Melba Vasquez (1992), educator, and ethicist, and the President Elect of the American Psychological Association wrote, "Professionals concerned with the problems of unethical behavior believe that the strongest weapon against professional misconduct may be the education of trainees" (p. 196). It is this statement, my professional…

Over the last decade, researchers have continued to make breakthroughs in understanding the clinical significance of motor symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, autism. With funding now available for assessment and therapy via the Federal Government's "Helping Children with Autism" initiative, there is an increased need for…

Imagine what is required to meet the immediate needs of people who have experienced loss from a major disaster such as a flood, hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or wildfire. When such events occur in the United States or its territories, the American Red Cross starts a Disaster Response Operation, and mental health is always a component in the…

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are brief measures of early literacy skills for students in Grades K-6 (University of Oregon, 2009; see Kaminski & Good, 1996). School psychologists and other educational professionals use DIBELS to identify students who are in need of early intervention. The purpose of this review was…

The mission of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is to represent school psychology and support school psychologists to enhance the learning and mental health of all children and youth. "School psychologists" provide effective services to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally.…

This article describes the development and validation of the Family Influence Scale (FIS). The FIS is designed to assess perceptions of how one's family of origin influences career and work choices. The purpose of Study 1 was to identify the domains of family influence. A 57-item scale was completed by a sample of 205 college students. Results…

Although school psychologists are involved in dealing with the problem of pupil absenteeism at both the individual child and whole school level, one of the possible reasons for their involvement, namely the belief that significant absence from school has an effect on attainments, is actually founded on weak evidence. The literature review…

In this article, the author discusses the important roles that students, school staff and teachers play in keeping the school safe particularly from weapons. The author believes that one way that they do this is by working together to reduce the problem of weapons in school. The role of school staff and teachers extends beyond prevention and…

Various research findings, mostly from Anglo-American countries, evidence the medical profession to be strongly familial and further suggest that a medical family background may be associated with study success in medical undergraduates. This study explored the familial aggregation of the medical profession among 1-year cohort samples of medical…

Evolutionary psychology has emerged over the past 15 years as a major theoretical perspective, generating an increasing volume of empirical studies and assuming a larger presence within psychological science. At the same time, it has generated critiques and remains controversial among some psychologists. Some of the controversy stems from…

As we have throughout the association's history, we focused in 2011 on multiple initiatives--all designed to further, support, and communicate the important work that psychologists do. This year we had the benefit of APA's first-ever strategic plan as well as funding for the following seven initiatives that are specifically designed to execute the…

Background: Psychological services are increasingly provided within a context in which third party payers impose limits on the number of sessions available to the client and therapist. Considerable research has addressed the effect of time limits on therapeutic outcomes, while effects on therapeutic process have received less attention. This…

This study investigated the properties of a new rating instrument, the Parenting Questionnaire (PQ), designed to measure attitudes about acceptable and unacceptable parenting practices. In Study 1, subject matter experts representing culturally diverse psychologists, parents, and college students were consulted to identify 110 items receiving high…

The findings from the Smith et al. (2012) survey of early career psychologists (ECPs) who are members of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs for ECPs in the SCP as well as recommendations about how the SCP can better meet the professional needs of ECPs. Ideally, the implementation of these…

Less frequently than you might expect, a court case within the booming world of special education litigation focuses on the evaluation practices of a school psychologist. The appropriateness of such practices merits comparative examination from both professional and legal perspectives. This article contains the facts for examination under these…