, U., Thunberg, M. & Elmehed, K. (2000). Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. Psychological Science, 11, 86–89. Fehr, E. & Gächter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415, 137–140. Fletcher, P.C. & Frith, C.D. (2009). Perceiving is believing: A Bayesian approach to explaining the positive
symptoms of schizophrenia. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 48–58. Frith, C.D. (1992). The cognitive neuropsychology of schizophrenia. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum. Frith, C.D., Perry, R. & Lumer, E. (1999). The neural correlates of conscious experience: An experimental framework. Trends in Cognitive Science, 3, 105–114. Gurerk, O., Irlenbusch, B. & Rockenbach,
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studies confirmed, in a during the rise of particularly striking manner, cognitive psychology how much brain processing in the latter part of the goes on without awareness 20th century when the (Rees et al., 2002). This process of perceptual observation is critical for inference was referred research aimed at uncovering to as ‘analysis by the neural correlates of synthesis’. Today the consciousness (NCC). A key same idea dominates question that still remains to theories of perception be answered is, what is the and is referred to as difference between the neural ‘predictive coding’ activity associated with (Yuille & Kersten, consciousness and the neural 2006). activity that is not (Frith et In addition to al., 1999)? Helmholtz, a key I thought that studying precursor of these schizophrenia would provide theories of perception answers to understanding was the Revd Th. Bayes consciousness, but, instead, (1763/1958). Bayes’ I realised that it is the study of theorem is concerned consciousness that will help us with the relationship to understand schizophrenia. between evidence and False perceptions such as beliefs. In a Bayesian These were wonderful new techniques, but to use them properly hallucinations are disorders of framework, beliefs are required considerably more thought than was applied initially consciousness. However, these expressed as probabilities. If false perceptions are, at first I have a strong belief about and it was this realisation that led to the sight, difficult to understand in terms of the state of the world, then I consider the main ideas in Making Up the Mind. brain function. All the evidence we have probability of that being the true state of Some of this brain activity is involved about the state of the world comes through the world to be high. Perception is a belief in creating our perceptions. This idea was our senses via our brain. It is easy to about the state of the world, or, in other originally proposed by Helmholtz (1866) understand how damage to the brain can words, an estimate of the state of the who talked about our brain’s ‘unconscious impair our perception. For example, world. We can never know the true state inferences’. Helmholtz had made two damage to the colour area (V4) of the of the world, but we can test and improve important observations. First, that there visual brain means that colour is no longer our estimates by acting on the world and was a long time, in terms of neural available for perception. As a result the collecting new evidence from our senses. transmission (≈200ms), between a signal patient has a visual world without colour Bayes’ theorem tells how much we should striking the senses and emergence of a (Zeki, 1990). However, hallucinations are change our beliefs about the world given conscious percept. Second, that sensory experiences in the absence of any signals this new evidence. signals are essentially crude and coming from the senses. Why should our This Helmholtz/Bayes framework had ambiguous. He concluded that perception brain create such experiences and how a number of interesting implications, and depends upon the brain making does it do this? I suspected that many people might be unconscious inferences and that these quite shocked by them. I Our experience of having a direct inferences take time. The perception of The Helmholtz/Bayes perception of the world is an illusion. depth is an obvious case where inferences framework This illusion is created by our lack of have to be made. Just from its size on the I have already mentioned one clue to awareness of the inferences being made retina, we can’t tell whether we are looking the answer to this question – the large by our brain. at a small object nearby or a large object I There is no qualitative difference amount of brain activity that goes on far away. We need to use other cues like between perceptions and beliefs. A without any associated conscious motion parallax. perception is a belief about the world experience. It took me a long time to Helmholtz’s idea was strongly that we hold to have extremely high realise the significance of this clue myself, promoted by Richard Gregory and others
B. (2006). The competitive advantage of sanctioning institutions. Science, 312, 108–111. Hampton, A.N., Bossaerts, P. & O’Doherty, J.P. (2008). Neural correlates of mentalizing-related computations during strategic interactions in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 105, 6741–6746. Harrington, L., Siegert, R.J. & McClure,
J. (2005). Theory of mind in schizophrenia: A critical review. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 10, 249–286. Helmholtz, H. von (1866). Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik. Leipzig: Voss. Lakin, J.L. & Chartrand, T.L. (2003). Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14,
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334–339. Libet, B., Gleason, C.A., Wright, E.W. & Pearl, D.K. (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readinesspotential): The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. Brain, 106(3), 623–642. O'Craven, K.M. & Kanwisher, N. (2000). Mental imagery of faces and places activates corresponding stiimulus-
specific brain regions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 1013–1023. Pickering, M.J. & Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behaviour and Brain Sciences, 27, 169–190 (discussion 190–226). Rees, G., Kreiman, G. & Koch, C. (2002). Neural correlates of consciousness in humans. Nature Reviews
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probability. Perceptions are created by combining bottom-up, sensory signals with topdown, prior beliefs. Our perceptions are an estimate of the state of the world and never the true state of the world. However, we can constantly improve our estimate by making and testing predictions. For survival it is more important to be able to predict the state of the world than to have a very good estimate of what it was in the past. Furthermore, for survival all that matters is that our model of the world makes useful predictions.
In this framework, hallucinations are no longer such strange phenomena. All our perceptions are hallucinations, in the sense that they are created by our brain. However, our perceptions are hallucinations that are strongly constrained by reality. These constraints derive from the evidence provided by our senses, but also from our prior beliefs. Furthermore, in this framework, there is no essential difference between hallucinations and delusions. Both result from the assessment of evidence constrained by prior expectations. And here might lie the critical defect in schizophrenia that leads to hallucinations and delusions. The constraints of prior expectations seem no longer to apply (Fletcher & Frith, 2009).
The problem with psychology But are these rather complex ideas a suitable topic for a popular book about psychology? Psychology is different from other sciences in many ways, but the most important difference is that everyone has their own intuitions about psychology. This includes psychologists: we all use folk psychology all the time. With disciplines like physics or molecular genetics we accept that we know little or nothing about the subject and respect the experts who do. The psychologist who makes some exciting new discovery is
Neuroscience, 3, 261–270. Rizzolatti, G. & Craighero, L. (2004). The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169–192. Singer, T., Kiebel, S.J., Winston, J.S. et al. (2004). Brain responses to the acquired moral status of faces. Neuron, 41, 653–662. Singer, T., Seymour, B., O'Doherty, J.P. et al. (2006). Empathic neural responses are modulated by the
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told either that everybody knew that After all, this is what makes already or else that it must be nonsense. neuropsychology the most exciting and To persuade people of the importance of difficult of the sciences. This is the psychology we need to choose some discipline where the mind and the brain strong belief in folk psychology and come together. provide sufficient evidence to convince people that they are wrong in holding this We are all connected belief. It seemed to me that my work on There is a second popular illusion that I perceptions and hallucinations could wanted to confront in Making Up the provide the basis for a persuasive book Mind. This is an illusion about our social about psychology. Furthermore, my work world. A striking feature of the symptoms with brain imaging could provide associated with schizophrenia is the evidence that people find especially extent to which they are about other compelling. For some reason brainpeople. If you have hallucinations they imaging studies do seem to capture the are likely to consist of voices talking to imagination of the public, or at least, of the press. Experimental psychologists are, quite rightly, annoyed when phenomena that they have been working on for years, are picked up by the press as having been recently ‘discovered’ through a brain imaging study. In Making Up the Mind I try to show by examples how behavioural experiments are just Being imitated makes us like the person we are interacting with as important as brain-imaging studies in telling us about you or about you. If you have delusions relationships between brain and mind. they are likely to be about people We all have the strong belief that we communicating with you or maligning have a direct perception of the world. This you or controlling your actions. In The is because we have no awareness of all the Cognitive Neuropsychology of inferences being made by our brain. In Schizophrenia I suggested that people with writing Making Up the Mind I aimed to a diagnosis of schizophrenia would have show people that this belief is wrong. problems with social cognition and, in I wanted to show how psychologists particular, with theory of mind or have arrived at this conclusion and how, mentalising tasks in which people have through experiments, they create the to infer the intentions and beliefs of evidence that supports this conclusion. others. This prediction has been largely At the same time I wanted to combat the confirmed (Harrington et al., 2005). persistent dualist denial that there is any However, since that time there has been relation between the physical world of the a dramatic increase of interest in and brain and the mental world of the mind.
perceived fairness of others. Nature, 439, 466–469. Soon, C.S., Brass, M., Heinze, H.J. & Haynes, J.D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience, 11, 543–545. Stephan, K.M., Fink, G.R., Passingham, R.E. et al. (1995). Functional anatomy of the mental representation of upper extremity movements in
healthy subjects. Journal of Neurophysiology, 73, 373–386. van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R.W., Kawakami, K. & van Knippenberg, A. (2004). Mimicry and prosocial behavior. Psychological Science, 15, 71–74. Wegner, D.M. (2003). The illusion of conscious will. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Wicker, B., Keysers, C., Plailly, J. et al.
(2003). Both of us disgusted in my insula: The common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust. Neuron, 40, 655–664. Yuille, A. & Kersten, D. (2006). Vision as Bayesian inference: Analysis by synthesis? Trends in Cognitive Science, 10, 301–308. Zeki, S. (1990). A century of cerebral achromatopsia. Brain, 113(6), 1721–1777.
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studies of the ‘social brain’. This upsurge seconds before could predict what action of interest has been driven, in part, by the a person was going to perform. The discovery of mirror neurons, first noticed discovery of social mirroring and its in monkeys (Rizzolatti & Craighero, effects also suggests that our actions are 2004). These neurons became more active much more constrained than we realise. when a monkey performed a particular However, whether or not we have free action and also when the monkey saw the will, we have a strongly felt experience experimenter performing the same action. of being free agents. We feel that our A number of different mirror systems intentions cause our actions and that we have now been identified in humans also. could have chosen to do something We all tend to imitate (Dimberg et al., different if we had wanted to. This feeling 2000) and share the emotional of being an agent, whether or not it is expressions of others (Wicker et al., illusory, has a very important role in our 2003). If we see someone else being social interactions. From an early age we touched, brain activity occurs in the area make a distinction between deliberate acts of somatosensory cortex that would be and accidents (e.g. Behne et al., 2005), activated if we ourselves were touched and this distinction is associated with the in the same way (Blakemore et al., 2005). idea of responsibility. Of particular interest is the tendency we The importance of responsibility can have to covertly imitate each other’s be observed even in simple laboratory movements and gestures, known as the games involving trust and reciprocity chameleon effect (Chartrand & Bargh, (Fehr & Gächter, 2002). In these games 1999). In some experiments, one the players can invest money in the group participant in the interaction is instructed or keep it for themselves. Money invested to covertly imitate the other. The results in the group gains interest (this game was show that being imitated makes us like developed before the credit crunch!) and is the person we are interacting with and then shared among all the members of the makes us more likely to give money to group. Thus investing increases the charity afterwards (van Baaren et al., amount owned by the group as a whole, 2004). but slightly reduces the amount held by This social mirroring has important the investor. As long as many people invest functions. It makes us less selfish and then everyone gains. However, there are more cooperative. It also increases always a few individuals (free riders) who alignment between people, which realise they can gain even more by enhances communication benefiting from the (Pickering & Garrod, investments of others 2004). For me, however, and not investing “we psychologists are the key observation from themselves. With lucky to be living in such these experiments is that repeated rounds of exciting times” this mirroring mostly such a game, overall happens without our being investments decrease as aware of it. Except in rare members stop investing cases of synaesthesia, we are not aware since they don’t see why they should of the activity in our own sensory cortex support the free riders. As a result the when we see someone else being touched. group as a whole loses out. Fehr and Also, the prosocial effects of being imitated Gächter (2002) showed that this problem would almost certainly disappear if we could be resolved by allowing the players become aware that we were being imitated to punish the free riders. A player can pay (Lakin & Chartrand, 2003). As a result of a small amount of money to have another this lack of awareness we feel much more player fined. This is known as altruistic independent of others than we really are. punishment since it has a cost. When this Because all this activity is hidden from us, sanction is introduced into the game the we do not realise how embedded we are in amount of free riding declines and the the social world. We feel that we are amount of investment increases. As a independent agents. result the group as a whole benefits (see also Gurerk et al., 2006). What has all this to do with Freedom and responsibility responsibility? Tania Singer and her Since Libet’s classic experiment (Libet colleagues (2006) found that punishment et al., 1983) showing that brain activity in these economic games is only applied precedes the conscious decision to act to people who we believe are acting freely there have been ever-more frequent and deliberately. Punishment was not claims that neuroscience has shown that applied when players were told that other free will is an illusion (Wegner, 2003). players were not choosing their responses, Most recently, Soon et al. (2008) reported but simply following a sheet of that brain activity measured up to 10 instructions. In addition the emotional
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Reacting quickly The problem with writing about science is that the most exciting results always appear just after your manuscript has gone to press. This was certainly the case with Making Up the Mind… In a recent study by Roman Liepelt and colleagues, participants were asked to lift their first or second finger as quickly as possible in response to a visual cue. If the participants could see a picture of a hand in which these same fingers were held down in clamps, their responses were slower even though their own fingers were completely free of restraint. It seems that even reaction time, the mainstay of experimental psychology, has a strong social component. Liepelt, R. et al. (2009). Contextual movement constraints of others modulate motor preparation in the observer. Neuropsychologia, 47, 268–275.
response, measured by fMRI, was greater to the faces of players who persistently cooperated or defected than it was to those who simply followed instructions (Singer et al., 2004). I believe that these data show that our sense that we are each of us responsible for our actions has a vital role in developing the sanctions that enable the good of the group to take priority over individual advantages.
We live in exciting times The discipline of social cognitive neuroscience has flourished dramatically in the last few years. Nearly every week a new experiment is reported revealing novel cognitive mechanisms underpinning social interactions and group behaviour (for example see box). We are even beginning to get clues to the kinds of computational mechanisms that might enable us to read each others intentions (Hampton et al., 2008). In comparison to other sciences, we psychologists are lucky to be living in such exciting times. I Chris Frith
is at the Wellcome Trust Centre for NeuroImaging at UCL and the Interacting Minds Project, University of Aarhus c.frith@ucl.ac.uk
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Where the wild things are Richard Gottlieb analyses Maurice Sendak’s fascinating 1963 picture book, on the eve of its cinematic release
‘I only have one subject. The question I am obsessed with is How do children survive?’ Maurice Sendak (Marcus, 2002, pp.170–171).
ccording to the writer Francis Spufford, Where the Wild Things Are is ‘one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate, and beautiful, use of the psychoanalytic story of anger’ (Spufford, 2003, p.60). For me, this book and Maurice Sendak’s other works are fascinating studies of intense emotions – disappointment, fury, even cannibalistic rage – and their transformation through creative activity.
A
The book
references
Maurice Sendak’s works have enormous popular appeal and have been purchased and read by tens of millions of adults to their children over the years. Published in 1963, Where the Wild Things Are is the first and best-known part of what Sendak described as a trilogy. Although just 10 sentences long, it has become acknowledged as a masterpiece of children’s literature, inspiring operas, ballets, songs and film adaptations (the most recent of which is released this month). Barack Obama recently told a White House crowd that Where the Wild Things Are is one of his favourite books. It inspired some to suggest that ‘it is perhaps time to separate [Sendak] from the word ‘children’s’ and deal with his work as an explorative art, purely and only seemingly simple’ (Braun, 1970, p.52).
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Braun, S. (1970, 7 June). Sendak raises the shade on childhood. The New York Times Magazine. Gottlieb, R.M. (2008). Maurice Sendak’s trilogy: Disappointment, fury, and their transformation through Art. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 63, 186–217. Frassinetti, F., Magnani, B. & Oliveri, M. (2009). Prismatic lenses shift time perception. Psychological Science,
romp in which he joins them. He commands them to stop the ‘wild rumpus’, sends them off to bed without their supper, and begins to feel lonely, wanting ‘to be where someone loved him best of all’. He smells ‘good things to eat’ from ‘far away across the world’, and journeys home, leaving the wild things, ‘into the night of his very own room, where he found his supper waiting for him, and it was still hot’.
Unspeakable concerns
Sendak’s art addresses our deepest, As the lavishly illustrated book frequently repressed, often unspeakable opens, we meet the main protagonist, concerns about ourselves and our loved Max, a young boy armed with a very large ones. Often it speaks to children and to hammer. He is wearing his wolf-suit and the adults who read to them from a place making mischief about the house. This of anguished inner struggle, struggle that includes chasing the dog about with a had rarely been directly addressed in fork. His mother, never seen in the story, children’s literature prior to Sendak. is unsympathetic and shouts at Max that In straightforward, undisguised fashion, he is a ‘WILD THING!’ Max responds by Sendak’s work has addressed problems shouting back, ‘I’LL EAT YOU UP!’ as monumental for children as being in Because of this, he is sent to bed ‘without a rage at mother, relating to a depressed eating anything’. In his bedroom, Max’s or emotionally unavailable mother, or rage continues, but soon trees begin to coming to terms with a mother who grow from the floor and the walls begin to disappear. His room becomes one with a surrounding forest. Max walks through the forest, coming soon upon a ‘private boat’ that he takes across the ocean to ‘where the wild things are’. Wild things appear from the jungle, bearing sharp, pointed teeth and menacing claws. Max’s Wild Things are threatening, too, but he confronts and dominates them and becomes their king, commanding Sendak’s art addresses our deepest, frequently repressed, often them to commence unspeakable concerns a wild, orgiastic
20(8), 949–954. Hauser, D., Carter, M. & Meier, B. (2009). Mellow Monday and furious Friday: The approach-related link between anger and time representation. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 1166–1180. Lanes, S.G. (1980). The art of Maurice Sendak. New York: Abrams. Lewin, B.D. (1952). Phobic symptoms and dream interpretation.
Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 21, 295–322. Lewin, B.D. (1953). Reconsideration of the dream screen. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 22, 174–199. Lewin, B.D. (1954). Sleep, narcissistic neurosis, and the analytic situation. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 23, 487–510. Marcus, L.S. (2002). Ways of telling: Conversations on the art of the
picture book. New York: Dutton Childrens’ Books. Moyers, B. (2004). Interview with Maurice Sendak. Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved 27 July 2009, from tinyurl.com/ljusfc Sendak, M. (1970). Fantasy sketches. Philadelphia: Rosenbach Foundation. Spufford, F. (2003). The child that books built. London: Faber and Faber.
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cannot or will not recognise her child’s ‘screamed’ at Max instead of responding Mother, who is present only as a voice in concerns or state of mind. He manages to his shenanigans empathically. In a the published volume, is here in the flesh. nonetheless to maintain the optimistic better mood, Sendak suggests, she might She is undressed to the waist, her view that all of these troubles can be instead have said, ‘Darling, you’re generous and large-nippled breasts tamed, even if not fully overcome, hilarious. Come give Mamma a hug.’ gloriously and deliciously drawn exposed. through imagination. The ultimate magic It is mother’s emotional unavailability, For Sendak, surely this sketch must have of his work resides in his presentations a recurrent Sendak theme, that triggers been an act of whimsy, never intended for of imagination, dream, fantasy and – Max’s rage and sets the narrative in publication. But it makes clear as nothing ultimately – art itself as sources of motion. We also cannot fail to observe else could the bodily fantasy that informs resilience, of the strength to soldier on. that Max is clothed as a predator, a wolf, the story of what Max lost, became Sendak’s work in Where the Wild a familiar cannibalistic image, and that he concerned he would destroy with his Things Are is of particular interest to chases his dog about with a fork. The idea teeth, and in the end regained. psychologists due to his strikingly of intimates treating one another as food unusual abilities to gain organises much of The child and the man access to, and to represent in the story. When Art was Sendak’s means of ‘recovery’ from words and pictures, fantasies mother calls Max “Sendak’s art addresses his own childhood; his published works that accompany childish rage ‘Wild Thing!’, he our deepest, frequently represent his gift to all children. By his states. It is this capacity, responds that he repressed, often own accounts, Maurice Sendak’s I believe, that contributes will eat her up. To unspeakable concerns” childhood was filled with misery. Born to the appeal of his work to this cannibal threat in Brooklyn in 1928, he was the youngest children who are unable or she retaliates by of three children. His parents, Phillip and unwilling to articulate these depriving him of both Sadie, had emigrated from shtetls in states, and to adults who have forgotten mother and his supper. In his bedroom, Poland before the First World War. The them or do not wish to know about them. Max enters an altered state. Whether it is families they left behind, although never The other two books in the set show a dream, daydream, or fantasy cannot be known firsthand by young Maurice, had similar insights. determined with certainty, but what is a great influence on the emotional tone of In a pair of interviews with Leonard clear is that he imagines a world of his childhood. ‘My father’s entire family Marcus (Marcus, 2002; the interviews devouring monsters replete with fleshwas destroyed in the Holocaust. I grew up were in 1988 and 1993), Sendak said, tearing ‘terrible claws’ and sharp, in a house that was in a constant state of ‘I call those three books – Wild Things, gnashing teeth. These ‘wild things’ are mourning,’ he said in an interview with In the Night Kitchen (1970), and Outside transparent representations of Max’s Leonard Marcus (Marcus, 2002, p.172). Over There – a trilogy. They’re all about enraged intention to ‘eat up’ his mother. He has described his mother as ‘disturbed’ one minute’s worth of distraction. One Max then masters his inner demons, in and ‘depressed’ and has alluded frequently noise in the kitchen had Mickey doing what Joseph Campbell has called ‘one to her lack of emotional availability, her a weird thing. One temper tantrum, one of the greatest moments in literature’. wrong word, causes all of the wild things As Moyers (2004) remarks, to happen; one minute’s dreamy ‘[t]hat is a great moment distraction allows the kidnapping in because it’s only when a man Outside Over There to occur’ tames his own demons that (pp.170–171). he becomes the king of But there is much more that binds himself if not of the world’. these three works. Each begins with a Having done so, Max is child in a rage (in two of the books it is drawn by the smell of food – clear the rage is at his mother); the rage is representing maternal bounty characterised in part by destructive, orally – to return home. There he configured fantasies; the child’s rage finds that his mother still triggers a poetic function in the child, loves him, having left his resulting in an altered state of dinner in his room. The final consciousness in which occurs a dream, demonstration of her love is fantasy, or act of artistic creation; the that his dinner ‘was still hot’. poetic process serves to modify and I doubt that there are transform the initial rage and conflict many readers of this story over it, bringing about a reconciliation who would question that Preliminary drawing for Where the Wild Things Are. Pencil on within the enraging person and restoring Max’s struggle is about losing tracing paper. © 1963 Maurice Sendak. All rights reserved. the child’s capacity to continue the and winning his mother’s Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia. relationship. Ultimately, all three books love, cast in the imagery, feel, are about the transformative power of and smells of food – in other poetic function in children and adults, words, a story of breast lost preoccupation, and her chronic sadness. including, apparently, Sendak himself. and breast found again. But, to set to Death was a constant presence, if not as So let’s run through Where the Wild rest any lingering doubts about these a fact then as a fantasy, worry, or deep Things Are, stressing the oral imagery, the propositions and about the author’s concern. Maurice himself was a sickly rage that initiates Max’s creative process, intentions, I present as the clincher a child. He suffered from scarlet fever, and and his reconciliation – again expressed preliminary drawing for the book’s final his parents worried about his dying from as warm food – with his mother. Sendak scene that I found in the Rosenbach that disease or another. Their sense that has explained that Max’s mother was not Library (see above). In this preliminary he was physically fragile, alive by the in a good ‘mood’. That is why she drawing, Sendak clearly let himself go!
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grace of God but endangered, was an enduring influence on his development. The year Maurice was born, his father suffered a severe financial reversal and ‘lost every cent he had’ (Braun, 1970, p.42). The morning of Maurice’s bar mitzvah, his father received news that his family had been wiped out by the Nazis. Phillip collapsed in grief and had to be propped up by Maurice’s mother and brother during the ceremony. Maurice recalls having been enraged ‘by these dead Jews who constantly infiltrated our lives and made us miserable’ (Marcus, 2002, pp.172–173). Sendak has said that his models for drawing the Wild Things were his Jewish relatives who used to visit his family weekly when he was a child. They terrified him, and he dreaded their visits, because it always seemed to him that they might eat everything the family had. They also threatened him directly, he recalled, when they would pinch his cheek and tell him they would eat him up.
Sendak and psychoanalysis
For our purposes, it is especially noteworthy that Sendak was in psychoanalysis for a period during his
early adulthood. He certainly counted psychoanalysts among his closest friends. His partner of 50 years, who died in 2007, was a psychoanalyst. Rumour has it that the wolf suit that Max wears in Where the Wild Things Are, was modelled on a pair of pyjamas that belonged to the young son of a close psychoanalyst friend. Lanes (1980) reported that, when he was 27, Sendak was ‘undergoing’ psychoanalysis. I would speculate that he sought this treatment because of a depressed mood; possibly he felt isolated, as well, and his Maurice Sendak sexual orientation may have been problematic at the time. But one must remain uncertain about all these matters, as they and pictures. Kenny’s Window, entirely never come up in published accounts of his own work, was produced after he had his life or in any of his myriad interviews. begun therapy and was partly dedicated I also discern some suggestion that he to his analyst. was aware of an inhibition that at the Sendak’s interest in psychoanalytic time prevented him from producing a techniques also allows us an additional work entirely his own – both the words insight into the mind that created Where
Psychological Approaches to Trauma, Recovery and Growth 29th June – 1st July 2010 University of Nottingham £350 Early Bird Rate (book before 28/2/10) £395 thereafter Reduced rates for Voluntary Organisations The Centre for Trauma, Resilience & Growth 10th Anniversary Conference - Residential Confirmed speakers include: • James Pennebaker, Professor of Psychology, University of Texas • Bessel van der Kolk, Medical Director, Trauma Centre, Boston, USA • Atle Dyregrov, Center for Crisis Psychology, Bergen, Norway • Gordon Turnbull, Visiting Professor to University of Chester There will be an opening address by Terry Waite CBE and others, yet to be confirmed. For further details please contact the Centre Administrator, Liz Edwards on +44 (0) 115 952 9436 or email liz.edwards2@nottshc.nhs.uk. Centre for Trauma, Resilience and Growth, 598 The Wells Rd, Nottingham NG3 3AA, UK
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the Wild Things Are. Beginning around 1952 (he was 24-years-old), Sendak created what he called, variously, ‘fantasy sketches’, ‘stream-of-consciousness doodles’, and ‘dream pictures’ while listening to classical music. His aim was not unlike that of a patient in psychoanalysis, consisting, he wrote, of ‘letting whatever came into my mind come out on the paper, and my only conscious intention was to complete a whole “story” on one page… beginning and ending, if possible, with the music itself.’ He said that some of these were ‘purely fantastic meanderings that seem to roam carelessly through the unconscious’ (Sendak, 1970, Introduction). Clearly he viewed these sketches as free associations, and they provide a kind of raw access to aspects of Sendak’s fantasy life that is present but less readily apparent in his finished work. To the psychoanalyst, a patient’s free associations are the silt from which we laboriously pan for our gold, that gold being knowledge of our subjects’ unconscious imaginings and the configurations of their minds. Examining these sketches, as I did in Gottlieb (2008), we again find reflections of Bertram Lewin’s ideas about oral psychology (Lewin, 1952, 1953, 1954) – the wishes to eat, to be eaten, and to sleep. Cannibalistic fantasies again feature prominently, with themes of devouring and regurgitation. We also find pleasurable and painful moods, the former expressed by ideas of floating and flight.
How do children survive?
There is a remarkable thematic coherence to much of Sendak’s work, and this coherence links creative efforts that are decades apart and, additionally, links these works to what is known about his early life and formative years. Sendak himself has commented on his single-minded focus, saying, ‘I only have one subject. The question I am obsessed with is How do children survive?’ But it is more than mere survival that Sendak aspires to, for his children and for himself. He asks the question of resilience: How do children surmount and transform in order to prosper and create? It is tempting to imagine that Sendak conceives of the trajectory of his own life and art as a model for the way he has handled these questions in his works. In each of the three books of the trilogy, Sendak explores the child’s problem of an unavailable or inaccessible parent. The most traumatic circumstances – according to Sendak – are the rages children feel toward the very persons whom they love and depend upon, rages
that threaten to disorganise themselves and disrupt vital sustaining relationships. In two of the books, this happens because that parent is possessed by a mood state, and in the third it happens because she (and he) are otherwise engaged – most likely with each other. Parent and child (and the relationship between them) are threatened with destruction, in two books by clearly cannibalistic means, in the third by becoming frozen, lifeless, inanimate. Sendak has a remarkable close and conscious acquaintanceship with a wide variety of oral-cannibalistic fantasies, including modes of devouring and being devoured that are not available to most of us. These disappointments, losses and, most important, destructive rages are some of what children need to ‘survive’. In Sendak’s books, survival results uniformly from fantasy, imagination and creative activity carried on in such altered states of consciousness as dream and
daydream. The stories have happy endings, at least for now, in which it is clear that positively toned relationships can continue. How wonderful it must feel to a child once alienated from a parent to return home to find that his dinner is waiting for him and it is still hot! So, ‘How do children survive?’ It would seem that Sendak’s answer must include the power of art (including fantasy, dream and daydream). The child transforms otherwise crippling traumatic circumstances into his (or her) very means of survival, growth, and positive maturation. They go to where the wild things are. They conquer them, and then they return. I Richard Gottlieb is Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He practices psychoanalysis in New York City. rmgottlieb@aol.com
On space, time and wild things and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are. ‘In and out of weeks and almost over a year’. On the hundreds of occasions I have read Where the Wild Things Are, that turn of phrase has got me every time. It seems so strange, suitably dreamlike yet so apt: as if Sendak has truly nailed a human universal that we are somehow relatively unaware of. Recent psychological research gives us some insight into what this might be. On an intuitive level, it makes sense that our mental representations of space and time are linked. We see time ‘mapped’ out in front of and behind us; we talk about rearranged events being moved from one day to another, as if through space. And psychological research seems to confirm that the two models are heavily linked, to the point where modifying one has a knock-on effect on the other. For example, Frassinetti et al. (2009) found that people wearing prism glasses that shift everything to the right overestimate the passage of time, while people wearing left-shift glasses underestimate it. Sendak makes these links more explicit, with Max sailing ‘through’, ‘in and out of’ and ‘over’ time. But even more intriguingly,
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Sendak appears to have chanced on an even more specific relationship. When Max gets in his boat, he is angry. New research from David Hauser and colleagues (2009) has showed that people with an angrier temperament are more likely to think of themselves as moving through time, than to think of time as moving towards them! You can test this on yourself by considering which day of the week a meeting has changed to, if it was originally planned for Wednesday but has been moved forward two days. If you think it’s now changed to Friday, then you’re someone who thinks of themselves as moving through time, whilst if you think the meeting is now on Monday, then you’re more passive, and you think about time passing you by. Hauser et al. (2009) also found that provoking anger makes people more likely to see themselves as moving through time. Conversely, thinking about moving through time can induce anger. Perhaps it is not surprising that by the time Max reached the end of his journey, he was face to face with his wild things! Now of course it is unlikely that Sendak was consciously aware of these types of psychological relationship when he penned those words. But it is another indication that Sendak’s mind is well-tuned to such matters, and that his work is of particular interest and relevance to psychologists. Jon Sutton (Editor, The Psychologist)
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The teller, the tale and the told Steven Killick and Neil Frude talk about the psychology of oral storytelling
It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all the internal materials of the mind and self. They become part of you while changing you. Beware the stories you read or tell: subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world. Ben Okri, Birds of Heaven (1996) eople tell all manner of stories, in many different social contexts, for different purposes and to different effect. Sometimes such stories are meant to inspire or motivate, persuade or deceive. Sometimes they have the function of warning or educating, and often they are told merely to amuse or entertain. Storytelling is frequently spontaneous and informal, but it may also happen regularly and ‘by appointment’, whether this is the nightly routine of a child’s bedtime story or an event by a professional storyteller in a school or theatre. In this article, we will explore psychological aspects of oral or ‘live’ storytelling. It is our belief that stories can have profound effects on how people think and feel and that these effects may be particularly powerful when the story is delivered ‘live’ by a skilled storyteller. Storytelling is sometimes seen as an innocent activity best suited to young children, but there has been a strong
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Bettelheim, B. (1976). The uses of enchantment: The meaning and importance of fairy tales. New York: Knopf. Blake, J. & Maiese, N. (2008). No fairytale… The benefits of a bedtime story. The Psychologist, 21, 5, 386–388. Engel, S. (1999) The stories children tell: Making sense of the narratives of childhood. New York: W.H. Freeman. Fisher, R. (1996). Stories for thinking.
resurgence of interest in the ‘oral tradition’, the telling of stories that have been passed through several generations by word of mouth. This is now being recognised as a rediscovered art form, a form of entertainment, and as a social activity with many actual and potential applications in education, healthcare and in the workplace. Storytellers can now be found working in schools, libraries, arts centres, and in the increasing number of festivals held worldwide that celebrate the storytelling revival. Psychologists, both in academia and in applied settings, may find an increasing interest in the use of narrative and story in a number of fields that draw upon this oral tradition to a greater or lesser extent. Storytelling has been the subject of multidisciplinary study through the disciplines of theatre, anthropology and folklore. Although not currently the focus of much psychological research, it may be a fruitful area for investigation. Stories, novels and poems clearly have the power to move people emotionally, to inspire them, to amuse them, to uplift them and sometimes to anger them. The process of storytelling is a highly complex human interaction, a powerful form of communication that has a high emotional, motivational and social impact. When a story is ‘told’, as opposed to read off the page or witnessed in a dramatic portrayal, it enters the interpersonal and interactive
Oxford: Nash Pollock. Fox, C. (1993). At the very edge of the forest: The influence of literature on storytelling by children. London: Cassell. Fox-Eades, J. (2006). Classroom tales: Using storytelling to build social, emotional an academic skills across the primary curriculum. London: Jessica Kingsley. Haven, K. (2007). Story proof: The science
sphere and this may heighten its emotional impact. For most of human history storytelling has been a major form of entertainment, education and a means of passing on values – often conveying folk wisdom about how to survive or succeed or behave correctly. However, relatively little has been written about the impact of ‘live storytelling’ on children and adults. Our conceptualisation of ‘live’ or oral storytelling is of a triadic interaction between a ’teller’, the ‘story’ being told and the ‘audience’, whether it be one listener or many (Killick & Wilson, 1999). We will consider each in turn, particularly in relation to formal storytelling.
The art of the storyteller The storyteller does not learn a story word for word, as an actor learns a script, but reinvents the story afresh each time.
behind the startling power of story. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Hughes, D. (2004). An attachment based treatment of maltreated children and young people. Attachment & Human Development. 6, 263–278. Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness mediation for everyday life. New York: Hyperion. Killick, S. & Wilson, J. (1999). Weaving words and emerging stories. In B.
Bowen & G. Robinson (Eds.) Therapeutic stories. Warrington: AFT Publishing. Lacher, D., Nicholls, T. & May, J. (2005). Connecting with kids through stories. London: Jessica Kingsley. Lessing, D. (1999). Problems, myths and stories. Monograph Series No.36. London: Institute for Cultural Research. Retrieved 10 July 2009 from www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/
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on through word of mouth (although through interplay between language and they may have become texts at various image (Thomas & Killick, 2007). The points as well). Traditional stories include teller may call upon the rhythm of the myths and legends, historical tales and words as well as some specific phrases ‘fairytales’ (also known as ‘wonder tales’). that are remembered exactly, and they A small proportion of wonder tales such may create strong visual images as Snow White or Cinderella are very associated with the story – storytelling is familiar today, partly because they have not only about listening but also about been transferred to other media and ‘seeing’. The teller may be said to ‘inhabit’ transmitted to wide audiences in novel the story and to take listeners on a forms. Riddles and journey. Such proverbs are fragments processes have much of the oral tradition still in common with “A story is a treasure commonly used today. well-known memory chest of sign, symbol, It is possible to trace techniques. Indeed, image and metaphor” many of these stories back the writer Doris through the generations, Lessing has claimed during which time the tales that literacy may have have evolved considerably while still had a negative impact upon our ability retaining a significant core identity. to remember. Without easy access to The fact that the same stories retain information provided by literacy there a widespread popularity and an appeal was more effort and success in across generations, and often across committing tales to memory (Lessing, cultures, has suggested to many that 1999). there is something archetypal about The storyteller role involves a number these enduring tales and that they must of aspects; the teller is part teacher, part resonate with something deep in the preacher and part entertainer with human psyche. different storytellers emphasising these Many writers, such as Sigmund elements to different degrees. The fact Freud, Bruno Bettelheim, Joseph that a storyteller can select or change the Campbell, Ernest Bloch and Clarissa story to suit the needs of the audience Pinkola Estes have speculated about how adds to the storyteller’s power to engage. such stories may reflect aspects of the The expression to ‘spin a yarn’ reflects the psyche and may facilitate the resolution fact that storytelling was often used to of internal conflicts or provide an arena help time to pass more quickly when for wish fulfilment. Although it has been people were engaged in laborious, alleged that he took his ideas, largely repetitive and boring activities. However unattributed, from the work of Julius a teller’s function is not only to distract Heuscher (Pollak, 1997), Bettelheim has and to entertain. In many cases it is clear been particularly influential. He suggested that there is an intention to instruct (or in that these stories provide a means of some cases mislead), inform or influence transmitting unconscious role models through the meaning inherent in the tale to children and thus helping children and transmitted in the telling. through the various stages of psychosexual development. His idea was ‘Telling’ tales – what are stories that, by identifying with the heroes and really saying? heroines they encounter in these stories, A story is a treasure chest of sign, symbol, children rehearse strategies for dealing image and metaphor. A staple component with such delicate issues as separation of many storytellers’ repertoires are from their parents, failing to meet with traditional or ‘folk’ tales. These stories their parents’ expectations and rivalries come from a mainly oral tradition, passed with peers. Stories allow difficult issues to be examined in fantasy without provoking too much anxiety (Bettelheim, 1976). In a contemporary analysis, Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) wrote of such stories Simmons, J. (2004). Dark angels. London: as ‘wise, ancient, surprisingly Cyan. sophisticated blueprints for our full Sunderland, M. (2000). Using story telling development as human beings’. as a therapeutic tool with children. These tales are often elaborate Bicester: Speechmark. Thomas, T. & Killick, S. (2007). Telling metaphors of transformation and tales: Storytelling as emotional literacy. frequently have an identifiable Blackburn: Educational Prining hermeneutic function. The message that Services. they convey is often deeply implicit but Zipes, J. (2006). Why fairy tales stick. New sometimes, as in Aesop’s fables, laid bare. York: Routledge. The Brothers Grimm collected many
The essential ingredients may remain the same, but every telling of a story is a unique creation that will reflect the storyteller’s mood and their response to the physical environment and the audience. The story is conveyed not just verbally but also non-verbally, and the amount of eye contact, the tone of voice and use of gesture will be modulated and adapted in response to the reactions of the listeners. The style in which the story is told will reflect the content of the story and the personal style of the storyteller. Some storytellers are typically quiet and intimate in their style whereas others make expansive and animated gestures and use a wide vocal range. Thus storytelling is largely improvised and interactive. In order to make the experience intense and the story vivid to listeners, the teller may provide the sensory detail and information about how the characters are thinking and feeling. Stories are ‘remembered’ by the teller
JAMES MENDELSSOHN, WWW.BEYONDTHEBORDER.COM
monographarchive/Monograph36.pdf McClellend, D. (1961). The achieving society. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand. Oatley, K. (1998). Emotion. The Psychologist, 11, 285–288. Oatley, K. (2008). The mind’s flight simulator. The Psychologist, 21, 1030–1032. Pollak, R. (1997). The creation of Dr B: A biography of Bruno Bettelheim. London: Simon & Schuster.
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traditional stories and, as they became popular with the newly emerging commercial market for children, amplified the moral undertones of the stories they collected. Zipes (2006) suggests that such stories are effective transmitters of memes, being storehouses of cultural beliefs, symbols and practices. Typical themes of such stories are the overcoming of seemingly impossible obstacles through the application of such virtues as persistence or kindness. One remarkable theory suggests that the content of popular children’s stories affects the level of economic growth in the culture. McClelland (1961) suggested that the level of personal motivation within a culture is an important determinant of economic productivity and that the stories told to children affect their achievement motivation and, decades later, the economic productivity of the culture. He studied the stories typically read to children in various cultures, analysing the story content to see whether the themes expressed high or low achievement motivation and then correlated the achievement emphasis in these stories with the economic growth (assessed by gross national product) 25 or 50 years later. Remarkably, ‘truth’ of the matter is revealed. However, given all of the other factors that affect whatever meaning may be inherent in the economic outcome, he was able to story and emphasised by the storyteller or demonstrate a highly significant context, it is the listener who is most correlation between economic growth and active in constructing the meaning found the content of children’s stories decades in the story. before. He then engaged in various projects designed to raise the achievement The impact of storytelling motivation of children in underdeveloped Listening is an active process that countries, and an important element of involves both the imagination and the this was to select specific stories to be making of meaning. The positive included in children’s readers. educational effects A more contemporary of reading stories to analysis might suggest that young children have the heroes and heroines of been well folk tales often display the “In healthcare, storytelling demonstrated, character strengths that and drama have been used particularly with have been recently to build confidence and regard to the effects identified within ‘positive communication skills” on children’s language psychology’ as key factors and cognitive in the achievement of development (Blake & authentic happiness and Maiese, 2008; Fox, 1993) suggesting the ‘good life’. Stories can help to storytelling could be a foundation for celebrate these strengths (Fox-Eades, literacy. However, additional benefits of 2006). storytelling have also been postulated. The key messages within folk tales do For example, it has been argued that oral not always relate to moral imperatives. In storytelling has a considerable role to play some cases a twist in the tale reframes the in fostering emotional and social situation portrayed within story so that development or ‘emotional literacy’ (Foxour eyes are opened to a different way of Eades, 2006; Thomas & Killick, 2007). seeing things. Such stories sometimes Listening to stories can impact on the five mislead the listener into one way of pathways of emotional intelligence; seeing things and then produce a sudden awareness, self-regulation, motivation, shock, surprise or amusement when the
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empathy and social competence. Engagement with stories, in all their many forms, can provide an emotional ‘work-out’ for the mind that helps both children and adults to ‘attune’ with their feelings (Oatley, 1998). Indeed, stories might be ‘the natural language of feelings for children’ (Sunderland, 2000). Stories educate people about the emotions, providing insight into human responses and providing a vocabulary for emotions. Stories also portray different ways of coping with emotional situations and of coping with our own and other people’s emotions. Stories can also directly provoke emotions in the audience, thus providing, in some cases, an emotion laboratory ‘in the room’. For young children to hear a ‘scary’ story from a trusted adult gives experience of intense feelings of anxiety and excitement, with a happy ending enabling resolution that produces relief and a return to safety. Other stories stimulate the audience to anger, frustration or sadness. Traumatic experiences can be portrayed directly or indirectly and metaphor and fantasy can be powerfully used. Emotions can be experienced safely within the storytelling context, and the safety of the experience may be ensured by the presence of a trusted attachment figure. Research is needed to ascertain if these benefits exist. Hearing of the emotional responses of
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characters in the story can have profound effects in helping children to develop an appreciation of ‘other minds’ and empathic skills. Oatley (2008) suggests that written stories are simulations that can increase the audience’s understanding of the feelings and intentions of others, adding considerably to the sophistication of the listener’s ‘theory of mind’. This effect may be amplified in the process of live telling. Another benefit is that repeated exposure to hearing stories will help to develop the listener’s understanding of and use of narrative form (Haven, 2007). Appreciation of structure can lead to the ability to recreate such structure. Thus by hearing stories children learn how to tell stories. This may be far more important than it may at first sound. Even if a child never engages in formal storytelling, the ability to produce a narrative is an essential social skill, because from an early age people are expected to be able to give well-structured and coherent accounts of their experiences. Reporting on ‘what happened to me’ is a basic social requirement, and the expectation is that such reports will include the basic elements of a story (context, characters and action) and will be presented as a narrative following a chronological sequence. Furthermore, it may be that some of
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the most important stories we ever tell are those that we tell about ourselves to ourselves. We need to develop the capacity to relate ‘self’ or autobiographical narratives. Thus we may organise our understanding largely in the form of narratives, and the capacity that we develop to construct and manage narratives may reflect our exposure to formal and informal storytelling. The process of being able to ‘tell our story’, to develop a narrative perhaps around a traumatic or other significant event, enables us to organise our own experience and communicate it to others. Experience of storytelling, particularly personal narratives, may help develop this skill. Storytelling may also be a critical ‘attachment building behaviour’ utilising the building blocks of intersubjectivity; joint attention, turn-taking and affect attunement (Engel, 1999). Therapists interested in building attachments between children and carers increasingly call upon storytelling in their work. Dan Hughes (2004) describes how a therapist uses the skills of the storyteller to develop affect attunement. Lacher et al. (2005) describe how creating and telling stories helps build ‘narratives of attachment’ in adopted children. But there are many ways of calling upon this ‘ancient art’. Storytelling is being used more and more as an educational methodology. Scientist turned storyteller Kendall Haven uses storytelling as a way of engaging and interesting learners in a wide variety of subjects, especially science (Haven, 2007). He sees not only the potential of stories to help students’ engagement and motivation but also benefits in terms of memory and attention. Another use for stories is as a stimulus for inquiry to develop thinking skills. This approach is an integral part of the ‘Philosophy for Children’ project (Fisher, 1996), which is also a vehicle for developing emotional literacy skills in school settings and the use of stories especially to help develop an emotional vocabulary and social skills. In healthcare, storytelling and drama have been used to build confidence and communication skills in people with acquired brain injury or to help value and recognition to people’s experience of recovery from severe mental illness and cancer care. Storytelling is also being combined with technology. Digital storytelling uses digital technology to help people tell their own stories. In the NHS ‘patient stories’ can be used to help
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people gain a sense of the ‘journey’ they will experience or to help staff empathise and pay more attention to the experience of service users. The ‘1000 Lives’ campaign (tinyurl.com/1000lives) uses storytelling as a service improvement tool to prevent unnecessary deaths. Patients use storytelling skills to record their experiences of healthcare. These ‘digital stories’ are used as a tool to help healthcare staff be more aware of patients as people rather than just ‘conditions’, also to inspire and remind them of ‘good work’ and simple changes they can make that have great benefits for patient care. The stories can also be used to inform the media and through them, the public, of service changes that are under way. Storytelling is also being used in other organisational settings to develop brand identity and to foster both staff and customer loyalty (Simmons, 2004). Stories may be an alternative, or an antidote, to presentations of quantitative data. They can make such information much more meaningful to people.
More than a sideshow Much of what is speculated about the benefits of exposure to storytelling is based on the study of story-reading. However, it might be that the gains of this ancient and technology-free method of communication may enhance and amplify the benefits of reading and be worth psychological investigation. It has been said that the art of oral storytelling has been lost to modern society through the rise of literacy and the electric light. Now, the experience of hearing a story well told is an unfamiliar one for many. However, the art of formal storytelling is currently enjoying something of a renaissance and is providing more and more adults and children with a rich and joyful experience. And, apart from the world of the virtuoso storyteller, there is the everyday storytelling in which we all participate because it is, quite simply, part of the way in which we all function in our daily interactions with other people. Ultimately, storytelling may be much more than a sideshow in the fairground of human interaction. Stories remind us of what it means to be human in all our complexity, differences and diversity. I Steven Killick is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Cwm Taf NHS Trust, South Wales stevekillick@hotmail.com I Neil Frude is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust neil.frude@ntlworld.com
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The path to prose Paul McCarthy offers some reflections on supervising writing in a PhD
If I’d had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.
his well-known witticism, apparently uttered by Blaise Pascal, Mark Twain, Victor Meldrew and many others, reflects a counterintuitive thought – writing in a clear and concise fashion can be surprisingly tricky. Poor prose persecuted me during my PhD, intruding in every page I wrote, and it reared its ugly head again recently while supervising my first PhD. I was entrusted to supervise a PhD student, especially her writing. I set three goals: to learn the guide to good writing, advance my writing skills, and light the path of credible prose for the student. Though English was her second language, she was able in both written and spoken English. Two experienced senior supervisors supported us and we met each week or fortnight during the first year of the student’s PhD. What follows are my reflections on teaching and learning about writing a PhD, which is after all an attempt to tell an interesting story on paper. Acknowledging my frailties as a writer, I weave an argument that writing with purpose, clarity and style is an art crafted through practice and dedication. I had not reflected on writing and its value until I realised that to gain a PhD one has to contribute originally and substantially to knowledge. How could I contribute to knowledge without writing well? After all, in Australia, a written thesis is often the only method to examine a PhD with an optional viva voce
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Bradford, C.B. (1965). Yeats at work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Elbow, P. (1998). Writing without teachers (2nd edn). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mullins, G. & Kiley, M. (2002). ‘It’s a PhD, not a Nobel Prize’: How experienced examiners assess the research theses. Studies in Higher Education, 27, 369–386.
sought by some examiners (Mullins & Kiley, 2002). In the UK, however, a PhD in psychology generally comprises two assessments, a large piece of writing (40,000–80,000 words) and a viva voce. However, some postgraduates struggle to write well (Torrance et al., 1992). Perhaps they assume wrongly that speaking English creates good prose and do not use reflective practice as an anvil on which to hammer out their ideas. In short, to contribute to knowledge, we should reflect on what we write, consider it thoughtfully and honestly answer whether it is the best we could have done. Reflective practice, a concept introduced by Donald Schön (1983), is a conscious process, to thoughtfully consider experiences and recognise similarities and differences between a novice and skilled equal. In other words, the skills of the novice are assessed relative to the expert in this learning system to enhance the novice’s critical and reflective abilities. During the supervision process, supervisors help students to engage in reflective practice, though they may not be conscious of the process. For example, when the supervisor discusses research issues with a student during faceto-face meetings, the student is challenged to ‘think on her feet’ and respond to questions orally. Afterwards, while the student is writing up her work, she might consider why she said or wrote what she did to develop new ideas and questions about her work. Good writing thrives on these two procedures because reflection forces people to interrogate either
Murray, D.M. (2004). The craft of revision. Canada: Thompson Wadsworth. Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London: Temple Smith. Torrance, M., Thomas, G.V. & Robinson, E.J. (1992). The writing experiences of social science research students. Studies in Higher Education, 17, 155–167.
themselves or to create a dialogue between supervisors (i.e. actors), questioning and peeling a person’s concept of the world and challenging beliefs in a subject. By questioning and challenging what a person assumes, new paths for learning and greater understanding emerges. During the supervision process, I consciously and unconsciously examined the practices, values and beliefs of the supervisors to develop my supervisory practice – in this instance, for the practice of writing. The other supervisors and I spoke about the process of writing and explained its value during face-to-face meetings with the student. The student grappled with her first task to explain the aims of her research proposal. Although challenged at first, via comments from the supervisors and advice in annotated scripts as well as her own reflection, she produced a succinct and defined research proposal for the reader. New sections were clearer, more concise and elegant, taking the reader by the hand through the central thread of the proposal. Although she would add the pearls later to show the context, she had the thread holding the beads on the necklace together (Murray, 2004). I was intrigued to know whether a mix of pedagogical strategies or reflective practice alone developed her writing style. After discussing the research proposal and literature review with the main supervisor, we agreed that the student’s work usually needed structural changes to improve the flow and argument. We talked about the structure and meaning of the student’s research during face-to-face meetings. The initial draft of the student’s literature review lacked certain components of an argument for which we were looking. First, the argument should define and clarify the key issue(s). Second, it should make the writer’s position clear. Third, it should expect and respond to the opposition’s arguments. Fourth, the writer’s arguments should be put in increasing order of importance. Fifth, it should document each argument, and the source of each piece of documentation should be available to the reader (Murray, 2004). Although the student had succeeded in some of these requirements, we felt a better ‘story’ had yet to emerge, a ‘story’ that would entertain the reader and explain the value of her research. That ‘story’ often only emerges through several revisions. Experienced writers often reflect and reorganise their work, persistently changing its content, striking out what needs removing and revising arguments that do not flow.
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Research undertaken among undergraduates and postgraduates in social science demonstrates that postgraduates typically produce more drafts of an assignment before hand-in than do undergraduates (Torrance et al., 1992). However, these drafts mainly contain stylistic but not structural changes: these postgraduates could correct grammatical mistakes, but they did not change the content of the manuscript when it needed changing. That postgraduates differ from both undergraduates and experienced writers in this writing technique implies a developmental change from novice to expert in the writing process. Helping undergraduates and postgraduates to reflect on their writing might develop this skill. After supervising for five months, we considered reflective practice essential for the student. We analysed her text in face-to-face meetings and prompted her to answer our questions orally. Over time, our questioning gave greater understanding to the student. Greater reading of her subject filled the well from which she could draw her story, but only through writing could that story emerge (Elbow, 1998). The student found the writing process difficult, often dampening her confidence as a budding researcher and writer. She appeared unsure of the reader’s needs. Looking through the camera lens, she saw what was important to her and what the topic explored, but not the elements of a structured manuscript for the reader. By exposing examples, we helped the student reach parity in her understanding of the needs of the reader and her writing. We developed two principles for the student to improve her writing. The first principle was to find a ‘voice’, and in that voice, clearly explain the topic for the reader. Guided by her written work in face-to-face meetings, the main supervisor would ask, ‘What is it you would like to say here?’ The student would respond orally, and we would encourage her to write that answer. She could explain what she wanted to write, but her writing time distorted her ‘story’. The second strategy involved ‘taking her work to court’. In
court, she answered critical questions, supporting her work with research. Using this strategy, she examined the flow of arguments, the support for, and balance to these arguments and her final position that a layperson could understand. Both procedures imbued her writing with confidence, helping her to think critically about each word, its value and weight within her argument. On reflection, I was aware that I did not have an overall strategy for helping a student to write well, but the building blocks of good prose emerged eventually in the student’s writing and for that I was proud. Learning how to write well is a frustrating but fulfilling craft. Only by writing can we truly understand what we want to say. As H.G. Wells said, ‘The toil of writing may help to clear and fix many things that remain a little uncertain in my thoughts because they have never been fully stated and I want to discover any lurking inconsistencies and unsuspected gaps’. But what advice would I give to someone who wanted to write well or write a lot? I began by collecting books on good writing comprising grammar, style and strategy. To write well, as Donald Murray’s (Pulitzer Prize winner, 1954) cardinal rule shows, is to ‘apply your behind to a chair’. Most productive writers use a schedule. For example, a prolific English novelist in the Victorian era, Anthony Trollope, began writing before work each morning at 5.30 and did not indulge himself to sleep any longer. He considered three hours of writing in one day enough for any writer. Many other skilled writers had jobs alongside their writing commitment. Agatha Christie worked in a pharmacy during World War I, which influenced much of her writing career; T.S. Eliot worked in banking. Despite our hectic lives, we can find time to write and perhaps time to write well. You need to be prepared to write when the time to write arrives. And like Ernest Hemingway, you need to ‘leave some water in the well’. He finished his work mid-sentence so that when he returned to his work he caught the thread of his thoughts when he last wrote. Peter Elbow (1998) advises to write without focusing on what is written for sets of 15 minutes. This strategy gets something down on paper.
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I learned the rules of good writing using my books on grammar and style, and I try in vain to remember these rules when I revise. These books help me write well-constructed sentences and explain how and why these sentences work best. Active verbs replace passive verbs; redundant words cluttering the prose are removed; shorter sentences help paragraphs to flow. I am moving on from ‘the cat sat on a mat’, trying to remove nominalisations (i.e. nouns derived from verbs or adjectives) from my writing and to show pace, excitement, poise and flair in prose. I encourage you to split the infinitive and ‘to boldly go’ where some people have gone before. Think about what you want to write and keep your arguments rigorous. ‘Longer words’ do not mean ‘better writer’. Lots of small words mean big things like ‘tax’, ‘love’ and ‘life’ – longer words discombobulate the reader. Now, I ‘start’ rather than ‘commence’; I ‘try’ rather than ‘endeavour’ and I ‘buy’ rather than ‘purchase’. Learning to write well and supervise another’s writing has taught me how to write better and teach better. I want to inspire students to write and, like Picasso, ‘I don’t know if inspiration exists, but when it comes, it usually finds me working’. In my brief experience supervising a PhD, I have learned the value of reflective practice and developed my editing skills and those of the student. I have taken down my antenna for criticism and erected one that welcomes new ideas, clarity, and advice for my writing. To reflect is to be a better writer, and without reflecting on my writing I would have struggled to understand how I could learn from others and, perhaps, them from me. More than anything else, I am trying to live by a Latin creed, Nulla dies sine linea – ‘Never a day without a line’. I hope my lines have told my story as I understand it and I leave you with an enduring lesson about good writing drawn from the life of Nobel Prize winning Irish poet and dramatist W.B. Yeats: …he never allowed his equipment to rust unused. Early and late, he worked at his art strenuously. It is this continued faith in works that in part distinguished him from lesser poets, that and an unusual ability to stay at a poem until it came right. (Bradford, 1965) I Paul McCarthy is a lecturer in psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University Paul.McCarthy@gcal.ac.uk
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BOOK REVIEWS
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Growing up – naturally Nature is good for you: recent research shows this to be a fact. And modern life is increasingly keeping our children away from it. Or, at best, nature programmes on TV focus the experience of it on the disappearing rainforests and endangered species, rather than encouraging the young to experience nature directly, climbing trees, hunting and fishing. So, in brief, runs the argument of this passionate American bestseller, now in an updated and internationalised second edition. The book is an excellent example of how an author with journalistic skills can weave published academic research into their story without breaking up the flow or losing the popular reader’s attention. I thoroughly commend it to colleagues in any area of science wondering how to ‘give away’ their findings whilst retaining their essential message. All areas could do with their equivalent of Louv. Before moving to the substance of the book, let us briefly consider its technique. The author captures the immediate interest (an intriguing title, cover flash: ‘an absolute must-read for parents’); introductory story (author’s son aged 10 saying: ‘Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid?’); the modern challenges (‘I like to play indoors better, ‘cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are’). Recent research (much of it from key developmental and environmental psychologists) is cited as it supports the flow of the argument, but without the off-putting apparatus of a scientific article: all journal titles and page references are tidied away into a final section of notes and further reading. The coverage is good; theories and evidence are effectively and responsibly encapsulated. In the past few years, ‘nature is good for you’ has moved from Last Child in the Woods: Saving a warm, general feeling to an evidenced statement. We can now call Our Children from Nature Deficit on the research of Frances Kuo on the positive effects of exposure Disorder to nature on ADHD children, and disaffected youth; Robin Moore on Richard Louv the benefits of nature-playgrounds; Louise Chawla on those cityscapes which involve children; the whole Child Friendly Cities initiative across Europe; the wide-ranging work of Gary Evans on nature and well-being; and many others. Theories as to why nature can have these benign effects range from E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia hypothesis (that we can look to our species’ origins), through the William James-inspired attention-restoration theory of Stephen and Rachel Kaplan, to Howard Gardner’s recent addition of a naturalist intelligence to his list of multiple intelligences. And Louv is good at introducing his readers to many concepts familiar to environmental psychologists, including: place attachment and place identity; children’s ‘special places’; the origins of environmental activism; fascination as involuntary attention; and transcendental nature experiences. Working against these are the forces of commercialisation, the privatisation of open spaces, the commodification of play, the fear of parents about stranger-danger and of traffic hazards. GPS bracelets on our children have replaced the eyes-on-the-street that were our reassurance of their safety. Horror-movies use nature as a scary setting. News stories about eco-disasters may breed, says Louv, ‘ecophobic’ children. In schools, natural history has given way to a more clinical biology. All of this is a world away from Louv’s fondly remembered tree-climbing boyhood. (And Edith Cobb’s analysis of the autobiographies of famous Americans often shows their early formative experiences in nature) So how can parents (and policy-makers) react to this reported loss of connection with nature, armed now with the research evidence presented here? How can they put their own fears into proper perspective? What social, political and spiritual initiatives are called for? The final chapters of the book offer examples, including interestingly cases of well-planned and aware European cities. I Atlantic Books; 2009; Pb £12.99 Reviewed by Christopher Spencer who is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Psychology, University of Sheffield
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Thanks for the… Memory Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck & Michael C. Anderson What is on the cover of the magazine you are holding? What caused you to remember, or to forget? The psychology of memory is the focus of this undergraduate-level textbook. The first part is largely Baddeley’s work and introduces the short-term, working and episodic memory systems. Upon this framework Eysenck adds five chapters examining semantic memory, developmental perspectives and applied topics, such as memory training and eyewitness behaviour. Anderson provides three chapters, covering retrieval as well as incidental and motivated forgetting. The style is accessible, with anecdotes and notable case histories much in evidence, and new paradigms often introduced by an example for the reader to try out. The three authors write clearly, and important terminology is glossed. Graphs and charts present plenty of experimental data but are not obtrusive, and the chapter summaries are a helpful length. Experimental psychology research is the backbone of the book’s evidence base. The authors also discuss findings from cognitive neuroscience, and make an effort to balance laboratory results with applied and experiential approaches. I Psychology Press; 2009; Pb £27.50 Reviewed by Joe Hickey who is an assistant research psychologist with Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
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book reviews
All the essentials
A great resource
A possible classic
Study Skills for Psychology Students Jennifer Latto & Richard Latto
Dementia: From Diagnosis to Management – A Functional Approach Michelle S. Bourgeois & Ellen M. Hickey
A Lifetime of Intelligence. Follow-Up Studies of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947 Ian J. Deary, Lawrence J. Whalley & John M. Starr
I Open University Press; 2009; £14.99 Reviewed by Emer McDermott who is a postgraduate psychology student
This timely volume endeavours to provide a reference manual for the development of functional and behavioural approaches to assessing, managing and treating dementia. The initial chapters introduce the topic of dementia from presentation and diagnosis through to the cognitive, language and behavioural characteristics present across its stages. The book then takes a considered look at assessment, treatment and management paying particular attention to the management of eating. Additionally it considers the impact on quality of life and on the wider system of carers and staff. I found the book to be educational and packed with interesting references whilst also very accessible. The book contains clinical materials in the form of assessment tools and forms to assist with memory and communication. And there are a host of tips to enable the person with dementia to function in daily life. I believe this would be a great resource for any student, practitioner or researcher working with dementia, and with communication disorders. I Psychology Press; 2009; £40.00 Reviewed by Hannah Nelson who is an assistant psychologist with Greater Manchester West, Intermediate Care
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This publication is designed to bring together two worldfamous studies where whole populations of children were tested on their cognitive ability. The two separate groups of children were tested at 11 years old in 1932 and in 1947 and these became known as the Scottish Mental Surveys. The authors rediscovered this data that had lain almost untouched in Edinburgh for sometime and realised that it could potentially offer insight into questions about the predictability of cognitive testing at age 11 such as cognitive ageing and the association of cognitive ability and death [see www.bps.org.uk/deary]. The authors managed to follow up samples of the original cohort in order to answer the
just in
Study Skills for Psychology Students is a well-organised book that aids students as they progress through their degree course. The authors of this concise book provide knowledge they have achieved from their broad and varied experience in working in the psychology field, their education and the British Psychological Society. The book covers all the essentials for psychology students, including information on studying psychology at university, a guide to producing high-standard coursework and examinations, the different forms of teaching provided on these courses, tips on how to make the most of the information technology available, a synopsis of the statistics that will appear, and assistance with confronting and undertaking a research project. There is also a brief chapter on careers for psychology graduates and how to become a practising psychologist. In addition, a website is included that covers up-to-date material on careers, along with advice from the authors and other students on performing well and exercises to aid students with their course.
main question from a psychological point of view; that is, whether IQ is a stable measurement over a person’s lifespan. Surprisingly, the authors indicated that there is a significant correlation between the measurements from age 11 and old age (the subjects were in their 70s and 80s). This was a thoroughly interesting and fascinating study that is exceptional in its longevity and scope. The authors put together an account of follow-ups of unique data that offers a much greater understanding of the various factors that can be predicted by cognitive measurements and the stability across a lifespan that had hitherto not been expected. It is possible that this work will become a classic study in psychology. I American Psychological Association; 2009; Hb £62.95 Reviewed by Christopher Boyle who is an educational psychologist with South Lanarkshire Council
Sample titles just in: Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings Jonathan Fast Cheating in School: What We Know and What We Can Do Stephen F. Davis, Patrick F. Drinan & Tricia Bertram Gallant Pleasures of the Brain Morten L. Kringelbach & Kent C. Berridge Confabulation: Views from Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Philosophy William Hirstein (Ed.) Cambridge Handbook of Personality Philip J. Corr & Gerald Matthews (Eds.) For a full list of books available for review and information on reviewing for The Psychologist, see www.bps.org.uk/books Send books for potential review to The Psychologist, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR
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New titles from Wiley-Blackwell ETHICS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS AND COUNSELORS A Proactive Approach SHARON K. ANDERSON and MITCHELL M. HANDELSMAN Colorado State University and University of Colorado at Denver, USA
This book utilizes positive discussions accompanied by a variety of thought-provoking exercises, case scenarios, and writing assignments to introduce readers to all the major ethical issues in psychotherapy. 264 pages 978-1-4051-7767-2 Hardback £50.00/€60.00 978-1-4051-7766-5 Paperback £17.99/€22.90 July 2009
THE PRACTICAL RESEARCHER A Student Guide to Conducting Psychological Research 2nd Edition DANA S. DUNN Moravian College, USA
In this book, Dana S. Dunn provides students with a concise, engaging, and practical introduction to research methods and the process of conducting research. 488 pages 978-1-4051-6885-4 Paperback £26.99/€34.90 June 2009
DYSLEXIA ETHICS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS 2nd Edition RONALD D. FRANCIS Monash University, Australia
A comprehensive handbook covering the full range of ethical challenges that confront psychologists in practice and research, and addressing new concerns such as ‘whistleblowing’ and Internet-related issues.
A Practitioner’s Handbook 4th Edition GAVIN REID Chartered Educational Psychologist
Highly popular practical handbook updated to include new legislation, inclusion and the role of the parents. 408 pages 978-0-470-76040-6 Paperback £29.99/€37.90 July 2009
328 pages 978-1-4051-8878-4 Hardback £ 55.00/€66.00 978-1-4051-8877-7 Paperback £24.99/€32.90 August 2009
CHEATING IN SCHOOL CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN PRACTICE HELEN BEINART, PAUL KENNEDY and SUSAN LLEWELYN All at University of Oxford, UK
Aimed primarily at trainees as well as qualified psychologists, this book explains the range of competencies which a psychologist is expected to possess, and how these can be applied in a variety of contexts. 408 pages 978-1-4051-6767-3 Paperback £29.99/€37.90 August 2009
What We Know and What We Can Do STEPHEN F. DAVIS, PATRICK F. DRINAN and TRICIA BERTRAM GALLANT Morningside College, USA, University of San Diego, USA and UC San Diego, USA
The first book to present research on cheating in a clear and accessible way and provide practical advice and insights for educators, school administrators, and the average lay person. c.272 pages 978-1-4051-7805-1 Hardback £45.00 / €57.90 978-1-4051-7804-4 Paperback £12.99/€15.90 August 2009
Available from all good booksellers, or order online at www.wiley.com/go/psychology
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BPS Textbooks in Psychology deliver everything the student needs in order to complete an undergraduate degree in Psychology. Refreshingly written to consider more than just American perspectives, these student friendly titles cover everything from introductory to final year modules. They are fully compliant with BPS syllabi and each book is supported by its own website featuring free additional student and lecturer material.
In addition, members of the BPS can get discounts of 20–30% on BPS Blackwell books, just go to www.bps.org.uk/publications and click on BPS Blackwell Books to find out more. For more information on all our publishing, visit: www.wiley.com/go/psychology
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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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Subscribe to The Psychologist: All members of the British Psychological Society (see www.bps.org.uk/join) receive The Psychologist free, but non-members overseas can also subscribe for just ÂŁ70 a year (â‚Ź80). Contact sarah.stainton@bps.org.uk, or see the website. For back issues and more, see
CHAIR, JOURNALS COMMITTEE 2010–13 Call for nominations
The Journals Committee is searching for a new Chair to serve from 2010-2013. This voluntary position is an opportunity to make a real difference by chairing an action-oriented Committee, whose remit is: G
To be responsible for the strategic development, maintenance and co-ordination of the eleven academic journals of the Society
G
To raise the profile of psychology research
G
To oversee the appointment of new editors
The person appointed will automatically become a member of the Publications and Communications Board. FURTHER INFORMATION Further information regarding the role and responsibilities of the Chair can be obtained from Julie Neason, Journals Publishing Manager (contact details below). NOMINATIONS Nominations should reach the Society’s office by 30 October 2009. To ensure validity of nomination you should use the standard nomination form. A short personal statement will also be required. Potential candidates will be considered by the Publications and Communications Board. NB The current Chair, Stephen Morley, has expressed an interest in continuing for a further term. Nomination forms are available from, and once completed should be sent to: Julie Neason, Journals Publishing Manager The British Psychological Society St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East Leicester, LE1 7DR E-mail: Julie.neason@bps.org.uk Direct line: 0116 252 9580
www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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Annual Conference 2010 Poster submissions accepted until 30 November 2009
Psychology in communities and society Keynotes Professor Dominic Abrams University of Kent Dr Matt Field University of Liverpool
14–16 April Holiday Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon
Earlybird registration is open – book online
www.bps.org.uk/ac2010 read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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SOCIETY
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Sue Gardner Contact Sue Gardner via the Society’s Leicester office, or e-mail: president@bps.org.uk
President Elect Dr Gerry Mulhern
Honorary General Secretary Professor Pam Maras Honorary Treasurer Dr Richard Mallows Chair, Membership and Professional Training Board Dr Peter Banister Chair, Psychology Education Board Dr Richard Latto Chair, Research Board Professor Judi Ellis Chair, Publications and Communications Board Dr Graham Powell Chair, Professional Practice Board Dr Carole Allan The Society has offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London, as well as the main office in Leicester. All enquiries should be addressed to the Leicester office (see inside front cover for address). The British Psychological Society was founded in 1901, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1965. Its object is ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied and especially to promote the efficiency and usefulness of Members of the Society by setting up a high standard of professional education and knowledge’. Extract from The Charter
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President’s column
President Sue Gardner
Vice President Dr Elizabeth Campbell
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he Society consists of a number of member networks including Branches, Sections and Divisions. The work of these subsystems is brought together under the auspices of our five Boards. I’d like to summarise some of the current work of three of the Boards and tackle the others in future columns. The Research Board sponsors an extremely popular Undergraduate Research Assistantship Scheme, with research opportunities offered across a diverse range of areas. This year the research placements were undertaken on working memory, facial composites and children’s early narrative skills. The recipients are required to produce a poster presentation for next year’s Annual Conference in Stratford, from 14 to 16 April. I hope to meet them there. The Society has a joint award with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. This award enables a postgraduate research student to be seconded for three months to work at POST, assisting with the development of policy briefing notes for Select Committees and other such forums. Previous POSTnotes included CCTV and facial identification, delaying gratification, eating disorders and alternatives to custodial sentencing. Further details can be found on the website. A joint Ethics Committee and Research Board working party has been preparing a Code of Research Ethics. This code will bring together all of the existing guidance from the Society, including that for research conducted within health settings. The document is being finalised now ready for discussion at both parent bodies. The Research Board is awaiting the launch of the consultation on ‘The Future of Research Excellence’. This consultation is particularly important as it will indicate the classification of psychology in future assessment exercises. We are arguing for the inclusion of psychology as a science. Further details are available from lisa.morrisoncoulthard@bps.org.uk. The Professional Practice Board (PPB) supports the work of practitioner or applied psychologists. The Board produces a wide range of guidance, and recent projects have focused on Approved Clinicians, generic Professional Practice Guidelines and the Provision of Psychological Services via the Internet. Approved Clinicians are mental health professionals who take on a role introduced by the Mental Health Act (2007). This role consists of functions previously carried out by doctors as
T
Responsible Medical Officers (RMOs). The Society is issuing guidance for members taking on this role to help applied psychologists in reaching clinically defensible decisions in the best interests of patients, their families and friends within the provisions of the act. The PPB sponsors workshops for independent practitioners which are proving to be popular. There are also several awards offered by the PPB including for lifetime achievements and for distinguished contribution to professional psychology. For more information, e-mail nigel.atter@bps.org.uk. The Psychology Education Board (PEB) covers issues at both secondary/pre-tertiary and tertiary levels of education. The A-level and Scottish Highers 2008 award has been processed and four of the winners will attend the Festival of Science. The processing of the Undergraduate Award for 2009 is nearing completion. It is good to celebrate the successes of those who will lead the discipline in the future. An e-newsletter is being launched for pre-tertiary teachers to give them news, relevant information and notices of conferences and other events. The PEB and the Division of Teachers and Researchers in Psychology are hosting an ‘Education’ themed day at the Annual Conference. We hope that this will make it easier for those in the classroom or lecture hall who find it difficult to leave teaching for several days to have all the relevant aspects of the conference on one day. The teaching award lecture will be delivered on the same day (see opposite) and there will be opportunities for networking and sharing best practice. I hope that this has given you a feel for some of the exciting work being undertaken at the moment in just three areas of the Society.
LEARNING CENTRE To have your CPD event approved by the Society and for a catalogue of forthcoming opportunities, see www.bps.org.uk/ learningcentre or call 0116 252 9512. To advertise your event in The Psychologist, e-mail psyadvert@bps.org.uk or call +44 116 252 9552. A diary of non-approved events can be found at www.bps.org.uk/diary.
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Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Psychology David Groome, Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher It is through the teaching of psychology that new generations of psychologists are inspired and the profession progresses, so each year the Society seeks to recognise and reward inspirational psychology teachers through the Psychology Education Board’s Excellence in the Teaching of Psychology Award. Because of the high calibre of nominations this year, the panel decided to take the unusual step of making the award jointly to Dr David Groome (University of Westminster), and to Professor Alex Haslam (University of Exeter) and Professor Steve Reicher (University of St Andrews). Dr David Groome was put forward for the award after former students of the University of Westminster lobbied Professor Angela Clow. ‘Two academic psychologists who recall his lectures with warmth and who both felt strongly that he should be recognised for his teaching initially David Groome suggested his nomination for the this award,’ says Angela in her nomination. David has been a consistently popular and inspirational lecturer at the University of Westminster over the last four decades. The time and thought he puts into developing innovative teaching methods that make his lectures relevant, interesting and interactive is recognised by colleagues and students alike. Comments made on feedback forms from Dr Groome’s lecture modules colourfully illustrate his popular teaching style: ‘Interesting, funny and useful’; ‘fantastic, clear and presented in a way that I learned a lot from them’; ‘excellent – he is a legend’. As well as the long-lasting positive influence Dr Groome has had on many of his students, this award also recognises his commitment to developing the psychological sciences programme at the University of Westminster. In her nomination, Professor Clow cites David as being ‘absolutely central to the development of psychological sciences since his arrival at the University of Westminster in 1970; setting up the first psychology degree and then developing
the syllabus so that it was successfully validated by the British Psychological Society’. As acting head of department, David’s continued commitment ensures the university’s psychology degree remains popular and successful. On receiving the award, David told us: ‘I am absolutely delighted to receive this award, and it is really touching to discover that some of Steve Reicher my ex-students and colleagues actually thought I was worth nominating for it. This is definitely one of the high points of my very lengthy career, and all the more so because I had pretty unpromising beginnings. Not many people know this, but I actually failed the eleven-plus. So this bit of success shows that people should always be given a second chance. And one thing is for sure, Sir Cyril Burt would not have been happy to hear about this.’ This year’s teaching award also went jointly to Professor Alex Haslam and Professor Steve Reicher. Their 2001 BBC Prison Study, revisiting the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment to explore issues like tyranny and collective resistance, has gone on to become a core topic of psychology curricula, including the OCR psychology A-level and the Open University’s social psychology course. Not only did the series ignite the interest Alex Haslam of the general public, it also led to articles in leading journals such as the British Journal of Psychology (and see their article in The Psychologist at www.bps.org.uk/prison). However, as Dr Michelle Ryan (University of Exeter) and Dr Nick Hopkins (University of Dundee) say in their nomination: ‘The most lasting legacy is their impact on psychology curricula across the UK, and the pioneering way that Haslam and Reicher developed innovative resources’ to support its teaching.’
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
Using a multi-media approach, Professors Haslam and Reicher developed a DVD, manual, website and podcasts to support the teaching of the subject. Teachers and students alike continue to find these resources engaging, informative and stimulating; prompting positive reviews such as: ‘Its usefulness for teaching will be phenomenal, this is a must-see for any social psychology course’, and ‘I will be using the DVD as a revision lesson for my students and will do a much better job of teaching this fab study next year’. Alex and Steve have also given up their time to give many lectures on their work, addressing large and diverse audiences. These lectures have been incredibly well received due to both professors’ enthusiasm and passion for the subject which they convey to their rapt audiences. On receiving this award, Professor Alex Haslam told The Psychologist: ‘We were both really pleased to receive this award and see it as a great honour. It means a lot to us because it arose from our collaboration on the BBC Prison Study – a project that we’ve been working on pretty solidly for the last eight years. Over this time we’ve focused on trying to translate the study’s findings into both research and teaching outcomes and on showing that these things are not necessarily incompatible. Along the way we‘ve learned a lot ourselves, and have benefited from wonderful support from teachers, students and colleagues. This has been the source a lot of our motivation, but it’s also been a lot of fun and something for which we’re incredibly grateful.’ The winners of the 2009 Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Psychology were all given free life membership of the Society and a commemorative certificate. They have also been invited to give papers on the teaching of psychology at the Society’s Annual Conference in 2010, where they will receive their award.
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CONSULTATIONS ON PUBLIC POLICY Society members prepared responses to the following consultations during August: 1. Better Diabetes Care (Scotland) 2. Consultation on Guidance About Compliance with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Registration Requirements) Regulations (2009) (Care Quality Commission) 3. Draft Guidance on Provisions to Deal with Nuisance or Disturbance Behaviour on NHS Premises in England (Department of Health) 4. Guidance on Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Looked After Children (Department for Children, Schools & Families – DCSF) 5. Handling Allegations of Abuse Made Against Adults who Work with Children and Young People (DCSF) 6. NHS Clinical Knowledge Summaries – Draft on Schizophrenia (NHS Clinical Knowledge Summaries) 7. Review of Secure Mental Health Services (Welsh Assembly Government) In the response to the DCSF regarding their draft Guidance on Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Looked After Children (no 4 in the list above), the following points were raised: I the draft guidance generally espouses a medical model of health but the evidence indicates that the main focus of the service should be psychological and preventive; I the designated doctor and nurse are given key roles in the delivery of services even though many psychological issues have been identified; I there is no mention of longer-term educational, employment and criminal justice implications for looked after children; I no strategy is identified for dealing with the transition from child to adult services. The Department of Health’s Draft Guidance on Provisions to Deal with Nuisance or Disturbance Behaviour on NHS Premises in England (number 3 in the list above) was found to be too long, too prescriptive, to contain too many steps, to create additional duties of care, and to get in the way of current practice to maintain a safe environment: it was therefore considered likely to be difficult to implement. The guidance also risks re-balancing too far towards the offender with reasonable excuse and placing too great an emphasis on exempting groups of individuals who may otherwise be liable for an offence. Various proposals for how the guidance could be developed were made including: I widening the mental health conditions that might present with reasonable excuse; I making clear the effect of nuisance/disturbance on NHS staff’s ability to conduct their work and preserve a therapeutic environment (thus including the effect of nuisance/disturbance on service users and carers); I making mental health awareness training mandatory. The preparation and submission of the Society’s responses to consultations on public policy is coordinated by the Policy Support Unit (PSU). All members are eligible to contribute to responses and all interest is warmly welcomed. Please contact the PSU for further information (psu@bps.org.uk; 0116 252 9926/9577). Details of active and completed consultations are available at: www.bps.org.uk/consult.
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‘Going Green’ The Division of Occupational Psychology has established a new working group – Going Green – to promote the issue of proenvironmental behaviour and green management within the Division. The group is specifically aiming to generate new research and identify good practice regarding how to change employee and consumer environmental attitudes and behaviours. To build a community of occupational psychologists with an interest in this area and highlight the contribution that the profession can make, Going Green is planning the following key activities: I establish an e-group where individuals can discuss this topic and share good practice (available through the ‘communities of interest’ link on www.bps.org.uk/dop); I create and promote a business forum to connect with a wide range of stakeholders; I establish an MSc research competition to engage young researchers; I contribute to publications such as Personnel Today and People Management to reach a wider audience; I organise a one-day symposium with state-of-the-arts from practitioners and academics; I conduct an industry survey investigating key aspects of green behaviour; I hold a practitioner forum at the 2010 DOP Conference; and I keep members informed of progress through follow-up articles in The Psychologist and POW. There is a real chance for occupational psychologists to make a difference, and the DOP is encouraging all interested members to get in touch via Gene_Johnson@Dell.com.
Society vacancies Ethics Committee
Society representative on the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) Standing Committee on Ethics Vacancy for a Member of the Society with an interest in ethics to serve as the Society’s representative on this European committee. Two-year term. Travel and subsistence expenses met. Contact Liz Beech liz.beech@bps.org.uk Closing date 30 October 2009 Journals Committee
Chair 2010/13 See advertisement on p.860, this issue. Contact Julie Neason julie.neason@bps.org.uk, 0116 252 9580 Closing date 30 October 2009 Ethics Committee
Chair See The Psychologist, September issue p.787. Contact Lisa Morrison Coulthard lisa.morrisoncoulthard@bps.org.uk, 0116 252 9510 Closing date 30 October 2009
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Taking psychology to society The Publication and Communications Board set up their annual grants scheme for members to ‘take psychology to society’. Any form of project is welcome, from street parties to webpages to miniconferences – provided that one of the outcomes is some form of sustainable resource that will reach as large an audience as possible. This year, 19 applications were received, three of which received funding. Kathryn Rathouse received ÂŁ1600 to put on a masterclass for organisations responsible for promoting water efficiency. It will be run in collaboration with Waterwise (an NGO focused on reducing water waste in the UK). During the masterclass, experts will explain the psychological principles, give some case studies showing how the principles have been successfully applied, and discuss with delegates the implications for their day-to-day work. The session is to be held
in early December 2009 at Defra’s offices, London. Sally Hodges received £5000 to create an educational DVD to promote an online mental health resource for primary school children. The DVD will contain information on how to use the site, how to make the puppets children will see on the site and information on how to talk to children about their worries, together with ideas for further support. The DVD will be reusable throughout schools and will be both educational and promotional. Finally, Ann Rowland received £7313 to provide the psychological dimension to a website for bereaved young people. In
collaboration with the Child Bereavement Charity, a young people’s advisory group will be set up to seek views and opinions of young bereaved people. These views will then be used as a foundation to develop a resource for parents, carers and educational professionals to give them greater insight into the needs and experiences of young people affected by death. The next round of funding will commence in the spring of 2010. There is no limit to the amount of funding available, other than the overall grants budget of £14,000. Further information, including approved target audiences and details of assessment criteria, can be found at www.bps.org.uk/grants.
Ethical code change To take account of the change in the role of the Society in relation to professional misconduct, some minor changes to the Code of Ethics and Conduct have been implemented with effect from 1 August 2009. The changes mainly reflect the role of the Health Professions Council in the regulation of practitioner psychologists and the new Member Conduct Rules. New information is also
Unwanted WAIS III complete in hard case. Used twice. ÂŁ600 ono. Tel 01829 751892
provided in relation to ethics support and guidance that is available for members. Whilst these changes are not significant, all members are encouraged to obtain a copy and re-familiarise themselves with its contents and overarching principles. A copy of the new Code can be downloaded from http://www.bps.org.uk/thesociety/code-of-conduct/codeof-conduct_home.cfm or hard copies are available from the Society’s Leicester office on request. Further to the revised Code, additional ethics guidance and support (including frequently asked questions) can be found at www.bps.org.uk/thesociety/code-of-conduct/codeof-conduct_home.cfm and two new e-mail addresses have been launched to assist members seeking guidance in relation to practice ethics and research ethics (practice-ethics@ bps.org.uk and researchethics@bps.org.uk).
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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Organised by BPS Conferences
2009
CONFERENCE DCP Manager’s Faculty DCP Professional Practice Workshop Edinburgh Lectures BPS Scotland London Lectures Division of Clinical Psychology
DATE 14-15 October 5 November 17 November 28-29 November 8 December 9-11 December
VENUE Ramada Hotel, Leicester Tabernacle Street, London Our Dynamic Earth Apex Hotel, Edinburgh Kensington Town Hall Congress Centre, London
WEBSITE www.bps.org.uk/conferences www.bps.org.uk/conferences www.bps.org.uk/edinburgh2009 www.bps.org.uk/scottish/events www.bps.org.uk/london2009 www.dcpconference.co.uk
2010
BPS conferences are committed to ensuring value for money, careful budgeting and sustainability in the current economic climate
CONFERENCE Postgraduate Occupational Psychology DECP Trainee Event DECP Professional Development Event Division of Occupational Psychology Psychotherapy Section Annual Conference DCP Faculty for Learning Disabilities Division of Counselling Psychology Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section
DATE 12-13 January 12 January 13-15 January 13-15 January 29-30 March 14-16 April 28-30 April 8-10 July 23-25 August
VENUE Holiday Inn, Brighton Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth Holiday Inn, Brighton Durham University Holiday Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon Chancellor’s Hotel, Manchester University of Strathclyde, Glasgow University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus
WEBSITE www.bps.org.uk/pop2010 www.bps.org.uk/tep2010 www.bps.org.uk/decp2010 www.bps.org.uk/dop2010 www.bps.org.uk/conferences www.bps.org.uk/ac2010 www.bps.org.k/fld2010 www.bps.org.uk/dcop2010 www.bps.org.uk/qmip2010
INTRODUCTION TO EXPERT WITNESS WORK IN FAMILY COURT Training Day, including Manual £195 + VAT Liverpool 2nd December 2009 London 15th April 2010 Presenter: Jacqueline Siner, chartered psychologist and experienced expert witness For full details see: www.jsapsychology.co.uk www.bps.org.uk/learningcentre Contact Helen or Yvonne at JSA Psychology Tel: 0151 255 0533 Fax: 0151 255 0555 Email: office@jsapsychology.co.uk
Quantitative EEG, Event Related Potentials and Neurotherapy course. On this 5 day course, you will learn how to record and analyze EEG and ERP’s: compare them to a normative database, identifying endophenotypes of brain dysfunctions, from Specific Learning Disabilities to Psychopathologies for research, therapy and medication. at London University 2nd – 6th December, 2009 www
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Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorders Frank Yeomans, Clinical Associate Professor, Cornell University 2nd November 2009, BPS London Office The treatment of borderline patients is one of the most challenging areas in mental health. An increasing body of clinical experience and research shows that TransferenceFocused Psychotherapy (TFP) can help these patients achieve character change. TFP is a psychodynamic psychotherapy developed by Otto Kernberg for borderline conditions. This course will teach the participant the theory and techniques of TFP which help the therapist provide effective treatment of this disorder with less chaos and stress than is usually associated with the treatment of borderline patients. Course fee: £100 To book a place and for more information please visit www.bps.org.uk/learningcentre-tfp
BPS Learning Centre
. q eeg . c o .u k vol 22 no 10
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providing opportunities
supporting your CPD
maintaining standards
The Learning Centre is the British Psychological Society’s online portal for training and professional development. EVENT
DATE
VENUE
Supervision skills training – Workshop 2: Enhancing supervision skills
2 October
Society’s London Office
Introduction to psychometrics
9 October
Society’s London Office
Child clinical neuropsychology course (part 2)
12–16 October
Charney Manor, Oxford
Achieving leadership for effective team working within living local systems
14 October
Wakefield
Goalsetting and coaching psychology
15 October
Society’s London Office
Clinical issues: Asylum seekers and refugees
16 October
Society’s Leicester Office
Introduction to supervision skills
16 October
Edinburgh
Expert Witness: Essential knowledge of being an Expert Witness (Level 1)
21 October
Society’s London Office
Psychometrics discussion forum (half-day)
22 October
Society’s London Office
Expert Witness discussion forum (half-day)
22 October
Society’s London Office
Supervision skills
22 October
Society’s London Office
Adult survivors of child sexual abuse: Attachment, dilemmas and complexities
26–27 October
Society’s London Office
Statement of Equivalence information day
29 October
Society’s London Office
New ways with dreams
30 October
Society’s London Office
Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for borderline and narcissistic personality disorders
2 November
Society’s London Office
Expert Witness: Report writing (Level 2)
4 November
Society’s London Office
Supervision skills training – Workshop 3: Review of supervision skills
7 November
Society’s London Office
Advanced Psychopathy Assessment – The CAPP and other strategies
9–10 November
Society’s London Office
Working with trauma
12 November
Society’s London Office
Qualification in occupational psychology new route supervisors training
12 November
LJMU
Looking forward: Psychology in the South West
14 November
Exeter
Working with dreams and nightmares in therapy
15 November
Exeter
Treating a fear of flying in clinical practice
19 November
Society’s London Office
Relational approaches to rehabilitation following acquired brain injury
27 November
The Resource Centre, London
An introduction to working with the media
1 December
Society’s London Office
Qualification in occupational psychology new route supervisors training
3 December
Society’s London Office
Broadcast interview skills
7 December
Society’s London Office
Expert Witness: Presenting court room evidence (Level 3)
10 December
Society’s London Office
Psychometrics discussion forum (half-day)
21 January
Society’s London Office
Expert Witness discussion forum (half-day)
21 January
Society’s London Office
For more information please visit www.bps.org.uk/learningcentre To book a place on a Learning Centre event please call 0116 252 9512
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
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Centre for
Stress Management promoting the cognitive behavioural approach for over 20 years
Primary Certificate Courses 2009–2010 5–6 Oct Stress Management 23–24 Nov Occupational Stress Management Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 16–17 Nov; 14–15 Dec; 1–2 Feb 2010 and Training 7–8 Dec Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy 28–29 Oct Problem Focused Counselling, Coaching & Training 28–29 Jan 2010 Assertion and Communication Skills Training 16–17 Dec Relaxation Skills Training 26–27 Jan 2010 Multimodal Therapy & Counselling 8–9 Oct Trauma and PTSD (3 days) 30 Nov–2 Dec Advanced CBT (3 days) 4–6 Nov Advanced REBT TBA Mediation Skills
Other Courses
Centre for Postgraduate
All courses can be run in-house
Studies and Research Ltd
In association with Centre for Stress Management
Training centre and consultancy providing Continuing Professional Development programmes for health professionals
Certificate in Cognitive Behaviour Therapies & Hypnosis/Certificate in Cognitive Hypnotherapy Part 1: either Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy & Training Part 2: Primary Certificate in Cognitive Hypnotherapy
7-8 Dec 16–17 Nov; 14–15 Dec; 1–2 Feb 2010 3–5 Feb 2010
Advanced Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy Advanced Certificate in Rational Emotive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy Diploma in Stress Management: A Cognitive Behavioural Approach Cert in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Cert in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy Courses held in London unless stated otherwise. Trainers include: Professor Stephen Palmer, Michael Neenan, Kasia Szymanska, Liz Doggart, Irene Tubbs and Nick Edgerton Approved by the British Psychological Society Learning Centre for the purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Course validated by General Hypnotherapy Standards Council www.studiesandresearch.com Tel 01582 712161 Email admin@studiesandresearch.com
Centre for Coaching Diplomas†
2009–2010
Coaching Psychological Coaching (postgraduate level)
Diploma in Coaching Psychology†
promoting the cognitive behavioural approach
Advanced Certificates Modular programmes in coaching, psychological coaching & coaching psychology
Postgraduate programme for psychologists with GBC and graduate members of the Society for Coaching Psychology
Certificate Courses*
9–13 Nov ; 7–11 Dec; 18–22 Jan 2010; 22–26 Feb 2010 Coaching†‡ TBA Coaching – counsellors/psychotherapists 15–19 Mar 2010 Psychological Coaching†‡ 15–19 Mar 2010 Coaching Psychology modular Stress Management and Performance Coaching† modular Stress Management and Health Coaching
Primary Certificate Courses Performance Coaching Health Coaching Stress Management Assertion & Communication Skills Redundancy Coaching and Counselling
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30 Sep–1 Oct; 25–26 Nov 21–22 Oct 5–6 Oct 28–29 Jan 2010 10–11 Feb 2010
Approved by the British Psychological Society Learning Centre for the purposes of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Trainers include: Professor Stephen Palmer, Nick Edgerton, Gladeana McMahon, Kasia Szymanska, Irene Tubbs and Dr Siobhain O’Riordan.
All courses can be run in-house The Centre for Coaching is an ILM Recognised Provider. As a recognised provider, the Centre runs a wide range of coaching and management development programmes which are suitable for Continuing Professional Development.
Recognised Course
* Courses recognised by the Association for Coaching † Courses accredited by Middlesex University ‡ Society for Coaching Psychology Recognised Course
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CPD
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) ‘engaging’ ‘relevant’ ‘topical’ ‘thought provoking’ ‘stimulating’ CBT is now the treatment of choice for a wide range of clinical problems
Two-day ‘Introductory Workshop’ on Tuesday 29th & Wednesday 30th September 2009 or Tuesday 27th & Wednesday 28th October 2009 “Relevant insights into the human condition”. This introduction to CBT covers learning theory from a cognitive and behavioural perspective, the research base, basic principles of treatment and the practical application of CBT.
AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DOCTORAL RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY 2009 Nominations invited
Two-day ‘Skills Workshop’ on Wednesday 2nd & Thursday 3rd December 2009 Intended for non-CBT specialists, the ‘skills course’ is designed to put theory into practice across a range of conditions. It provides an understanding of specific CBT techniques to help you develop an effective ‘tool-kit’ of CBT treatment strategies.
Venue: The British Psychological Society, 30 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4UE Price: £395 for the two days Our courses are all designed and run by Dr Brian Marien and Dr Jannie Van Der Merwe. More information and feedback on our previous courses can be seen on our website www.cbt-edu.co.uk
Accreditation: This 2 day workshop is awarded 12 CPD hours, subject to your peer group approval, and in line with the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ guidelines. For further information and how to book please contact Doon Muir, Telephone: 01730 812123 Email: doon.muir@positivehealthstrategies.com
The Society of Analytical Psychology The UK’s leading provider of training in Jungian analysis offers prospective patients and professionals a rich variety of therapeutic and creative resources for 2009:
SAP Training and Education Open Afternoon: 26th September, 3-6pm An opportunity to find out more about The Society's trainings and to meet some of the analysts who teach on them G Four-year professional training in Jungian analysis G ‘Foundations of Analytical Psychology’ short courses (Wednesday evenings, October–March) G One-year course on Supervision (October–July) G Infant Observation seminars G Links to post-graduate Jungian Studies Programme, Essex University
C. G. Jung Clinic and Consultation Service Affordable, reduced-cost analysis for suitable applicants and a readily accessible Consultation Service for those seeking private referral to a Jungian Analyst.
Public Events Annual Lecture: 24 October, London: ‘The Banality of Evil and What it Means to be a Person’ For our new 2009-2010 programme of CPD-accredited talks in London, Oxford and Cambridge, contact us at
www.thesap.org.uk 1 Daleham Gardens, London NW3 5BY 020 7419 8896 or 020 7419 8898 Email: office@thesap.org.uk
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
Nominations are invited to this annual award to recognise outstanding contributions to psychological knowledge by postgraduate research students whilst carrying out research for their doctoral degrees in psychology.*
Criteria – The Award Committee will base its decision on published psychology articles, reporting the research carried out for a doctoral degree.* A maximum of two articles can be submitted, and the following requirements must be met: G The articles must have been published in refereed journals (normally those covered by Psychological Abstracts), or be in press. G The candidate must be either the sole or senior author of the article(s) concerned. G The candidate’s doctoral degree supervisor or head of department must sign a statement confirming that the research reported in the article(s), was carried out by the candidate as research for a doctoral degree in psychology that was passed by a university in the UK normally not more than two years before the date of acceptance of the article(s) for publication.
Nominations G
G
G G
Proposers must send a 500-word nomination statement outlining why the candidate’s work is outstanding and why they should be considered for the award. Proposers must send 10 copies of what they judge to be the candidate’s two most outstanding and significant publications reporting the research carried out for the candidate’s doctoral degree. Proposers must also send 10 copies of the candidate’s current full CV. Nominations should be sent to Dr Lisa Morrison Coulthard (Policy Advisor–Science and Research) at the Leicester office by Friday 27 November 2009.
Award – A £500 prize and a commemorative certificate. The recipient is also invited to deliver a lecture based on the research at the Society’s Annual Conference. The Award Committee may decide not to make an award in any given year. For further information please, contact Liz Beech at the Society’s office (e-mail liz.beech@bps.org.uk). *A candidate may only be nominated for the award if the doctoral degree was awarded no longer than three years ago (i.e. in 2006).
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Do you dream of becoming a modern, progressive mental health professional? At the University of Essex you can: Achieve a dual qualification (MSc and Registered Nurse) on this innovative course Gain practical experience with patients suffering from severe mental illness Put your knowledge of psychology to good use and help people with complex mental health problems Benefit from fees paid in full and a non-repayable bursary of £4,000 per annum Come to our Nursing open evening on the 11 November 2009 at the Colchester Campus. To book a place please call: 01206 874960. If you are interested in making a difference to peoples’ lives and desire a rewarding career we would like to hear from you. For more information and to apply please contact us by telephone: 01206 874496 or by e-mail: ipl@essex.ac.uk
Visit our website at: www.essex.ac.uk/hhs
Training in PsychometricTesting Psytech International is one of the leading developers of psychometric tests and assessment software. Psytech offers a highly focussed, verified training course leading to the BPS Certificates of Competence in Occupational Testing at Level A and Level B Intermediate. Six days taught, plus one day follow-up. Non-residential fee of £1300 + VAT to include test materials and full pre and post course supoport. Level B Intermetiate Plus and Test Administration courses also available. Access to over 100 psychometric tests including 15FQ+*, 16PF5**, JTI and many more.
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Practical and effective treatment of nutrition-related aspects of eating disorders Autumn 2009: 23–25 November, London Spring 2010: 22–24 April, London
NEW FOR 2010 CHILDHOOD EATING DISORDERS & OBESITY A three day Masterclass with focus on practical and evidence based skills for working with families who grapple with faddy eating, food refusal, compulsive eating and early onset anorexia With Professor Bryan Lask, Paul Sacher (MEND) & Deanne Jade 3 days: 22–24 January 2010, London
A prospectus for each course can be found online at: www.eating-disorders.org.uk (select ‘Training’) Alternatively please call 0845 838 2040 for further info
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ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS • The fast trauma and phobia cure • Autism and Asperger’s syndrome – practical solutions for parents, carers etc • How to incorporate outcome NEW measures into your practice • From self-harm ... to self-belief • Understanding and treating psychotic disorders NEW • Working therapeutically with couples • Guided imagery and visualisation for therapeutic change • Supporting parents of troubled teens • How to lift depression • Dealing with difficult people and conflict • Working effectively with troubled and troublesome teenagers • Brief therapy skills for stopping addictions • How to tell stories that heal • New ways to connect with and help disturbed children and young people • How to manage pain & accelerate healing • The essential brief therapy strategies • Optimising learning: in the therapy room or classroom
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Looking for a better deal on your Professional Liability Insurance? After comparing several different suppliers, the British Psychological Society (BPS) now recommends Howden Professionals as one of its preferred brokers to arrange professional liability insurance for its members. Cut out now and compare our prices at renewal time… For members of the BPS who practise psychology (including training and supervision): £1.5m Premium (Including Legal Helpline) Insurance premium tax * Administration Fee Total amount payable
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The UK College of Hypnosis & Hyyp pnotherapy Ltd.
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Contact Sally for further details: West Hill House, 6 Swains Lane, London N6 6QS Tel no: 020 7482 4212. Fax no: 020 7485 7957 E-mail: sally@westhillhouse.biz
Clearing House for Postgraduate Courses in Clinical Psychology PSYCHOLOGY GRADUATES Do you have a good honours degree? Do you have relevant experience? You could have a career in clinical psychology. For information about clinical psychology courses or to apply for the 2010 intake please see our website: www.leeds.ac.uk/chpccp
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The closing date for applying is 1 December 2009.
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London W1 Consul ng Rooms Full Time, Sessional and Occasional Since 1966, “GAP” has been situated in the picturesque and peaceful street of Montagu Mansions just off Baker Street in London’s W1. Now, the new, lively, broader-based prac ce embraces clinical and organisa onal psychology as well as coaching, mentoring and psychotherapy. If you’re looking for a collegial and successful psychology prac ce base, we fit the bill. Consul ng rooms are generously sized for both individual consulta ons and group sessions. All have high speed wireless internet access, telephone handsets and front door entry system. The prac oners benefit from knowledgeable and friendly full me recep onist staff as well as offering report and le er typing services, personalised prac ce email facili es and therapist website profiles. The prac ce enjoys a high rate of external referral, internal collabora on and regular PR events.
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PSYCHOANALYTIC SUPERVISION (weekly/fortnightly/monthly) READING AND STUDY GROUP (monthly) o Develop your psychoanalytic understanding o Enhance the depth and interest of your work o Extend your portfolio of clinical skills o Bring a psychoanalytic dimension to your practice Location: Kilburn/Queens Park, London NW6 Fees: Individual - 1 hour session - £65 Group - 2 hour session - £35 Dr Maggie Turp UKCP C. Psychol Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists Email: maggieturp@googlemail.com Telephone: 020 7461 0134
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Integrate practical spirituality into twenty-first century clinical work, combining systemic, Human Givens and CBT skills with spiritual healing and other subtle energy techniques to address wellbeing at every level of existence. The Soul Therapy Centre is an internationally acknowledged clinic run by a chartered psychologist, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and healers, offering training in our innovative, holistic style of treatment for mind, body, soul and environment. In the two year parttime Diploma Course in Soul Therapy, nationally accredited by the Alliance of Healing Associations and achieved Stage 4 (highest level) recognition by UK Healers, participants will be able to enrich and underpin their present-day therapeutic skills with an awareness of ancient wisdoms and methods of self and interpersonal healing techniques. Students are drawn from experienced healthcare professionals and a wide range of other occupations to form a richly resourced group. The first year runs for three terms of ten weeks, plus practical sessions & tutorials, starts in January 2010 and takes place on Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm–9.30pm at The Soul Therapy Centre (established in North London in January 1996) and the second year is fortnightly on Tuesday evenings. Enquiries and applications welcome, via our website: http://www.soul-therapy.co.uk or contact Ingrid Collins, Chartered Psychologist and Registered Spiritual Healer, on 020 8883 8562.
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Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology Open Day Come and find out more about the 3 year programme at our Open Day on Thursday 12 November from 12:45–16:30 at the University of East Anglia, Norwich A chance to meet the course team and current trainees and find out more about the programme and application process To find out more and register your attendance please email clinpsyd@uea.ac.uk
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SPEARMAN MEDAL 2010
CPD PROGRAMME 2009 - 2010
On Becoming A Qualified Psychologist (ref: CPD80)
The Research Board invites nominations
A Reflective Workshop Series January - April 2010 Fee: £315 Venue: The Tavistock Centre Making the transition from trainee to qualified psychologist can be daunting. These sessions are designed for newly and recently qualified clinical, educational and counselling psychologists who wish to continue their professional development by reflecting on the transitions involved in taking up their new roles. It offers participants the opportunity to meet with other psychologists at a similar stage in their careers to discuss transitions, dilemmas and ideas together.
Criteria: G
psychology. G
The work must have been carried out by the candidate within 8 years following the completion of a PhD (although
The sessions will consist of direct teaching and training, on topics relevant to participants, as well as work discussion. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on dilemmas and issues in their real work situations, and to think about those of other participants. This course will usefully supplement any other specific cpd programmes and opportunities.
“These sessions have been really valuable. A thinking space to reflect on the
The award is made for outstanding published work in
research undertaken during the PhD can be taken into account) and should represent a significant body of research output. G
process of becoming qualified including identity, working in challenging systems, establishing future directions and opportunities."
The Selection Committee will look for evidence of the theoretical contributions made, the originality of research (including innovation in the experimental methods or techniques used) and the impact of the research findings.
For further information please contact The Conference, Events and Marketing Unit, The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Tel: 020 8938 2548, Email: events@tavi-port.org, Website: www.tavi-port.org/conferences
G
Candidates need not be members of the Society, but they must be resident in the UK.
Nomination: G
Proposers must send a detailed nomination statement outlining the candidate’s contribution to psychology, together with a copy of the candidate’s current full CV.
G
Proposers must also send 14 copies of what they judge to be the candidate’s two most outstanding and significant publications to date.
G
Nominations should be sent to Liz Beech at the Leicester office by 8 January 2010.
BACIP Autumn Conference 2009
Children’s Spirituality Date: Saturday, November 14th, 2009 Venue: University of Leicester Distinguished speaker: Dr Rebecca Nye An expert in children’s spirituality who has worked as Reader in Education at Anglia Ruskin University, UK trainer for accredited Godly Play courses, Director of research for the Godly Play Foundation
Award: Recipients are invited to deliver the Spearman Medal Lecture at the Society’s Annual Conference, at which they will be presented with the Medal and a commemorative certificate.
Previous Spearman Medal winners: 2007 Dr Chris Chambers 2008 Dr Tom Manly
Further details and registration forms are available online or by contacting Janet Jackson (BACIP Administrator) Email: administrator@bacip.org.uk Tel: 0116 2301057 http://www.bacip.org.uk The British Association of Christians in Psychology is an association of over 300 members representing professional, trainee, postgraduate and undergraduate UK psychologists
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
2009 Dr Matt Field
For more information and the full nomination criteria, please contact Liz Beech on 0116 252 9928 or e-mail liz.beech@bps.org.uk.
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INTER INTERNATIONAL RNA AT TIONAL A AUTISM UT TISM CONFERENCE 2009 C ON NFERENCE 2 00 09 23 - 25 OCTOBER 2009
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Forr information on speakers, top topics, pics, workshops, works prices pri and an registration registr tra ration please go to:
The British Neuropsychiatry Association 23rd Annual General Meeting 11/12 February 2010 With a joint meeting, 10 February, with the Section of Neuropsychiatry, RCPsych Venue: The Institute of Child Health, Guilford St, London Topics to include: G Memory (SoN/BNPA) G Encephalopathy and delirium G Head Injury G Neuropsychiatry and the Self For outline programme and registration form visit: www.bnpa.org.uk For details of exhibition/sponsorship opportunities, contact: Jackie Ashmenall on Phone/Fax 020 8878 0573 Phone: 0560 1141307 Email: admin@bnpa.org.uk or jashmenall@yahoo.com
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Research. Digested. Free. The British Psychological Society’s internationally renowned and completely free Research Digest service is now available via: I Blog: see www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog I E-mail: send a blank message to subscribe-rd@lists.bps.org.uk I Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/digestonfacebook I Twitter: http://twitter.com/researchdigest
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hear some of the UK's top psychologists talk about what makes us tick!
Edinburgh Lectures Tuesday 17 November 2009 Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh Dr Adrian North, Heriot Watt University Dr Monica Whitty, Nottingham Trent University Paul Gardner, St Andrews University Dr Carol Ireland, Merseycare NHS Trust Professor Charlie Lewis, Lancaster University
www.bps.org.uk/edinburgh2009
London Lectures Tuesday 8 December 2009 Kensington Town Hall Professor Richard Carson, Queen’s University Belfast Professor Mark Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University Dr Pam Heaton, Goldsmith’s University of London Dr Brett Smith, University of Exeter Dr Catriona Morrison, University of Leeds
www.bps.org.uk/london2009
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Journals of
The British Psychological Society British Journal of Psychology British Journal of Clinical Psychology Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice British Journal of Health Psychology British Journal of Social Psychology British Journal of Developmental Psychology British Journal of Educational Psychology Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology Legal and Criminological Psychology Journal of Neuropsychology ‘With a publishing history spanning over 100 years, our journals are widely regarded as some of the most prestigious publications in international psychological research’ Professor Stephen Morley (Chair of the Journals Committee)
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Annual Student Writer Competition Are you passionate about psychology? Fancy reaching 48,000 readers, and winning a great prize? This year we’re getting creative. You could write a ‘traditional’ article of up to 1800 words; a piece for one of the regular sections of The Psychologist; a blog entry or ‘tweet’; in fact, any writing which engages and informs. The goal is simply to unearth genuine new writing talent in psychology. Winners will have their articles published or work announced in The Psychologist, and will also get an expenses-paid trip to the Society’s Student Lectures or Annual Conference (UK travel, hotel and registration fee). 1. E-mail your work to psychologist@bps.org.uk to arrive no later than FRIDAY 29 JANUARY 2010 with the subject line ‘student writer entry’. 2. DO NOT give your name or any other personal details in the work itself or its file name – the judges will work blind. 3. In the body of the e-mail please list all of the following: your name, postal address, and personal telephone numbers; departmental address, name of head of department or supervisor; and word count (if applicable). See the July issue of The Psychologist for this year’s winners and the judges’ report. Also visit www.thepsychologist.org.uk and click on ‘Contribute’ for more information.
A lasting contribution The British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK. Formed in 1901, it now has approximately 45,000 members. By its Royal Charter, the Society is charged with national responsibility for the development, promotion and application of pure and applied psychology for the public good, and with promoting the efficiency and usefulness of Society members by maintaining a high standard of professional education and knowledge. With your help the Society works to: I To encourage the development of psychology as a scientific discipline and an applied profession; I To raise standards of training and practice in the application of psychology; I To raise public awareness of psychology and increase the influence of psychological practice in society. By including us in your will you can help ensure the future of your discipline in the years to come by continuing to support the Society. For more information on how to leave a legacy please contact Russell Hobbs, Finance Director at russell.hobbs@bps.org.uk or call him on 0116 252 9540.
Piaget, Rawlings, Spearman, and Myers all left something to Psychology …
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Psychotherapy and other stories Frank Tallis on life as a clinical psychologist and novelist
t is still considered somewhat unusual for an individual to straddle C.P. Snow’s ‘two cultures’ divide. We live in a society in which art and science are still viewed as being irreconcilable pursuits. Yet, over the past decade, I have been both a clinical psychologist and a novelist. In a few months I will stop seeing patients to concentrate on my writing, and then I will be described as a novelist and former clinical psychologist. However, I don’t really see it like that at all, as I have always recognised continuities linking clinical practice and writing novels. The practice of psychotherapy has long been associated with ‘storytelling’. Anna O., the very first ‘psychoanalytic’
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patient, entered an altered state of consciousness during which she would tell Josef Breuer (Freud’s avuncular patron and collaborator) stories that reminded him of those written by Hans Christian Andersen (Guttmann, 2001). These formed an integral part of her treatment and prompted her to describe Breuer’s approach as the ‘talking cure’. Yet more extraordinary is Ernest Jones suggestion that Freud’s revolutionary technique of ‘free association’, was inspired by a now little known author called Ludwig Börne, who in 1823 wrote an essay titled ‘The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days’ (Jones, 1977). Börne’s advice to aspirant authors was to simply write without interruption, ‘falsification and hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head’ (pp.218–219 in Jones). This of course recollects Freud’s famous injunction that patients should ignore all censorship and express every thought – however trivial or unpleasant. Freud had been given the collected works of Börne when he was 14 years old, and they were the only books from his adolescent library that he kept as an adult. Since Breuer and Freud’s time, all forms of psychotherapy have involved some form of ‘storytelling’. Patients tell stories to therapists, and therapists tell stories (in the form of rationales, schemes and myths) back to patients (Frank & Frank, 1993). Moreover, in many contemporary
See www.psychapp.co.uk for the following jobs, to search by job type, area and more, and to sign up for suitable e-mail alerts. Turning Point – Various IAPT roles St Mungo’s London – Clinical Psychologist City Psychology Group – Counselling/Clinical Psychologist Interhealth – Leader for Training & Psychological Health Clinician King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals – Associate/Assistant Professor
therapies, the ‘storytelling’ component has acquired particular significance (e.g. reminiscence with the elderly or narrative therapy). It may even be the case that being able to tell a good story about one’s self, is a powerful predictor of mental health. Mary Main and colleagues (1985, 1990) have found that a sense of emotional security is closely related to the presence of internally consistent and coherent self-narratives (see Gerhardt, 2004, for a summary). A failure to develop a cohesive and emotionally ‘literate’ personal narrative might not only have consequences with respect to poor mental health, but lead to antisocial behaviour. For example, David Canter (2006) has suggested that the inner narratives of violent criminals are impoverished, resulting in a breakdown of empathy. Like all therapists, I have become accustomed to patients telling me their chaotic life stories. At such times, I often find myself offering them a number of narrative schemes to help them make sense of their experiences. These schemes frequently correspond with some of the basic plots we find in literature, for example, ‘slaying the monster’, ‘rags to riches’, or ‘voyage and return’ (Booker, 2004). The line between clinical psychology and creative writing becomes blurred, as the patient and I produce lifestory drafts and edit them accordingly. Of course, this doesn’t happen with every patient. Where the presenting problem is characterised by specific symptoms and clearly circumscribed, CBT has been quite sufficient; however, when dealing with complex or difficult presentations, helping a patient to put the chapters of their life into a meaningful order has frequently proved extremely productive. Perhaps it is true that a good therapist will also be a good storyteller, and vice versa. There are several reasons why this
Birmingham City – Lecturer in Psychology Borough of Croydon – Organisational Development Manager Disabilities Trust – Assistant Psychologist x 2 Dorset Health Care – Clinical Psych & Lead Service Manager Advertisers can reach this prime online audience from just £150, and at no extra cost when placing an ad in print (from just £315+VAT). The next deadline for job advertising is 14 October (for the November issue). For more information, see p.886.
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should be the case. Firstly, therapists and novelists must have a well developed theory of mind. Keith Oatley – also a psychologist/novelist – has recently argued that fiction is a kind of social simulation that runs on the hardware of the human brain (Oatley, 2008). Thus, the more time we spend reading fiction, the more socially skilled we become. More interesting is his suggestion that frequent reading of fiction (i.e. exposure to meaningful narrative) might strengthen selfhood. Secondly, therapists and novelists must be able to use language well. Unlike psychiatrists, a clinical psychologist does not have an armamentarium of drugs at his or her disposal. To ‘change’ a brain (which surely must be the ultimate effect of psychotherapy) armed with only the English language and a few models of mental functioning still strikes me as vaguely miraculous. In the same way, suspension of disbelief while reading a novel – achieved with only well-chosen words on a page – is also a kind of miracle. A further point worth making, concerns the subject matter of psychology. The topics which psychologists study – for example, memory or psychopathology – frequently play a part in tried and tested plot lines (e.g. man wakes up in hotel next to body covered in blood, but can’t remember who he is or how he got there). The parallels between detective fiction and psychotherapy are obvious. Psychotherapists and detectives have a great deal in common. Both scrutinise evidence, look for clues, reconstruct histories, and seek to establish an ultimate cause. It is no coincidence that Freud viewed himself as the Sherlock Holmes of the mind and was a great fan of Conan Doyle. I doubt very much that there are many students who embark on a psychology degree thinking that the education they are about to receive might equip them to become novelists. Yet, I firmly believe it can. I have found my background in psychology immensely useful – far more, I think, than the traditional writer’s training of a degree in English followed by a career in journalism. My most successful fiction has been a series of psychoanalytic detective thrillers set in Freud’s Vienna. Without an appreciation of Freudian theory and my experience as a practitioner – I could never have written them. Moreover, when I am no longer seeing patients, I will not see myself as a former or retired clinical psychologist, but rather, as a clinical
FEATURED JOB Job Title: Chartered Occupational Psychologist Employer: London Fire Brigade e definitely need an experienced practitioner,’ says Jim Robinson, Head of HR Policy and Transformation, who will be line manager for this role. ‘There’s a need for some desk work and report-writing, for researching new approaches and making improvement recommendations, but this job involves getting out, selling approaches and ideas and then implementing them.’ Jim describes an organisation with change on the agenda. ‘There’s uncertainty about future transformations of the job and service. Work on behaviour change is at the centre of what my team will contribute to successful wide-scale change.’ He analyses a number of core areas where this job must make a difference. ‘This person will work with the recruitment team and must have knowledge of psychometrics and the ability to develop effective assessment centres. We need to work with our recruitment specialists to streamline our recruitment processes and ensure our managers have the necessary skills in areas such as interviewing.’ The psychologist will also work with three change managers. ‘There’s a huge job in developing leadership skills and enhancing teams. In a changing environment we’ve got to go beyond our undoubted strength in process management to improve people skills. This is a huge programme. So this person must be strong at facilitation and also at developing and using 360s in team“this job involves getting building activities – something I’m keen to out, selling approaches introduce more.’ and ideas” This person will work alongside another occupational psychologist who is already in post. Are psychologists and their skills accepted in the service? ‘They are when they’re involved in selection process: but we will need to work hard to get buy-in to our focus on behaviour change. We’ll need someone who’s strong, enthusiastic about their work and can explain ideas clearly to people. They won’t sit around waiting for work to arrive: it’s a case of getting out and talking. And they must have experience working in complex organisations where you have to understand professional and organisational dynamics.’ Jim highlights another area. ‘We’ve not had a formal performance management and appraisal system for that long and it is going to be a long job to embed this and get maximum value out of it – the psychologist will help here.’
‘W
You can find this job on p.893, and with many others on www.psychapp.co.uk, which now has its own ‘featured job’ spot. Download our 2010 Media Pack from www.bps.org.uk/media09 to find out more.
psychologist practising in a different context. I Frank Tallis’s latest Freudian detective thriller is Darkness Rising, published by Century.
References Booker, C. (2004). The seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. London: Continuum. Canter, D. (2006). Criminal shadows: Unlocking the minds of serial killers and sexual predators and cracking cases. New York: Dorset Press. Frank, J.D. & Frank, J.B. (1993). Persuasion and healing: A comparative study of psychotherapy (3rd edn). Baltimore, MD, & London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Gerhardt, S. (2004). Why love matters: How affection shapes a baby’s brain. Hove: Routledge. Guttmann, M.G. (2001). The enigma of Anna O: A biography of Bertha Pappenheim. Wickford, RI, & London: Moyer Bell. Jones, E. (1977). The life and work of Sigmund Freud. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Main, M. & Goldwin R. (1985). Adult attachment classification system. Unpublished manuscript. Berkeley: University of California. Main, M. & Solomon, J. (1990). Procedures for identifying infants as disorganised-disoriented during the strange situation. In M. Greenberg et al. (Eds.) Attachment in the pre-school years: Theory, research and intervention. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Oatley, K. (2008). The mind’s flight simulator. The Psychologist, 21, 12, 1030–1032.
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The benefits of internships he British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology has a ‘Job Board’ at www.powbps.com, where you can advertise or seek voluntary experience (and paid positions that have appeared in The Psychologist). In particular, the site is designed to advertise internships for recent completed MSc graduates and students looking to get initial experience. To illustrate the benefits for employers, as well as for applicants, we meet three people who’ve been making internships work for them. At Sainsbury’s, Veronika Solloway describes how an internship has helped launch her career as an occupational psychologist, whilst Peter Burnham outlines the benefits from the employer perspective. Inga Pioro at PDI Ninth House has also used the Job Board to support sourcing three interns this year and describes how this helped the recruitment process.
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Veronika Solloway Postgraduate Occupational Psychology Placement, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets plc I started with Sainsbury’s Supermarkets as a volunteer assisting on a Situational
Judgment Test (SJT) validity project. I then joined full-time as an Assistant Occupational Psychologist, working alongside Sainsbury’s in-house Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Peter Burnham. Much of my experience has fallen in designing, validating and analysing SJTs. In doing so, I got the opportunity to apply my knowledge of research methods and statistical analysis taught on the Psychology BSc and Occupational Psychology MSc, and this has been invaluable in preparing me towards chartered status and supporting me in my current job search. I also learnt a number of new skills including: I critical incident technique job analysis; I interview and assessment skills; I conducting longitudinal research; and I applied statistical techniques. I have also developed a number of
assessments for the graduate scheme and HR Shared Services (including interviews, coaching exercises and group exercises). Lastly, I have designed a team-building exercise based on the Belbin team roles for the team I was working in. This placement has given me an invaluable insight into the world of occupational psychology in commerce, a vision that was not so clear from the lecture hall. I have gained a number of new skills and sharpened others that have enabled me to design valid and fair assessments. In terms of career progression, this placement has brought me a step closer to being a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. Where possible, organisations running occupational psychology placements should explore incorporating rotations so that postgraduates could get experience across the HR business functions (health and safety, selection and assessment, organisational development and change, training and development etc.) Rotations will provide much of the necessary experience to become a chartered occupational psychologist. The return for running a placement will be an occupational psychologist who has been trained for your organisation, who
Building roads to success in mental health Clinical Studies Officers (CSOs) working within Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust for the Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) describe one route to acquiring valuable research skills The Mental Health Research Network (MHRN: see www.mhrn.info) is at the heart of mental health research throughout England. It supports NHS mental health trusts and industry to conduct large-scale, multi-site research. Working for the MHRN provides an opportunity for budding psychologists to develop applied research skills in practical settings. The MHRN is one of the topic-specific networks of the National Institute for Health
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Research and the UK Clinical Research Network. The aim of the network is to provide the NHS infrastructure with support for both non-commercial and commercial large-scale research in mental health and social care. Working as Clinical Studies Officers (CSOs) at the MHRN, we take responsibility for the day-to-day local management of the projects. Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust (LPT) currently has a portfolio of projects that includes:
I Anticholinesterase inhibitors in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer’s disease. This class of drugs decreases breakdown of acetylcholine (a chemical messenger in the brain) and can be used in conditions where there is an apparent lack of this messenger transmission. I The effectiveness of cognitive therapy in reducing distress and the risks of acting on command hallucinations, where individuals hear and sometimes obey voices that command them to perform certain acts. The hallucinations may influence them to engage in behaviour
that is dangerous to themselves or to others. I The cost effectiveness of supplementing standard care with an intervention for carers of people with eating disorders. The successful setup of these and other MHRN activities has enabled LPT to become one of the lead recruiting sites nationally on some of the adopted studies. So what is the role of the Clinical Studies Officer? We actively promote research studies to clinicians, service users and carers, working in collaboration with clinicians to
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understands your culture and priorities. veronikasolloway@googlemail.com
Peter Burnham Occupational Psychologist, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets plc After attending a meeting at the BPS conference, I was reminded of a need for postgraduate training schemes in occupational psychology. The meeting was made up of psychologists from all of the big consultancies, but only a few who represented psychologists who work ‘in house’. A few months later I was approached by Veronika Solloway, an MSc student at Birkbeck College, University of London. She offered to work for free, three days a week, to help me gather and analyse data for a paper I was writing. I was so impressed by her determination; I decided to offer Veronika a one-year paid, postgraduate placement. This was an excellent opportunity for Veronika, who gained experience in job analysis, assessment design, test design, statistical analysis, executive recruitment practices and large-scale project management. This was good for her, but even better for Sainsbury’s. The insight and academic knowledge that she brought kept us all on our toes; it was refreshing to be challenged. I would definitely recommend this to
other ‘in-house’ psychologists, but also to the consultancies. There were of course challenges in employing a trainee psychologist, who had excellent academic knowledge but limited practical experience. It took time to show Veronika how to do some of the basics, and the challenges the consultancies face when putting trainees in front of clients, are no less pertinent for ‘in-house’ psychologists. However, with some careful coaching and explanation, I felt comfortable letting Veronika ‘loose’. In light of this, I still feel strongly that it was worthwhile. As a society we cannot expect MSc graduates to magic experience out of thin air, without offering them the opportunities to learn a profession. Veronika will be finishing her one-year placement in September and we fully intend to be recruiting another intern before then.
Inga Pioro Consultant PDI Ninth House PDI Ninth House is a global human resources consulting firm who partner with the world’s leading organisations, enabling them to make
once, instead of duplicating screen and recruit participants information in separate onto the studies. An important application forms, and helps us part of our role is to obtain ensure we meet regulatory and informed consent from willing governance requirements. participants. Once consent has been agreed, we may conduct a range of psychological assessments on behalf of A stepping stone? the research team, as well as Becoming a clinical studies providing support and guidance officer is rapidly become a on ethics. choice for many psychology The Integrated graduates Research Application as a System is an stepping “CSOs tend to have important resource in stone into a background in our role. It is a single a career in psychology or a automated system for psychology. nursing qualification applying for the The role in mental health” permissions and offers the approvals for health chance to and social develop applied care/community care clinical and research skills, research in the UK. It enables whilst working closely with researchers to enter the clients with mental health information about a project difficulties. The MHRN is
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consistently effective talent decisions about leaders. PDI Ninth House have an established intern programme in Australia, and wanted to experience the same level of success in their London office. The London programme has been running since January 2009, with interns working on a flexible basis depending on their commitments and the business needs, but typically around three days per month. They get involved in administering assessments, supporting and shadowing consultants, candidate care, and ongoing projects or research. From our point of view, it’s a win-win situation – interns get intensive experience in a professional environment, and get the opportunity to work toward their chartership, and PDI Ninth House get to work with and learn from highly motivated individuals. In Australia it’s already created a pipeline of talent for future roles, and early indications are that we can achieve this in the UK. We used the DOP Job Board to find suitable candidates, and found the process straightforward and quick, and appreciated the fact that it was free to use in the current environment. We received numerous applications from a range of qualified and highquality candidates and are very happy with the five successful interns.
a rapidly growing network, which means that there is an increasing number of CSO roles emerging. CSOs tend to have a background in psychology or a nursing qualification in mental health. Once in this role some of the mandatory training includes: I good clinical practice; I information governance; I informed consent; and I Mental Health Act training. CSOs undertake continuing professional development in research skills, along with specialised training for individual studies. These may range from recruitment strategies and understanding ethical considerations, to developing clinical skills. Studyspecific groups meet regularly to share best practice, problem-
solve and communicate current issues, such as recruitment targets or substantial amendments to the research. An important element of the role is to work within a multidisciplinary setting that includes psychiatrists, psychologists and other health and social care professionals. The role also helps develop scientific knowledge, excellent communication skills and an empathic understanding of mental health difficulties, whilst gaining insight into therapeutic interventions. I Shaukat Desai, Rumun Sandhu, Sarah Lockley are all CSOs for the MHRN’s Heart of England Hub. Dr Trevor Friedman is the Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist for Leicestershire Partnership Trust.
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London Psychology Consultants Ltd Psychological Services
We are an independent psychology service of Chartered Psychologists. We offer an expert witness service to the courts, providing assessment in Child & Family Law and Criminal Law cases. We are looking to expand our consultancy base and need a number of new Chartered Consultants to carry out psychological assessments in these two areas. If you are a Chartered Psychologist looking to gain experience in these fields please register your interest by emailing us your CV. E-mail … info@londonpsychologyconsultants.co.uk We look forward to hearing from you. Registered Office: 37 Harley Street, London W1G 8QG. Company number: 06479851
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health
education
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Help finding the
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HEC Resources is a specialist Recruitment Service that provides Educational and Clinical Psychologists to Hospitals, Schools, LEAs and the Private Sector. With a combined recruitment knowledge of over 20 years, HEC Resources is a leading specialist recruitment consultancy with experience in placing professionals of all levels in their ideal role. Due to our excellent reputation and our preferred supplier status with many organisations, HEC Resources are able to offer candidates a wide choice of temporary and permanent opportunities with leading clients throughout the UK.
For more information please contact one of our consultants on:
0208 523 3561 www.psychapp.co.uk
886
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CLINICAL/FORENSIC/VARIOUS
The next step is up to you.
15/9/09
The Fens Unit We are an Assessment and Treatment Service for men who reach the criteria for Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorders. HMP Whitemoor in partnership with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.
Clinical or Forensic Psychologists Highly Specialist Band 8a: £37,996 - £45,596 or Band 8b: £44,258 - £54,714 (depending on experience) - Job ref: CPD252
Specialist Band 7: £29,789 - £39,273 - Job ref: CPD251
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
The Fens Unit is one of the four national high secure assessment and treatment units offering treatment and 65 beds for prisoners who have a personality disorder or are at high risk of re-offending.
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Due to the impending increase in client numbers we are increasing our staffing numbers and are looking for clinical or forensic psychologists that want to work with a challenging and stimulating client group. These are key posts providing an exciting opportunity to work in a clinical team at the leading edge of practice in this field.
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The team consists of clinical and forensic psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and prison officers, to provide a therapeutically supportive milieu within, which the treatment programme is delivered to prisoners located within a high secure prison wing. This is a strong, enthusiastic team of experienced professionals who are developing an innovative, high profile clinical service for a previously neglected client group. The organising psychological framework for treatment is cognitive interpersonal. Within this model we deliver structured and unstructured therapy groups and individual therapy. All post holders will be responsible for a particular area of service development depending on knowledge and experience. All posts in the unit have excellent opportunities for Continuing Professional Development and receive regular clinical supervision. HMP Whitemoor is situated in a rural setting near the town of March in Cambridgeshire, only 25 miles from Cambridge. The nearest mainline station is Peterborough with local connections to March and excellent rail links to London. For further information, please contact Naomi Murphy, Head of Psychological Therapies, 01354 602768. As part of the selection process, you will be required to undergo a Criminal Records Bureau Check. For an application pack, please contact Kayleigh Holland via email Kayleigh.Holland@hmps.gsi.gov.uk, telephone on 01354602770 or by mail The Fens Unit, HMP Whitemoor, Longhill Road, March, Cambs. PE15 OPR. For further details on these and all other vacancies in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region, please go to
www.jobs.nhs.uk JOURNEYS TO RECOVERY
www.lshealthcare.co.uk
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
Closing date: 30 October 2009. We are an equal opportunities employer.
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Exciting Opportunity to be involved in the development of a new service.
Clinical or Forensic Psychologists
Ref: BIRM339
A competitive salary package will be available depending on skills and experience. Full-Time, 37.5 hours per week, though flexible and Part-Time hours may be considered. St Andrew’s Birmingham is a 128 bedded (male) healthcare facility, located in Stirchley, Birmingham. It has a well established Mental Health care pathway, including Medium Secure Units, an Enhanced Low Secure Unit, Low Secure Units and a Predischarge ward. We also have a Low Secure Unit for adult males with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. We would like to recruit Clinical or Forensic Psychologists who are committed to, and passionate about, working with clients whose problems are complex and challenging. Experience in working with clients with mental disorders and experience in doing work related to challenging behaviour and offending is essential. We have permanent posts available within the Mental Health pathway and purpose built Autistic Spectrum Disorder inpatient service. Psychologists will be integral members of a Multi Disciplinary Team consisting of medics, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and pharmacist. Psychology is highly valued within the service, and embedded within a multi-disciplinary approach. Post-holders will be fully involved in the development, delivery and evaluation of a range of therapeutic assessments and formulation-led interventions. There will also be opportunities for joint professional work, and involvement in support, supervision and training, and we actively support innovation and research. Successful applicants can look forward to receiving good support and supervision and will play a vital part in the promotion of this new service. Participation in continual professional development is encouraged. For informal enquiries or to arrange a visit please contact: Dr Dawn Fisher, Lead Psychologist on (0121) 432 2169. For an application form and job description please telephone: (01604) 616589 (24 hour answerphone service) or email recruitment@standrew.co.uk or apply online via our Website: www.stah.org Please quote the relevant reference number on all correspondence relating to this vacancy. Closing date: 23rd October 2009. Interview dates: 9th November 2009. St Andrew’s is the UK’s largest mental health charity. We offer specialist, secure services for men, women, adolescents and older people across mental health, learning disability, brain injury, and degenerative disorders such as Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. Putting service users needs at the heart of everything we do, we have built an innovative culture of clinical expertise.
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St Andrew’s Healthcare, Birmingham
15/9/09
HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT, GUERNSEY
Clinical Psychologist Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Job Ref: 101344 Salary: £43,148 - £58,247 pa Hours: f/t 36 pw - A 15 year housing licence has been requested for this post Are you interested in: G working with children and adolescents with mental health needs? G working with families where children have behaviour problems? If so, this could be the role for you. If successful, you will join a multidisciplinary Tier 3 team comprising nurses, psychiatrists and psychologists. Our team offers a range of therapeutic approaches, with particular expertise in CBT and systemic approaches. You will have experience of working with children and families, and provide a service combining generic CAMHS work with a specific responsibility for developing services around behaviour problems. Training and experience in parenting skills groups or family therapy will be an advantage. We have a strong commitment to ongoing continuing professional development and research interests, which are actively supported. The team liaises closely with Education, Physical Health and Social Work. The post carries a Housing Licence linked to the employment contract together with an attractive relocation package. Living and working in Guernsey offers a high quality of life. With glorious Blue Flag award beaches, over 100 miles of coastline, spectacular cliff top walks and a vibrant, continental lifestyle. For further information please contact Dr James Murray, Head of Psychology on 01481 701441 or email: jmurray@hssd.gov.gg Closing Date: 15 October 2009 For an application form and job description please visit our website www.health.gov.gg Alternatively, contact the recruitment line on 01481 707444 (24 hours).
The St Andrew’s Academic Centre at Northampton, part of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, is dedicated to world-class research and teaching. For appropriate appointees the Institute of Psychiatry may consider honorary academic status. St Andrew’s also works closely with the University of Northampton and other leading universities in training mental health professionals for the nation. St Andrew’s supports an active internal CPD programme which includes regular lectures given by external speakers along with audit meetings, journal clubs, research meetings and case conferences. Personal and professional development is expected, as is membership of an appropriate peer group All posts are subject to annual appraisal. Study leave will be available with a realistic expectation that up to ten days will be taken per year. We are an equal opportunities employer. Registered Charity No. 1104951.
A charity leading innovation in mental health
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
Guernsey To find out more about Guernsey vacancies: www.health.gov.gg
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Clinical Psychologist/CBT Therapist (Berkshire Child Anxiety Clinic) School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences This appointment is part-time 0.4 FTE, fixed-term until 30 April 2011 Grade 6 – £27,183 to £29,704 pro-rata per annum
We need a Clinical Psychologist/CBT therapist (or equivalent) to join an MRC funded trial of treatment of childhood anxiety based in Berkshire Child Anxiety Clinic at the University of Reading. You will deliver manualised treatments to children with anxiety disorders. You need to have excellent interpersonal skills, be well organised and be able to adhere to systematic assessment and treatment protocols. You will have: • experience of working as a psychologist/CBT Therapist (or equivalent) with children and families • excellent interpersonal and organisational skills • the ability to adhere to a manualised treatment programme and be highly responsive to clinical supervision • the means to travel in order to meet with client groups in a variety of locations You will receive expert training and supervision in the delivery of cognitive behaviour therapy and a novel therapy focussed on the parent-child interaction. Informal enquiries: contact the Clinical Research Fellow, Dr Cathy Creswell on +44(0)118 378 6667 or email c.creswell@reading.ac.uk Alternatively, contact the Clinical Director, Dr Lucy Willetts on +44(0)118 378 6667 or email l.e.willetts@reading.ac.uk Closing date: 16 October 2009 Interview date: 3 November 2009
To formally apply please visit www.reading.ac.uk/Jobs or contact Human Resources, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 217, Reading RG6 6AH. Telephone +44(0)118 378 6771 (voicemail)
Please quote reference number PM09052 We value a diverse workforce and welcome applications from all sections of the community
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CLINICAL/COUNSELLING
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
Psychology Services for Older Adults with Mental Health Problems Elizabeth House, Rainham, Kent
Principal Clinical Psychologist
Providing a range of mental health services across Suffolk, we are currently expanding our services for children and young people with learning disabilities. Join us and we can promise you excellent support and the opportunity to extend your clinical practice within a strong, county-wide service with a range of specialist interests.
Band 8b £44,258 – £54,714 p.a. (Ref: V068)
Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities
You will provide a service across both functional and dementia teams and improve waiting times for psychological assessment and treatment. A particular responsibility will be for services to people with young onset dementia.
Clinical/Counselling Psychologist
Basic/Senior Clinical Psychologist Band 7/8a £29,789 - £45,596 p.a. (depending on grade and experience) (Ref: V069) This newly funded post will have two separate roles. Half of the time will involve working with the community teams and the other half will be spent working in a new multi-disciplinary team to provide liaison into the acute trust to work with people with dementia. Psychologists who will be gaining their Doctorate this year are welcome to apply. We have 2 posts available in this developing service in Medway. Both posts are based within a well established community team where psychology is highly valued and makes an extensive contribution to innovative practice and service development. You must be committed to working within a multi-disciplinary framework, as joint working both within the organisation and with outside agencies has been a strong feature. The multi-disciplinary team has separate teams for people with dementia and for people with functional problems. The dementia team has developed a strong model for dementia care, and has a well developed memory clinic and post diagnostic treatment, consisting of counselling, memory strategies groups, and psycho-educational groups for carers. A day care project for people with young onset dementia is also provided. Within the functional team psychology is involved in individual and group based interventions and developing the team’s skills. We have an interest in a wide range of models from CBT, Systemic, Psychoanalytic to mindfulness. You would join a psychological therapies specialty for older people across the Trust with a current establishment of approximately 26 posts including clinical psychologists, CBT therapists, art therapists and psychotherapists. In Medway you will join a group of 5 psychology staff who will offer high quality supervision. The service is a developing one and we are expecting the specialty to increase further as local commissioners are keen to develop the service. There will be opportunities for teaching, training and research and we have very close links with the David Salomon’s Clinical Psychology Trainee Scheme, providing placements on an ongoing basis. CPD is seen as crucial to development. For an informal chat please call Alison Kirkpatrick, Head of Specialty for the Psychology Service for Older People in Medway on 01634 382080 or email Alison.kirkpatrick@kmpt.nhs.uk If your application is successful, you will be notified by e-mail. Therefore, please ensure that you regularly check your NHS jobs account.
TO APPLY: We encourage applicants to apply on-line – go to www.jobs.nhs.uk Completed applications by: 31st October 2009. Employment in this post is subject to a satisfactory Enhanced Disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau
For other job opportunities visit our website
www.kmpt.nhs.uk
Band 8a: £37,996 - £45,596 p.a. Full-time Ref: LD29/09 In this new position, you will provide a specialist psychology service for children and young people with learning disabilities, their families and carers in the Waveney catchment area of North Suffolk. Ideally, with post-qualification experience of working with this client group and in a multi-disciplinary team, you will have the opportunity to contribute creative and innovative approaches to both clinical and service issues. You will be supervised and supported by a Consultant Psychologist. For an informal discussion, or arrange a visit, please contact Dr Chris Cull, Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist (Learning Disabilities Directorate) on 01440 715908 or email christine.cull@smhp.nhs.uk
Consultant Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist Band 8c: £53,256 - £65,657 p.a. (pro rata) 0.80wte Ref: LD31/09 You will have the opportunity to influence the strategic direction and development of psychology services for children and young people with learning disabilities in North Suffolk. Your role will involve input to a 3-bed assessment and treatment unit for young people with learning disabilities, as well as the developing outreach service, and you will also support community based services for children in the North and Ipswich. In addition, supervision of trainees and other psychology staff will be expected. For an informal discussion, please contact Dr Chris Cull, Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist, on 01440 715908, email: Christine.cull@smhp.nhs.uk or Ita Wentworth-Wood, Children’s Community Team Manager on 01502 535010, email: Ita.wentworth-wood@smhp.nhs.uk or Samantha Gillings-Taylor, Adolescent Services Manager on 01502 560111, email: Samantha.gillings-taylor@smhp.nhs.uk We have close links with the University of East Anglia from whom we take trainees on regular placements, and connections with the University of Essex who may also use our training placements. Research interests are encouraged and actively supported.
For additional information, to view all our current vacancies and to apply on-line please visit the NHS Jobs website at www.jobs.nhs.uk If for any reason you are unable to apply on-line, please contact The Recruitment Department, Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, St Clements Hospital, Ipswich IP3 8LS or telephone 01473 329712 (24hr answerphone) or email: hr-ipswich@smhp.nhs.uk quoting the appropriate reference number. The starting salary for non NHS employees is up to a maximum of the third incremental point up the band depending on skills and experience. Closing date for both posts: 28 October 2009. Interviews for both posts will be held in Lowestoft.
Working Towards Equal Opportunities
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
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Kent and Medway and Social Care Partnership Trust
Kent Clinical Neuropsychology Service
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DUNFERMLINE & WEST FIFE CHP NHS FIFE PSYCHOLOGY SERVICE - CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICE STRATHEDEN HOSPITAL, CUPAR/LYNEBANK HOSPITAL, DUNFERMLINE Hours: 37.5 (Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm)
Clinical Psychologists/ Clinical Neuropsychologists Band 7/8A £29,789 - £45,596 p.a. pro rata East Kent Neurorehabilitation Unit (Canterbury) Ref V079 Community Stroke Service (Canterbury) Ref V080 Community Stroke Service (Thanet) Ref V081 With significant new funding behind the Clinical Neuropsychology Service, we have the resources to address the cognitive, psychological and behavioural consequences of stroke and acquired brain injury. Working here you can use your skills and judgment to rehabilitate those affected, learning about their unique circumstances to help them get their lives back on track. Whether or not you are currently in the field, your career will see the benefits thanks to our commitment to your continuing professional development. To deliver an effective service it is essential that you are able to travel between bases in a timely manner. Please indicate which post(s) you wish to apply for within your application form. To find out more, make your way to www.headforkent. co.uk or call Catherine McDonagh, lead for stroke developments for the service 01622 885923 or Elizabeth Francis, Head of Service on 01634 833937. If your application is successful, you will be notified by e-mail. Therefore, please ensure that you regularly check your NHS jobs account.
TO APPLY: We encourage applicants to apply on-line – go to www.kmpt.nhs.uk Completed applications by: 19th October 2009. Interviews to be held on: Tuesday 3rd November and Wednesday 4th November 2009. Employment in this post is subject to a satisfactory Enhanced Disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau
For other job opportunities visit our website www.kmpt.nhs.uk
The Fife Area Psychology Service is a large well provided and developing service with extensive involvement in training, research and service development. We enjoy close links with Edinburgh and Stirling Universities D. Clin. Psych and MSc courses continue and your professional development, CPD and research initiatives will be well supported. For further details see our website: http://www.dwfchp.scot.nhs.uk/psychology/ The Child and Family specialty team consists of 8 other clinical psychologists, an assistant psychologist and several trainees.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST Band 8A £37,996 - £45,596
Ref: LY387/09/09
Scottish Government funding has become available to develop psychology posts within CAMH services. This post is part of the primary care service to children and families, providing psychology assessment and treatment services to children and families referred by GP practices throughout the Fife Area. Your clinical work will be based in GP practices. You will be based either at Lynebank Hospital or Stratheden Hospital. You will provide psychological expertise to the primary care service in working with families referred by GPs and working closely within GP practices, allowing for the prompt delivery of psychological interventions.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST (CHILD AND FAMILY SPECIALTY) Band 8A £37,996 - £45,596
Ref: LY388/09/09
This post is part of the general service to children and their families, and provides a service to the Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth Area. You will work with the generic referrals in this patch, providing psychology assessment and treatment services to children and families and liaising closely to colleagues from CAMHS as well as professionals from education, social work and voluntary agencies. You will be based either at Lynebank Hospital or Stratheden Hospital.
CLINICAL ASSOCIATE IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY (CHILD AND FAMILY SPECIALTY) Band 7 £29,789 - £39,273
Ref: LY389/09/09
As part of the developments facilitated by Scottish Government targeted funding for psychology in CAMHS, we have a new post for suitably qualified Associate (Masters in Applied Psychology for Children and Young People) to support the clinical psychologists in the provision of an extended primary care service linked to GP practices and allowing better and quicker access to psychological therapy for children and their families. Date for Interviews for the above posts will be Friday 16th October 2009. For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Marie Renaud on 01383 565400 or e-mail marie.renaud@nhs.net
For an application pack please contact our recruitment line (24 hour answer phone) on 01592 648081 or e-mail recruitment@faht.scot.nhs.uk quoting the reference number, name address and postcode. We do not accept CV applications. Applications may be considered on a job share basis. Closing date for all posts 12 noon on 9th October 2009.
Click on all our vacancies at www.jobs.scot.nhs.uk
Working Towards Equal Opportunities NHS Fife is an equal opportunities employer and operates a no smoking policy.
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CLINICAL/NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
St Andrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Healthcare A charity Leading in Innovation in Mental Health Care Head of Programme / Associate Director - Secure Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services Six figure package with substantial benefits
Ref: BPS358
The Charity St Andrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Healthcare is the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest mental health Charity, bringing innovative and expert care to nearly 700 service users in Northampton, Essex and Birmingham, with further sites under development. Our national reputation for specialist services in mental health, developmental disability and brain injury will be further enhanced in 2010 by the opening of two new state-of-the art secure facilities - one in Northampton, providing medium secure menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s services to a further 130 service users, and a second in Mansfield, providing for 70 male service users with mild learning disabilities.
The Person We are seeking an outstanding Clinical/Forensic Psychologist to lead the delivery of ground-breaking, comprehensive psychosocial treatment programmes for our Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Service in Northampton, with the possibility of a wider role. You will be responsible for shaping, leading and systematically evaluating the full range of our existing cognitive behavioural programmes, guiding your teams to deliver inspirational and challenging plans that focus on risk assessment, relapse prevention and recovery principles to service users with mental illness, learning disability, autistic spectrum disorder and deafness. You are likely to demonstrate an interest in complex cases including personality disorders, severe mental illness, sexual offending and substance abuse and be able to contribute to the development of our service user involvement strategies.
A life changing opportunity For the right candidate, this is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the Charity at Associate Director level, shaping the strategy for Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services across all our sites, with a salary and benefits package to reflect the breadth of this role. In addition, subject always to the proper performance of clinical duties, you will have the opportunity to join the St Andrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Consultancy Service, which provides expert advice, training and medico-legal services across the UK. Outstanding opportunities for professional development and research exist through the St Andrewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Academic Centre at Northampton, part of the Institute of Psychiatry, Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College London, which is dedicated to world class research and teaching. Where appropriate, application for an honorary academic role will be encouraged after appointment. In addition, you will be part of a well established network of Psychologists in the Charity and our strong CPD programme will offer you further opportunities for personal development and growth. Closing date for applications: 23rd October 2009
Interviews / Assessment Centre: W/C 9th November 2009
For informal enquiries or to arrange a visit, please contact either Warren Irving, Operational Director, on 01604 616127, or Dr Clive Long, Group Head of Psychology, on 01604 616307 In order to apply, and view the job description and person specification please visit our website at www.stah.org or email recruitment@standrew.co.uk or telephone our recruitment office on (01604) 616589 (24 hour answer-phone). Please quote the relevant reference number on all correspondence relating to this vacancy. 2XU EHQHILWV LQFOXGH Â&#x2021; *URXS 3HUVRQDO 3HQVLRQ 6FKHPH Â&#x2021; 6XEVLGLVHG 6WDII 5HVWDXUDQW Â&#x2021; 6XEVLGLVHG FKLOGFDUH IDFLOLWLHV Â&#x2021; 6SRUWV IDFLOLWLHV J\P SRRO VTXDVK FRXUWV
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A charity leading innovation in mental health
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
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Hywel Dda NHS Trust
Principal Clinical Psychologist Band 7/8a (depending on experience) (10 sessions) Ceredigion Psychology Service – Aberystwyth A position has become available for an enthusiastic Clinical Psychologist to join the Ceredigion Psychology service in Aberystwyth. You will provide a specialist clinical psychology service within a CMHT for people with serious mental health problems. There will also be an opportunity to provide specialist input to the Adult Psychiatric Ward at Bronglais Hospital. The range of referrals will allow varied work including specialist clinical assessments, psychological therapy, and neuro-psychological assessment. There will also be the opportunity for providing consultation and supervision to staff and to develop training and research innovations within the workplace. The range of referrals will offer you with the opportunity to consolidate and expand clinical psychology skills however; we welcome and encourage areas of specialist interest and to develop research ideas. You will take a key role in local service developments relating to psychology and will have the opportunity to play a lead role in the recently approved strategy for improving access to psychological therapy offering training and supervision. In addition to being part of a dynamic psychology team within Ceredigion, you will have good links with the psychological community within the Trust. The department has links with the South Wales Doctoral Clinical Psychology Course and there would be opportunities to hold trainee placements.
CLINICAL/COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGIST NEWPORT, SHROPSHIRE > BAND 8A/8B
FOR THOUSANDS OF VETERANS WITH POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, CIVILIAN LIFE CAN BE A NIGHTMARE OF FLASHBACKS, PANIC ATTACKS, SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND VIOLENT RAGES. JOIN US, AND YOU’LL BE THERE FOR EX-SERVICE PEOPLE WHEN THEY DESPERATELY NEED HELP AND SUPPORT. WORKING WITH THE HEAD OF CLINICAL SERVICES AND THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR, YOU WILL DEVELOP AND ENHANCE THE TREATMENT PROGRAMMES WITHIN OUR TREATMENT CENTRE. SHARING YOUR EXPERTISE IN THIS HIGHLY SPECIALISED CLINICAL AREA, YOU WILL PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP AND GUIDANCE TO OTHER STAFF, CARRY OUT RISK ASSESSMENTS AND DELIVER EVIDENCE BASED TREATMENTS. YOU MUST BE QUALIFIED TO DOCTORAL LEVEL IN CLINICAL/COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY (OR ITS EQUIVALENT) AS ACCREDITED BY THE BPS. EXPERIENCE OF WORKING WITH A WIDE RANGE OF CLIENT GROUPS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH TRAUMA-RELATED MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, YOU WILL ALSO HAVE THE COMPASSION AND COMMITMENT THIS ROLE DESERVES. FOR AN INFORMAL CHAT ABOUT THE ROLE PLEASE CALL JEFF MARSHALL, HEAD OF CLINICAL SERVICES ON 01952 822712. TO REQUEST AN APPLICATION PACK CONTACT SARAH BYRD, HR ASSISTANT ON 01372 841645 OR EMAIL: SARAH.BYRD@COMBATSTRESS.ORG,UK CLOSING DATE: 16 OCTOBER 2009.
To apply please visit www.jobs.nhs.uk quoting reference number 140-140-B503-PCP. If you feel that you have the necessary attributes and would like to find out more about this post, please contact Dr. Bethan Lloyd, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Head of Ceredigion Psychology Service on 01239 710454. Closing date: 16th October 2009. Hywel Dda NHS Trust web page can be accessed via the below web address. www.hyweldda.wales.nhs.uk
WWW,COMBATSTRESS.ORG.UK
THE STATE HOSPITALS BOARD FOR SCOTLAND BAND 8A CHARTERED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST £37,996 - £45,596 Plus High Secure Environmental Allowance of £1,141 and High Secure Clinical Responsibility Allowance of £2,738 per annum Hours Negotiable up to 10 sessions, 37.5 hours per week Psychological Services at the State Hospital is a large and well resourced department in Scotland’s only high secure hospital. We currently offer a comprehensive psychological service to 150 patients. As well as ward based psychologists working in multi-disciplinary clinical teams with the responsibility for the assessment and delivery of individual treatments, there is a significant multi-disciplinary psychological therapy service (PTS). Current well developed Psychological Therapies include: sex offender treatment programmes, drug and alcohol services, CBT for psychosis (individual and group work), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, offending behaviour groups and anger programmes. Clinical psychologists are also significantly involved in a number of hospital-wide strategies groups and initiatives and staff are encouraged to take a role in these where appropriate to their interests and expertise. An interest in the development of psychological therapies in a forensic setting, experience of working with mentally disordered offenders and/or experience of working with people with complex difficulties such as psychosis or personality disorder would be an advantage. There are significant in-house training opportunities to develop specific skills for any applicants not originally from a forensic background. You will have a keen interest in implementing the spirit of new mental health legislation, ensuring an integrated care pathway for patients in their progress towards safe re-integration in the community and with a vision that will energise the development of a national forensic network in Scotland. You will be committed to the implementation of the philosophy of the equalities and diversities agendas. You will be a Clinical Psychologist with interest and/or experience of working in forensic mental health. Split or part-time posts are a feature of our current service and we support flexible and family friendly working. There are strong links with Glasgow and Edinburgh Clinical Psychology training programmes. We will actively encourage and support you in your Continued Professional Development and research initiatives. Applications from less experienced psychologists will be considered with a view to providing extra support if necessary. Informal enquiries can be made to Morag Slesser, Head of Psychology, on 01555 844317 or for an information pack, please contact Human Resources on 01555 842084 or e-mail jobs@tsh.scot.nhs.uk EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
& FAMILY FRIENDY EMPLOYER
Closing date: 16th October 2009.
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CLINICAL/COUNSELLING
Specialist psychologist recruitment service
Programme Supervisor (Clinical Lead) Ref: M1136 Band 8b £44,258 - £54,714 per annum 37.5 hours per week, permanent contract
Appointed in partnership with Mental Health and Primary Care NHS Trusts; UK leading Independent mental health service providers Local Authority and Military establishments in the UK and overseas, we are seeking career aspiring qualified psychologists at all levels, for exciting, highest paid, specialist opportunities nationally. For registration, current vacancies and testimonials please visit: www.mindprofessionals.com or call: 0845 301 1230
Reading has an established Multi-Dimensional Treatment Foster Care Programme (MTFC). The Programme is innovative and evidenced based; it draws on a model developed in Oregon, USA and offers intensive and comprehensively supported foster placements for children in care (aged 10 - 16) with complex needs. Using your broad clinical experience and management skills you will lead a multi-disciplinary team providing this support, overseeing all clinical aspects. The National Implementation Team at the Maudsley Foundation Trust (based at sites in Manchester and London) support the Programme and we are on track to achieve accreditation. Good partnership relationships allow for the post to be seconded from Berkshire Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust to Reading Children’s Services. As part of both organisations, you’ll enjoy a supportive and stimulating work environment where we’re improving outcomes for children. This post is ideal for a Clinical Psychologist or Family Therapist, but applications from other professional backgrounds are encouraged. For further information contact Dr Jennifer Wallis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist on 0118 931 5800 or Judith Russell, MTFC Acting Programme Manager on 0118 901 5222.
Highly Specialist Psychologist CAMHS and Youth Offending Services
View all vacancies online before you receive your print version at www.psychapp.co.uk The website also includes many online only vacancies. Set up a profile and receive e-mail alerts when matching vacancies are placed.
Ref: M1174 Band 8b £44,258 - £54,714 per annum Part-time, 0.4 wte, permanent contract (plus optional, additional out-of-hour duty rota for Multi-System Therapy available) Reading Youth Offending Service (YOS) is a dynamic team providing Youth Justice Services to the vibrant community of Reading. We are seeking a psychologist to provide a highly specialist psychology service to young people who have offended or are at risk of offending. This will include engaging young people, assessment of complex needs, therapeutic intervention, consultation to staff and service development. You will work closely with YOS and CAMHS colleagues, facilitating effective working relationships between the two services. The post is supported by the Tier 4 Child and Adolescent Forensic Mental Health Service in Oxford. For further information contact Dr Jennifer Wallis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist on 0118 931 5800 or Lindsey Bass, YOS Manager on 0118 939 0420. This Trust positively welcomes applications from those who have personal experience of mental health issues. A disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria will be interviewed.
HOW TO APPLY
www.jobs.nhs.uk 0118 982 2912 (24 hour answerphone)
Please quote the above/appropriate reference number. For all other enquiries contact the Recruitment Department on 0118 982 2759. Closing date for both posts: 8th October 2009. We are an equal opportunities employer committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
D
8 09 09
O
HEALTH AND SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, HEALTH POLICY AND PRACTICE, FACULTY OF HEALTH
Senior Clinical Tutor/Senior Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Psychology • Ref: ATR/ATS 9 Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology £49,178 to £69,567 per annum Indefinite post available from 01/01/2010 We seek a well-qualified and experienced Clinical Psychologist to support our successful Doctoral Programme and join our supportive and innovative team from January 2010. An important function of this post is the organisation of clinical placements across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and support to supervisors. Applicants with an appropriate research profile will also be expected to demonstrate achievement in research and contribute to the Faculty’s research programme. The successful candidate will have a good first degree in Psychology; a BPS recognised Clinical Psychology qualification; demonstrable evidence of ability to teach effectively; first class communication and team-working skills; and experience of supervising clinical placements. Applications are particularly welcomed from candidates with qualifications and/or experience in CBT. Part-time applications may also be considered. Closing date: 12 noon on 22 October 2009. Further particulars and an application form are available on our website: www.uea.ac.uk/hr/jobs/ or Tel. 01603 593493.
LES
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
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pione
spirit
Senior level roles at the enterprise university. At the University of Plymouth, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than enough space to be creative, innovative and enterprising. In fact, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re open to new ideas that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve become one of the top modern universities in the UK. And one of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest too â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with around 30,000 students and 3,000 members of staff. Because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re both pragmatic and adventurous, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve developed excellence in both teaching and
world-leading research. Here, internationally recognised experts work alongside our students. And all are inspired by our regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural, economic and social life. To find out more and apply for these roles, visit
www.pioneeringplymouth.co.uk Closing date for both roles: 12noon, 15 October 2009.
mindset and culture
â&#x20AC;˘ Head of School of Psychology â&#x20AC;˘ Head of School of Applied Psychosocial Sciences
Promoting Equality and Diversity.
E LLERN M EDE Centre for Eating Disorders
THERAPEUTIC CARE WORKERS Become an Examiner/Moderator OCR are currently seeking Examiners and Moderators to assess for A Level/GCSE:
Psychology Sociology If you have a degree and relevant subject knowledge then becoming an Examiner or Moderator will help you to: s )MPROVE YOUR PROFESSIONAL STATUS AND personal development; s "OOST YOUR INCOME &ULL TRAINING AND SUPPORT WILL BE PROVIDED For further details and an application form, please telephone 01223 552558, visit www.ocr.org.uk or email examiner.recruitment@ocr.org.uk OCR, part of Cambridge Assessment, the not-for-profit assessment division of Cambridge University, is one of only three UK-wide awarding bodies, providing a wide range of general academic and vocational qualifications through schools, colleges and other institutions for learners of all ages. OCR is committed to equal opportunities.
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These developmental posts are suitable for highly motivated and thoughtful individuals with a first degree in psychology who are looking to gain clinical experience before pursuing further clinical training. We are inviting those who have excellent interpersonal and team work skills to apply to work within our highly specialist in-patient nursing team with young people suffering from eating disorders. We offer a comprehensive induction, clinical supervision in house training and opportunities to participate in research. Previous experience of working with young people is essential. For a brochure, job description and application pack, please contact terri.kelly@ellernmede.org or call Lisa Lewer (Nurse Consultant) for further information on 020 8959 7774 or e-mail lisa.lewer@ellernmede.org Informal visits available for short-listed candidates only. Closing date for applications: Monday 12th October 2009.
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CLINICAL/FORENSIC/GRADUATE/TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Men’s Service - Mental Health & Learning Disabilities Services, Northampton
ASSISTANT PSYCHOLOGISTS Salary £17,000 - £18,000
Vista Healthcare, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, is a specialist behavioural unit caring for people with learning disabilities, mental health problems and challenging behaviour. Responsibilities include assisting in the compilation of behavioural and psychological data, assessments, treatment programmes and patient reviews. We strongly support regular supervision and on-going training and development opportunities. You will be part of an established multidisciplinary clinical team. The post offers valuable experience for motivated individuals interested in a future in clinical psychology. You will have gained an Upper Honours Degree of at least a 2:1 and be eligible for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society. For an application form contact Lauren Coleman – 01252 845826. E-mail recruitment@vistahealthcare.co.uk or visit our website: www.vistahealthcare.co.uk A full enhanced CRB check would be carried out prior to appointment. Vista Healthcare is an equal opportunities employer.
Principal Forensic/Clinical Psychologists Ref: BPS 357 Salary up to £60K dependent upon skills and experience Hours: Full-time 37.50 per week The Men’s Service is currently undergoing exciting new developments, with specialist services for ASD clients, deaf clients and an expanding Medium Secure service being just three of these areas. We have three pathways of care – for clients with Mental Health difficulties, learning disabilities and ASD. The majority of our clients have significant forensic histories and often present with challenging behaviours. We are currently looking to expand our skills mix and are seeking applications from suitably experienced Psychologists. We are looking to recruit experienced Chartered Psychologists (minimum 2 years post qualification) who are seeking a new challenge in the forensic and secure mental health field. You will have experience in assessing and providing interventions for a range of clients and will ideally have managerial/supervisory experience. The successful candidates will have a desire to expand their skills and expertise by providing clinical and risk formulations for our clients, the development and delivery of new group work initiatives and have an interest in developing therapeutic approaches and cultures by working in consultation with multidisciplinary teams. The posts are allocated to specific wards in the Mental Health pathway, in low secure care, however there will be future opportunity to rotate to other areas of the Men’s Service where desired. The low secure area of the service aims to provide interventions for complex clients in areas of both clinical and forensic need. You will lead on the provision of such interventions and on the development of the overall psychosocial treatment programme on the specified wards. For informal enquiries please contact Dr. Malcolm Wheatley Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
specialise in providing residential care to people with a primary diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. We focus on life skills, promoting community inclusion and personal independence. The Hawksmere Children’s Unit is a 36-bed hospital for 13 – 18 year olds with Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Due to open in December 2009, the hospital is owned and operated by Arventa Health Care.
Consultant Psychologist CAMHS Service Near Potters Bar, Herts Job share will be considered This is a unique, opportunity for an innovative Consultant Psychologist (CAMHS) to help set up and become the lead Psychologist for the UK’s first purpose-built children’s in-patient service, exclusively for young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions. This is a high profile post within an establishment which will become recognised as a national centre of excellence. Outstanding CPD and research opportunities make this the perfect post for a Consultant wishing to be recognised as a national specialist in the field of ASC. Applicants must have significant CAMHS and learning disability experience. In return, we provide excellent career development and training opportunities.
Closing date: 9th October 2009. For an application pack, please call our Recruitment team on 01707 39 39 39. is an Equal Opportunities Employer.
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
In order to apply, and view the job description and person specification please visit our website at www.stah.org or email recruitment@standrew.co.uk or telephone our recruitment office on (01604) 616589 (24 hour answer-phone). Please quote the appropriate reference number in all correspondence. Closing date: 23rd October 2009. St Andrew’s is the UK’s largest mental health charity. We offer specialist, secure services for men, women, adolescents and older people across mental health, learning disability, brain injury, and degenerative disorders such as Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. Putting service users’ needs at the heart of everything we do, we have built an innovative culture of clinical expertise. The St Andrew’s Academic Centre at Northampton, part of The Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, is dedicated to world class research and teaching. For appropriate appointees the Institute of Psychiatry may consider honorary academic status. St Andrew’s also works closely with the University of Northampton and other leading universities in training mental health professionals for the nation. St Andrew’s supports an active internal CPD programme which includes regular lectures given by external speakers along with audit meetings, journal clubs, research meetings and case conferences. Personal and professional development is expected, as is membership of an appropriate peer group. All posts are subject to annual appraisal. Study leave will be available with a realistic expectation that up to ten days will be taken per year.
Our benefits include: s 'ROUP 0ERSONAL 0ENSION 3CHEME s 3UBSIDISED 3TAFF 2ESTAURANT s 3UBSIDISED CHILDCARE FACILITIES s 3PORTS FACILITIES GYM POOL SQUASH COURTS We are an equal opportunities employer. Registered Charity No. 1104951.
A charity leading innovation in mental health
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www.kibble.org
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FORENSIC/CLINICAL/COUNSELLING
EXCELLENCE IN THE PROVISION OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE
Partnerships in Care Limited is a leading independent provider of specialist mental health care and related services. Our North West region comprises Kemple View Low Secure Psychiatric Hospital for men (Blackburn, Lancashire); The Spinney Medium/Low Secure Psychiatric Service for men (Atherton, Manchester); and Arbury Court Medium Secure Psychiatric Service for men and women and Low Secure Service for women (Warrington, Cheshire).
Owing to expansion across the region, we are looking to recruit further experienced professionals to our Psychological Services. As a competency based service, we welcome applications from forensic, clinical and counselling psychologists. PiC places emphasis on continuing professional development with access to relevant training and clinical development opportunities.
Senior Registered/Chartered Psychologists ÂŁ45,900 Full-time but part-time will be considered We are pleased to be recruiting for Senior Registered/Chartered Psychologists across the region, to contribute to all aspects of work within Psychological Services in secure mental health care. This work will include working with complex patients who present with a range of mental health needs, including severe and enduring mental illnesses, personality disorders and cognitive deficits. You will be involved in assessment, treatment, risk assessment and offence-focused interventions. As part of our multi-disciplinary team, you will also assist with the development, delivery, and evaluation of evidence based programmes; staff training; research and contribute to policy development. This role will carry some managerial responsibility in terms of deputising for the Lead Psychologist in their absence and providing supervision to other Psychologists. There is also the opportunity to take the clinical lead for specific projects, either within your hospital or on an regional basis. As a Senior Registered/Chartered Psychologist, you will have the ability to apply psychological knowledge to a secure psychiatric setting, respond to supervision and adopt a systematic approach. Experience of working with clients with mental disorders, and/or working in a forensic setting is desirable along with experience of supervising other psychologists.
Registered/Chartered Psychologists ÂŁ43,350 Full-time but part-time will be considered We are currently looking for Chartered Psychologists to contribute to all aspects of work within Psychological Services in secure mental health care. This work will include working with complex patients who present with a range of mental health needs, including mental illness, personality disorder and cognitive deficits. You will be involved in assessment, treatment, risk assessment and offence-focused interventions. As part of our multi-disciplinary team, you will also assist with the development, delivery, and evaluation of evidence based programmes; staff training; research and contribute to policy development. As a Registered/Chartered Psychologist you will have the ability to apply psychological knowledge to a secure psychiatric setting, respond to supervision and to adopt a systematic approach. Experience of working with clients with mental disorders, and/or working in a forensic setting is desirable. Full applied divisional membership and Registration with the Health Professions Council is essential. For further information on these roles, please contact either Katie Bailey, Head of Psychology, North West Region on 01942 885638, Suzanne Bowden, Lead Psychologist, Kemple View on 01254 243046 or Emma Shillabeer, Lead Psychologist, Arbury Court on 01925 400619. Closing date: 30th October 2009. www.partnershipsincare.co.uk/jobs Partnerships in Care is committed to providing equal opportunities for its staff and our patients.
Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (or eligibility for) with full-applied divisional membership and Registration with the Health Professions Council is essential.
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
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Advertising with
The British Psychological Society The 2010 media pack is available now via www.bps.org.uk/media10 Advertising in The Psychologist reaches a large and well-qualified audience. Please keep the card you receive with this issue, or pass it on to a non-member who may be interested in using our services.
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OD Consultant Workforce Talent Management Consultant £36,810 - £41,199 (2009/10 pay award pending) With strategic influence, HR & OD is one of Croydon Council’s most valuable assets. It’s certainly dazzled at recent award ceremonies, winning us the PPMA’s HR Transformation and HR Efficiency & Business Impact awards and was shortlisted for “Innovative use of Technology” at the recent HR Awards. As far as we’re concerned this is only the start. We’ve already restructured the function, placing it at the forefront of supporting Croydon’s on-going transformation. We now want to move forward with our organisational and workforce development agenda. This calls for talent that sparkles every bit as brightly as the awards in our trophy cabinet. In other words, we need gifted professionals who’ll drive the council forward and relish the opportunity to bring their ideas to fruition. The OD and Workforce Talent Management Consultants will be expected to adopt a business partner approach, working with internal partners such as Strategy & Innovation and with external partners such as the primary care trust and Home Office. For more information please visit www.croydon.gov.uk where you can apply online.
www.croydon.gov.uk
psy 10_09 p886_901 careers ads:Careers ads pages template
Closing date: 9th October 2009. Promoting equality and diversity.
The Psychologist featuring Psychologist Appointments, and more
HIGHER WORK PSYCHOLOGIST.
Cardiff, Wales. £26,470 – £31,300 per annum. Flexible starting pay may be provided dependent on experience. The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for the Government’s welfare reform agenda. Its aim is to promote opportunity and independence for all and deliver support and advice through a modern network of services. The Work Psychology Service operates across the Jobcentre Plus Regional network providing a range of services to Jobcentre Plus customers, staff and employers. Our approach combines the application of Occupational Psychology with a commitment to public service in order to help people looking for work, including people with disabilities and health conditions, move closer to and into sustainable employment. The job involves regular travel to different offices in Wales. Training and development support will be given to help the progression to BPS Chartered Psychologist and HPC Registered Psychologist status. Main tasks include: G Provide advice and support to Jobcentre Plus customer advisers to help progress disadvantaged customers towards work; G Provide 1:1 occupational assessments with job seeking customers; G Identify work solutions to enable Jobcentre Plus customers to utilise their talents and fulfil their full potential; G Be a source of advice and guidance for employers on employing disabled people to enable job retention and workplace performance. You must have: G Graduate Basis for Chartership with the British Psychological Society; G MSc in Occupational Psychology; G Chartered Psychologist status and/or registered psychologist status with the HPC (or be committed to working towards it); G Level A certificate in psychometric testing; G A proven track record of applied psychology practice and of working with people with disabilities and health conditions. To request an application pack please e-mail: ESSR.LandCteam@dwp.gsi.gov.uk. Please include reference IRC63094 and your name in the subject box. We cannot accept requests for an application pack without this job reference number in the subject line of the e-mail. Closing date for applications is 12th October 2009. For further job specific information please contact Russell Calderwood on 029 2042 3611. Successful applicants must be available to attend a half-day assessment event in Cardiff w/c 2nd November 2009.
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OCCUPATIONAL
When we’ve got the whole of London counting on us Chartered Occupational Psychologist £40,524 to £52,836 (inc. London Weighting)
For more information and to apply visit www.london-fire.gov.uk Closing date: 9am, 12 October 2009 We are keen to hear from anyone with the ability to do this job, to help us achieve a workforce as diverse as the communities that we serve.
There has never been a better time to join the Human Resources (HR) team at the London Fire Brigade, the UK’s largest fire and rescue service. We are an “excellent Authority with good people management” according to the Audit Commission. We’re determined to continuously improve on our performance and HR will be at the heart of this challenge, with particular emphasis on performance management, behavioural change and operational efficiency. Reporting to the Head of HR Policy & Transformation, you’ll provide internal consultancy to the recruitment team, including designing bespoke assessment centre exercises. You’ll also work on the design and implementation of various behavioural change projects. Able to write high level reports and familiar with a range of psychometric instruments, experience in assessment centre design for large-scale recruitment and organisational change projects will be essential. We offer an excellent range of benefits including a final salary pension, generous leave entitlement and on-site gym facilities.
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for all aspects of child maintenance in Great Britain. Its role is to promote financial responsibility, encourage and support private maintenance arrangements as well as provide a statutory maintenance service. It will be innovative in its approach, harnessing the expertise of the public, private and third sectors. This is an exciting opportunity to develop your career as part of a team that will build the new scheme of child maintenance for children who live apart from one or both of their parents. Organisational Capability Consultants x 3 Working as part of a newly created team, you will design and deliver a range of solutions and interventions in strategic workforce planning, people development and business psychology in support of the organisational capability strategy. Joining this complex, fast paced organisation at this time of great change will give you the opportunity to play an instrumental part in the development and design of the new organisation and its culture. With a strong academic record, you must have experience of working at a strategic level and be able to display outstanding consultancy skills. You will be a credible and inspirational individual with a proven track record of delivering innovative organisational and workforce development solutions. Experience of applying business psychology concepts in a work setting would also be an advantage. For more details on these roles please visit our dedicated recruitment website www.transformingchildmaintenance.co.uk Closing date: Monday 12th October 2009
New organisation. Unique issues. An opportunity to create a better future for children.
Specialist Recruitment hays.com
seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk
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children only on a part-time basis. We should, perhaps, have known that these measures were questionable, since for generations women in the north of England had worked full-time in the mills, with no apparent north–south difference in the incidence of psychopathy. Barbara Tizard on John Bowlby – the origins of his ideas, their impact and his often Some psychologists at once criticised underestimated willingness to revise them Bowlby’s theories. They objected that the evidence on which they were based was too shaky to permit such generalisations, consisting as it did largely of observational studies in one deplorable ohn Bowlby (1907–1990) first orphanage, where there were many other children referred to his clinic for stealing, attained fame – some would say forms of deprivation, and retrospective 14 were ‘affectionless’, and 12 of these had notoriety – in 1951, with the studies, where selective factors were been separated from their mothers for at publication of his monograph Maternal probably involved. His ‘monotropic’ least six months when under five. Care and Mental Health. In it he presented assumption that infants have only one His argument that young children are evidence that maternal care in infancy and harmed by maternal deprivation – preferred person, who is always their early childhood is essential for mental mother, the father’s role being to support whether through separation, or too many health. He claimed this as a discovery her emotionally and financially, was changes of, or absence of, a mother figure comparable to that of the role of vitamins contested. His assertion that there is a – was supported largely by this study of in mental health. brief critical period in the development young thieves, and some Bowlby’s own experience of maternal of attachment, which, if missed, methodologically weak studies by Spitz care seems to have been limited. He came inevitably leads to severe and irreversible and Goldfarb of institutional and exfrom a conventional, upper middle-class damage, was also met with scepticism. institutional children. Bowlby concluded background, his father a surgeon, What is much less widely known is that all children need to have a warm, knighted for his services to the royal that Bowlby considerably developed and intimate and continuous relationship family. According to the custom of this modified his theories over his lifetime, with their mother or a permanent mother social class, Bowlby and his five siblings driven by a desire to substitute. Moreover he were cared for by a nursery staff, at the be more scientific in believed that there is a top of the house, visiting their mother in his approach, and to critical period for this “It seems likely that these the drawing room from 5 to 6pm each incorporate and relationship to develop, experiences sensitised day. Aged four, he was heartbroken when respond to the from 6 to 30 months. If the him to issues of his nursemaid left. At nine he was sent to concepts, methods relationship is absent then, attachment and loss” boarding school. He later told his wife ‘he and findings of other or broken, the would not send a dog to boarding school disciplines. (The stages consequences are severe at that age’. It seems likely that these of Bowlby’s thinking can and irreversible. Mothering experiences sensitised him to issues of be followed in a 1979 collection of his is almost useless if delayed until after the attachment and loss, although his only, articles, The Making and Breaking of age of two, and the child will grow up cryptic, public comment was that he had Affectional Bonds). Initially, he accounted psychopathic, or at best affectionless, been ‘sufficiently hurt but not sufficiently for the dire consequences of maternal unable to form close relationships with damaged’ by them. deprivation in psychoanalytic terms, as others. He expressed his firm opposition After public school, he read medicine due to the failure of the children’s egos not only to institutional care and at Cambridge and University College and superegos to develop adequately. This separation in hospitals, but also to day Hospital, and did voluntary work in an was because the normal childish conflict nurseries or schools for children under analytically oriented school for between ‘the impulse to obtain libidinal three. Even those aged three to five maladjusted children, before starting a satisfaction’ and the impulse to hurt and should only attend part-time, and mothers seven-year Kleinian psychoanalysis, and destroy the ‘love object’ was intensified by with young children should, if necessary, training as an adult psychiatrist at the separation, to a degree which their egos be paid to stay at home. Maudsley Hospital. Working in the were too weak to resolve. Hence, these The book made a tremendous impact London Child Guidance Clinic before the intense feelings remained in the on the general public. I think this was war, Bowlby’s views soon began to diverge because it appeared at a time, soon after unconscious, unresolved, leading to later from those of his psychoanalytic mentors. personality disturbance. the end of the Second World War, when He became convinced that they greatly But Bowlby was remarkably open to there was a big movement to get women, exaggerated the role of fantasy in influences from other disciplines. During in many ways liberated by their wartime children’s psychological disturbances, the 1950s his weekly workshop on work experiences, to stay at home. which he believed were primarily the parent–child relations included, besides Professional women like myself – I had result of damaging life experiences, both a Freudian and a Kleinian analyst, my first baby in the year the book was especially separation from their mothers. psychologists who were behaviourists, published – became worried that they This led him to warn, unsuccessfully, a Piagetian, an ethologist, and psychiatric would damage their children by returning against the evacuation of children under social workers. Within a few years he to work even on a part-time basis, and five without their mothers at the became critical of psychoanalytic theory those who worked full-time were widely beginning of the war. In 1944 he because of its failure to make systematic criticised. Many nurseries closed, and published a paper showing that of 44 observations, the obscurity of many of its nursery schools switched to taking
The making and breaking of attachment theory
J
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hypotheses, and its failure to see any need to test them. In 1956 the findings of his own study of early hospitalised children led him to write that he and others had overstated their case about the inevitable dire consequences of early separation. Theoretically, he switched to an ethological explanation of the importance of mother–child bonding, in terms of its biological survival value, as well as its importance for emotional development. He saw a parallel between this bonding and the concept (later repudiated by ethologists) of imprinting in animals and birds, a process said to occur during a limited time period and to be irreversible. He was inspired by ethology to initiate observational studies of young children entering hospital and residential nurseries. He was struck by the resemblance between the stages of protest, despair and detachment observed in them after separation and the process of adult mourning. During the 1960s Bowlby turned to study the normal process of attachment, working with a psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, with whom he developed attachment theory. This emphasised that attachment relations are important throughout life, and that later relationships and social and emotional functioning depend on the security of the first attachment. Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure was devised as an objective, observable way to elicit different patterns of attachment behaviour in 12- to 18-month-old children in standardised situations with their mother. Secure children, who used their mothers as a base from which to explore, and to return to for reassurance, were said to be those with sensitive, responsive mothers. It was predicted that they would later develop confident, positive social relationships. Bowlby concluded from research with this procedure that at least a third of children have mothers who do not provide them with security, because of their own emotional problems. Attachment theory and research have subsequently burgeoned (see Helen Barrett’s excellent 2006 book Attachment and the Perils of Parenting for an account). To understand how early attachment patterns can have lasting effects, by the 1970s Bowlby had adopted the concept of ‘internal working models’ from a cognitive psychologist, Kenneth Craik. He postulated that such models, built up by young children from their experiences and from what they are told, consist of expectations about how people will respond to them, and they to others. At first the models, whether based on negative or positive experiences, are
tentative, but they tend to be confirmed and to persist. Thus any initial emotional damage to children tends to be perpetuated, although to some degree it may be moderated by subsequent experience. He drew on informationprocessing theories to explain the increasing resistance of these models to change. These concepts led him to withdraw his initial belief in a critical period for bonding, which had been called into question by later research. Although many psychoanalysts thought otherwise, Bowlby always saw himself as a psychoanalyst. But when asked in 1979 for the 10 books that had most influenced his thinking, he included only one by a psychoanalyst (Freud’s Introductory Lectures), three books by biologists (Robert Hinde and Lorenz), one by the educationalist Homer Lane, and one by the psychologist Ainsworth. In 1986 Bowlby wrote of Freud: ‘The phenomena to which he called attention are immensely important, but the theories he came up with are very dated and inadequate.’ In the last part of his life, strongly influenced by the writings of Michael Rutter, he abandoned his original insistence on the irreversible consequences of maternal separation. In 1988 he wrote that ‘the central task is to study the endless interactions of internal and external factors, and how the one is influencing the other not only during childhood but during adolescence and adult life as well… Present knowledge requires that a theory of developmental pathways should replace theories that invoke specific phases of development in which it is postulated that a person may become fixated and/or to which he may regress.’ His concern remained with the concept of attachment, but his interest had shifted to the problems of adults with dysfunctional working models of attachment. Unfortunately, it is his original crude theory that has stuck in the public mind. Bowlby’s theories, by emphasising the role in development of experience as opposed to fantasy, constituted an important critique of psychoanalysis. They were also important in drawing attention to the emotional suffering that young children can undergo in separation, which led to more humane
read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk
practices in hospital and child care. But his influence was felt by many women as oppressive, until feminism and the growth of consumerism led to mothers returning to work with greater confidence. In my own case, my first major research project, a longitudinal study of children who spent their first two to five years in English residential nurseries, was inspired by doubts about Bowlby’s theories. In fact, we found that he was partially right. Whilst by 16 many of the ex-institutional children, especially the adopted children, had formed strong and loving relationships with their parents, they more often had problems with their peers than other children. But these problems occurred in only half of the children, and were more frequent in those who returned to their own families, with all their problems, than those who were adopted, and had much attention and care lavished on them. Unlike me, my late husband Jack took little interest in Bowlby’s work. Like Bowlby, during the 1950s he was concerned about the effects of institutional care: in Jack’s case, on adults and children who had been certified as ‘mental defectives’, and incarcerated with an almost indeterminate sentence in huge institutional ‘colonies’. Jack’s interest was in improving the patients’ lives, by setting up occupational training for the young adults, which often made their release into the community possible, and by an experimental transfer of severely retarded young children from a large hospital ward into a small, nursery-like hostel. His motivation was humanitarian and libertarian. He was influenced by, and liaised with, the National Council for Civil Liberties (now ‘Liberty’) who were then campaigning for the release of specific adults, certified when teenagers, often because of a combination of school failure and minor delinquency. Unlike Bowlby, Jack saw that there was sometimes a role for institutional care, and was concerned to understand how institutions worked, and how to improve them. I Barbara Tizard is Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education B.Tizard@ioe.ac.uk
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…with Jay Belsky Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck University of London
One inspiration Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University; among so much else, he showed me how to find what is of value in others’ work, rather than concentrate on its limitations. One common denominator underlying your work Fascination with how developmental experiences shape – or fail to shape – who we are. One moment that changed the course of your career When I spotted a teammate on the Georgetown University soccer team with a bunch of four-year-olds in tow, leading me to ask him, ‘Where did you get them?’ His reply led to the eventual resolution of my identity crisis, as volunteering at the university daycare centre was my first step in becoming a developmental psychologist.
One challenge you think psychology faces The tendency to regard only experimental work, and possibly only neuroscientific research, as science. One alternative career I spent my entire childhood wanting to go to the US Military Academy at West Point but, after securing an appointment there, including a congressional nomination, decided instead to study international relations at Georgetown University.
One cultural recommendation Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel; masterly interdisciplinary scholarship, even though he is undoubtedly wrong in contending that humans have not changed genetically since the dawn of agriculture.
One idea that grabs you at the moment That individuals vary in developmental plasticity, with some being more susceptible to environmental effects, both good and bad, than others. One hope for the future That it not be a self-serving guild. If it makes good
One regret Never having mastered a second language. Jay Belsky
One proud j.belsky@bbk.ac.uk moment Remaining calm and focused when a hippo dumped me out of my scientific sense for ‘psychology’ canoe into the crocodileto wither and something else infested Zambeze River in to assume or assimilate it, Zimbabwe – and surviving to profession politics should not tell the tale! stand in the way.
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L. & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62, 647–670. ‘It re-cast traditional thinking in modern evolutionary terms, advancing new, testable hypotheses.’
A special issue marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. I Send your comments about The Psychologist to the editor, Dr Jon Sutton, on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk, +44 116 252 9573 or to the Leicester office address I To advertise in The Psychologist: psyadvert@bps.org.uk, +44 116 252 9552 I For jobs in the Appointments section: psychapp@bps.org.uk, +44 116 252 9550
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One problem that psychology should deal with The continuing distrust by so many of all things evolutionary and thus the obsessive interest in the ‘how’ of psychological/behavioural phenomena, with insufficient concern for the ‘why’ of them.
One hero from psychology Sir Michael Rutter, based on the depth and scope of his scholarship, including the crystal clarity of his thinking.
coming soon
One lesson from Sure Start Demand that anyone speaking about ‘evidenced-based’ anything distinguish scientific evidence from so much else that masquerades as such (e.g. anecdote, qualitative study, general impressions).
One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists Follow your nose! Never lose sight of what interests – or better yet, fascinates – you.
resource
One great thing that psychology has achieved
Enabling so many to appreciate that children are not just miniature adults, but individuals who should be understood on their own terms.
One thing that you would change about psychologists That they be less critical of each other and more openminded, actively engaging, even if only experimentally, ideas with which they might (initially?) disagree.
contribute
ONE ON ONE
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Think you can do better? Want to see your area of psychology represented more? See the inside front cover for how you can contribute and reach 45,000 colleagues into the bargain, or just e-mail your suggestions to jon.sutton@bps.org.uk
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2nd UK Paediatric Neuropsychology Symposium: Rehabilitation and Educational Support 19 – 23 April 2010 UCL Institute of Child Health & Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London. This symposium will provide a contemporary account of rehabilitation programmes, specific interventions and educational support for children with cognitive, behavioural and emotional difficulties following neurological injury or neurodevelopmental disorder. A host of leading international speakers will participate in this unique symposium in order to consider how professionals may best support children and their families following neurological injury and what opportunities there may be to exploit brain plasticity in promoting positive learning, behaviour and socio-emotional development.
Confirmed Speakers s Professor Vicki Anderson University of Melbourne s Professor Dorothy Bishop University of Oxford s Professor Lucia Willadino Braga SARAH Network, Brasilia s Professor Robert Butler Oregon Health & Science University s Professor Jacobus Donders Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, Michigan s Dr Ian Frampton University of Exeter
s Professor Reuven Feuerstein The International Centre for the Enhancement of Learning Potential, Jerusalem s Professor Fiona Gibbon University of Cork s Dr Sam Goldstein Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City s Professor George Prigatano Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix s Professor Keith Yeates Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus
Programme Director: Dr Peter Rankin Registration forms & Abstract submission details are available at www.ichneuropsych.co.uk All other enquiries to ICH Events Office 020 7905 2135 or email k.gresty@ich.ucl.ac.uk
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