Psychology and socialization research examine the workings of the human mind and human behavior; genetics, as a branch of biology, examines the way in which traits and predispositions are transmitted from parents to their children as a result of genetic recombination. The relationship between psychology, in contrast, and biology and genetics, has never been easy.
Discursive psychology examines how psychological issues are made relevant and put to use in everyday talk. Unlike traditional psychological perspectives, discursive psychology does not approach the question of what psychology comprises and explains from an analyst’s perspective. Instead the focus is on how psychological characteristics are made available, ascribed, and resisted by people themselves, as
Vocational psychology, a specialty within applied psychology, is the study of vocational behavior and its development across the life cycle. Emerging in the first decade of the twentieth century as America became heavily industrialized, vocational psychology originally concentrated on the fit between a worker’s abilities and interests and a job’s requirements and rewards. The outcome
This article examines the fields of rhetoric and psychology, each from the perspective of the other, and both from the meta-perspective of a psychologist-turned-rhetorician who retains equal measures of respect (and disrespect) for both. Rhetoric and psychology each study persuasion but from radically different approaches that reflect their contrasting origins in the humanistic and scientific
Psychology is generally concerned with studying the mind, the brain, and human behavior. While popular media often focus on clinical psychology (the study and treatment of mental illness), there are many other forms of psychology, ranging from neuropsychology to cultural psychology to sports psychology. This article largely focuses on experimental psychology, an overarching branch that
The Self-Directed Search (SDS) is an interest inventory based on John Holland’s RIASEC theory that people, work, and educational environments can be classified according to six basic types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). According to the SDS’s publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., the SDS is the most widely used interest inventory in
The Strong Interest Inventory, published by CPP, Inc., and commonly referred to as the Strong, is one of the most widely used and scientifically grounded tools available for assessing people’s career and life interests. The Strong measures an individual’s work and personal interests and compares them to those of people employed in a wide range
The System of Interactive Guidance Information (SIGI) is a computer-assisted career guidance system (CACGS) for university students and adults. It is a computer program designed to help people make informed career decisions via self-assessments and in-depth, current educational and job information. The program also has an educational aspect that teaches users about the career decision-making
The Transition Behavior Scale, Second Edition (TBS-2) has as its intention the identification of behaviors that are thought to interfere with successful societal transition and employment from high school to adult life for special needs students. There are two versions of the TBS-2: a self-report instrument (to be completed by the student) and a school
The Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT) is an assessment designed to identify personally relevant career (educational and occupational) options. Results are intended to help people see the connection between the work world and the activities they like to do. UNIACT is a component of several programs and services offered by ACT, such
The Values Scale (VS) is used to assess values in life roles, largely in relation to work. Items query both values desired in life roles and the place of work in value manifestation. The VS can be used in career counseling to identify areas of values conflict and deficits in career development and to connect
Dealing with career indecision has long been a focus of theory and research, and helping clients to overcome their difficulties in making decisions is among the core roles of career counseling. The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) is based on the taxonomy of career decision-making difficulties proposed by Gati, Krausz, and Osipow and was developed
Brown’s values-based career theory emphasizes the central importance of values in career counseling and occupational choice. Values are defined as cognitive structures that are the basis for self-evaluation and one’s evaluation of others. Values also have an affective dimension, are the primary basis of goal-directed behavior, and are the stimulus for the development of behavior
Career advancement has been for decades a topic of many books found in the self-help, career, and especially the business sections of bookstores. It is not a topic commonly found in career counseling or vocational psychology textbooks or journal articles. There are several assumptions and key concepts and characteristics commonly found in books about career
The global economy of the 21st century with its digitalization and worker migration poses new questions about career, especially the question of how individuals can negotiate a lifetime of job changes without losing their sense of self and social identity. Career construction theory responds to the needs of today’s mobile workers who may feel fragmented
The process of acquiring knowledge is the essence of higher education. Career decision making is a tangible expression of this process, and since almost half of all college students change majors and even more change career goals while in college, career services for higher education students are crucial to the mission of the institution. Characteristics
Those who prefer a narrow definition of forensic psychology do not typically include police psychology in its purview. We have done so because police are sworn to uphold the law and are in many cases the gatekeepers to entry into criminal and juvenile courts, if not civil courts. Thus, psychologists who consult with police in
Lewis Terman (1917) was the first American psychologist to use “mental tests” as screening devices in the selection of law enforcement personnel. On October 31, 1916, at the request of the city manager of San Jose, California, he administered an abbreviated form of the Stanford-Binet to 30 police and fire department applicants. They ranged in
In the years between the two world wars, psychologists gradually became more involved in the screening of law enforcement personnel and began to incorporate personality assessment into that enterprise. Wilmington, Delaware, and Toledo, Ohio, appear to share the distinction of being the first two cities to require ongoing psychological screening for use in police selection
In the early years of the 20th century, psychologists began to offer psychological perspectives on criminal behavior and to speculate about the causes of crime. Like the police psychology discussed earlier, criminal psychology typically is not considered in the narrow definitions of forensic psychology, primarily because it appears more theoretical than clinical in nature. However
As previously stated, the APA Ethics Code comprises 10 specific standards intended to serve as enforceable rules of conduct that psychologists are obliged to follow. Unlike the general principles to which psychologists should aspire, these standards constitute requirements they are expected to meet in order to remain in compliance with the Ethics Code. The standards
Forensic psychologists must deal regularly with two related aspects of principled practice that warrant further elaboration. The first of these concerns the obligation of practitioners to prevent their personal values from affecting their professional conduct. The second aspect concerns the professional responsibility of forensic psychologists to resist expectations or demands of attorneys that, although falling
Given that the training and career goals of forensic psychologists can differ markedly within and across categories, training programs have developed divergent programmatic approaches to educating their students so that they can attain these disparate goals. These programmatic approaches are not based solely on achieving specific training goals, however. They are also subject to administrative
The section on general principles in the APA Ethics Code delineates five aspirational goals toward which psychologists should strive in their practice, teaching, and research. 1. Beneficence and malfeasance Psychologists should safeguard the rights and welfare of those to whom they provide services and maintain vigilance to ensure that their influence is not misused. They
In assessing a forensic program, it is reasonable to ask about faculty and adjunct supervisor qualifications and expertise. It is important that programs have faculty members who are well qualified to teach and supervise in the areas to which they are assigned (APA, 2002, Standard 2.01). Although this admonition sounds obvious, as the pressure for
Academic achievement is axiomatic to career development processes. In people’s lives, academic choices, barriers, or opportunities occur early and frequently, and they have a pervasive and lasting influence on career development. For example, a middle school student’s choice of or opportunity for educational curricula limits or broadens the student’s subsequent opportunity for learning experiences; a
Many psychologists use labels such as achievement test, aptitude test, and ability test imprecisely, and nonpsychologists use them as synonyms. This lack of precision is understandable because in actual practice, tests bearing these labels often appear to be quite similar and are used for similar purposes. This entry explains the theoretical distinction among achievement, aptitude
The career concerns presented to counselors by adults vary widely. Some clients are making new career choices, others are coping with adjustment problems, and still others are planning retirement. To identify the career issues that most concern an individual, Donald Super, Albert Thompson, and Richard Lindeman constructed the Adult Career Concerns inventory (ACCI). The ACCI
The ASVAB, shorthand for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, anchors the Career Exploration Program (CEP) offered free to schools by the Military Enlistment Processing Command through teams of Educational Services Specialists. The CEP encourages exploration through OCCU-Find, which integrates vocational interests with ASVAB scores and Occupational Information Network. This entry is based on available
Biodata, or biographical data, are paper and pencil measures that ask respondents to reflect or report on their life experiences. Scores from biodata are typically used in conjunction with other employment measures for predicting individual performance in a given job. Biodata have been used across a wide range of occupations as an indicator of the
The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) is a career assessment instrument that analyzes an individual’s self-reported interests and skills to assist in effective career planning and decision making. The CISS provides four kinds of scales that help individuals age 15 through adult understand how their interests and skills relate to important areas in the
Card sorts are nonstandardized and subjective assessments commonly used in career counseling to help clients clarify their skills and career interests. This entry provides descriptions of the history and varieties of vocational card sorts (VCSs), research findings, and the advantages of using card sorts in career counseling. Card Sorts Overview In this type of assessment
The Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI) is a 130-item, paper and pencil, self-report assessment by John L. Holland and Gary D. Gottfredson. The CASI is intended to give the employed or unemployed adult client and career counselor information regarding the client’s likelihood of job stability or change, potential career obstacles, or areas for further
Career barriers have been hypothesized to affect the career development process by inhibiting career aspirations and restricting the range of perceived career opportunities. The Career Barriers Inventory (CBI) is a psychometrically sound, multidimensional, self-report instrument that was developed to assess for career-related barriers. The CBI assesses for a broad array of barriers that college students
The Career Beliefs Inventory (CBI) is a tool designed to help people identify career beliefs that may be preventing them from taking action to achieve their career goals. Many people hold beliefs that block their career progress. Maybe they believe that there is only one path to a successful career and that they have already
The Career Decision Scale (CDS) grew out of S. H. Osipow, C. Carney, J. Winer, B. Yanico, and M. Koschier’s counseling experience with undergraduate students who sought help in dealing with their inability to decide on an educational or career goal. Specifically, it was thought that identifying a limited number of problems connected with that
The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSE) was developed by Karen Taylor and Nancy Betz in order to apply Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy expectations to the domain of career decision making. Career decision self-efficacy was originally defined by Taylor and Betz as the individual’s belief that he or she can successfully complete tasks necessary in
The Career Development Inventory (CDI) is a 120-item standardized measure of career development attitudes and knowledge first published in 1979. This measure operationally defines career maturity based on Donald Super’s theory of career development. In general, the CDI assesses level of readiness for making realistic educational and career-related decisions. There are two forms of the
The Career Mastery Inventory (CMAS) evolved from the Career Adjustment and Development Inventory (CADI), a measure that was developed by John Crites as a means of assessing important facets related to career adjustment and development in early adulthood. Accordingly, six developmental tasks associated with the establishment stage of career development were identified. The establishment stage
The Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) is a 50-item standardized measure designed to assess the process of how adolescents and adults approach career development tasks. John Crites developed this measure in the 1960s as the Vocational Development Inventory to assess the readiness attitudes of students in making appropriate vocational plans. It became the CMI in 1973
The Career Occupational Preference System (COPSystem) is a coordinated career guidance program consisting of three assessment instruments all keyed to eight major career clusters. The three assessment components are the COPSystem Interest Inventory (COPS), the Career Ability Placement Survey (CAPS), and the Career Orientation Placement and Evaluation Survey (COPES) and their accompanying interpretive materials. Interpretation
The Career Planning Survey is a paper-based career assessment system designed to help students in Grades 8 through 10 identify and explore personally relevant occupations and high school courses. The assessment elements consist of an interest inventory, an inventory of ability self-estimates, and two optional academic ability tests. In addition, students can complete checklists assessing
A difficult task facing career counselors concerns applying abstract career theories to concrete problems presented by clients. Over the years, counselor educators have voiced concern about their trainees’ ability to accurately assess client problems and make sound clinical decisions. In practice, novice career counselors also become perplexed by the multitude of career methods and materials
The career style interview (CSI) consists of six questions and is the primary means of assessment for those interested in applying the theory of career construction as developed by Mark L. Savickas. This theory helps individuals to find meaning in the nonlinear careers of today and is an expansion and clarification of Donald Super’s life-span
The Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) is a theory-based assessment and intervention resource intended to improve thinking in career problem solving and decision making. The CTI measures dysfunctional career thoughts that may inhibit the ability to effectively engage in career decision making. The 48-item inventory is self-administered and objectively scored. The assessment is designed to be
The Career Transitions Inventory (CTI) is a 40-item Likert format measure designed to assess an individual’s internal process variables that may serve as strengths or barriers when making a career transition. For purposes of this instrument, the term career transition was defined as a situation in which any of the following kinds of career changes
There is an adage, “Give people a fish and they eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime.” This wise maxim succinctly captures the ultimate aim of the cognitive information processing (CIP) approach to career counseling—that is, enabling individuals to become skillful career problem solvers and decision makers.
The College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) is a versatile tool that assesses the quality of effort college students expend in using resources and opportunities provided by an institution for their learning and development. Quality of effort is a key dimension for understanding student satisfaction and persistence and for understanding the effects of attending college. The
DISCOVER Career Planning Program from ACT, inc., is a comprehensive computer-based career guidance system offered on the Internet for Grade 5 through adult. it includes inventories of interest, abilities, and values plus detailed information about occupations (civilian and military), majors, schools, financial aid, and the job search. The results of the career exploration process are
The Employee Aptitude Survey (EAS), used for more than 50 years in selection and career counseling, was developed to yield “maximum validity per minute of testing time” (Ruch, Stang, McKillip, & Dye, 1994, p. 9). Derived from earlier ability tests, it consists of 10 short tests that may be given singly or in any combination.
The Environmental Assessment Technique (EAT) was developed by John L. Holland and Alexander W. Astin to quickly and easily capture the dominant beliefs, functioning, and goals of the individuals within an organization, using Holland’s six environmental models. The EAT consists of eight scales: Institutional Size, Aptitude Level, and six Personal Orientation scales. Theoretical Background The
No universally accepted conceptual definition of interests has emerged in vocational psychology. As a result, interests often are defined as what an assessment measures. At the most basic level, operational definitions of interests commonly focus on an individual’s constellation or pattern of likes and dislikes for vocational, academic, and leisure activities, as well as for
The General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) was developed by the U.S. Employment Service (USES) for use in occupational counseling, primarily by national agencies and in state employment offices. The measure was published in 1947, revised several times, and discontinued in 2002. The battery assessed multiple cognitive, perceptual, and psychomotor abilities as preferred rather than general
The Hall Occupational Orientation Inventory (HOOI) is an ambitious undertaking designed to aid career and personal exploration through the self-assessment of needs, values, interests, and abilities. Resembling a psychometric one-stop shop, items cover more dimensions at once than other tools used for similar exploratory purposes. The HOOI was originally published in 1968 in three forms:
The Jackson Vocational Interest Inventory (commonly known as the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey or JVIS) is a standardized, normed career interest test that was first published by Douglas Jackson in 1977 after 8 years of research on vocational roles and styles. With the use of factor analytic and related multivariate techniques, Jackson created a unique
Kuder Career Search (KCS) represents the third generation of interest inventories known as the Kuder Preference Records. First was the Kuder Preference Record—Vocational, which gave scores on 10 vocational interest scales. Next was the Occupational, which reported occupations that were similar to the inventory takers’ interests. The KCS consists of two kinds of scales. One
The Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ) is a measure of work needs and work values. Work needs are a person’s requirements for satisfaction in work. Job satisfaction results when the conditions in work (work reinforcers) correspond to one’s work needs. The MIQ measures work needs by asking the person how important the following 20 work reinforcers
Career assessment involves an ongoing process of gathering information to assist clients to make career-related decisions. Useful information to gather in career assessment includes but is not limited to understanding a person’s personality, values, skills, interests, life roles, and career history. Assessment information is typically gathered via intake interviews, standardized tests and inventories, and non-standardized
As societies, especially in the United States, have become more diverse, counselors are expected to be able to deliver competent services to a wide variety of clients. Such competency concerns call for measures that facilitate professionals collecting and managing the data needed for meaningful and successful interventions in cross-cultural career counseling. The Multicultural Career Counseling
The My Vocational Situation (MVS) scale is a self-report screening tool developed for use with high school, college, and adult career counseling clients. The MVS was authored by John L. Holland, Denise Daiger, and Paul G. Power. After a 10-minute administration time, it provides information on clients’ vocational identity status, knowledge of career information, and
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) obtains, on an annual basis, information from tens of thousands of students at hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide. The NSSE survey, administered during the spring academic term to randomly selected first-year students and seniors, asks about their participation in programs and activities that institutions offer for learning
Performance modeling refers to the complex process of describing and defining job performance and facilitating the consequent goal of accurate prediction of job performance. It is a concept of particular significance in the area of industrial-organizational psychology as a measure of evaluation for the individual worker and the organization as a whole. Performance modeling also
One of the first and even now most-used tools of career counselors is the interest inventory. Inventories currently in use may be described as taking either of two approaches. One tells a person the relative strengths of his or her interests; the other tells the person what occupations have similar interests as his or hers.
The term personality typically refers to one’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving. In addition to the stable, trait-like features often evoked by this construct (e.g., sociability, dominance, modesty), many theories also emphasize the roles of culture, family, and other environmental factors involved in personality expression and development. This predominant individual differences variable has
Person-environment fit models are among the most widely used and influential models in vocational psychology. Ultimately, these models trace their lineage to Frank Parsons’s suggestion that job outcomes could be improved by carefully matching the attributes of an individual with the characteristics of an occupation. In the 1930s, advances in statistics and psychometrics allowed Parsons’s
The prescreening, in-depth exploration, and choice (PIC) model, proposed by Gati and Asher in 2001, provides a practical systematic framework for making career decisions based on decision theory. The PIC model consists of three stages: (1) prescreening the potential set of career alternatives to locate a small and thus manageable set of promising alternatives; (2)
Riding the bicycle to work, walking up the stairs to the apartment, taking a book from the shelf, and playing the violin are all examples of motor activities, which are signified by the planning of future goal states, the coordination of different limbs and various whole-body postures, and the regulation of muscle forces during the
Multimodal mental training, also known as mental skills training or psychological skills training (PST), involves educating athletes, coaches, and exercisers on the effective use and implementation of psychological techniques and skills that are associated with sporting and exercising excellence. Discussed here are the goals of such interventions; common components of multimodal mental training; and phases
Traditional approaches to helping individuals change health behaviors focus on reflective processes. In other words, in these approaches, the first thing a practitioner might do is identify what a client thinks about a behavior. Thus, initial counseling may focus on increasing positive beliefs and perceived benefits associated with that behavior and challenging less positive beliefs. Support
The effects of music in sport and exercise contexts have been of interest to researchers for over 100 years. Recent advances in digital music technology and the facility for users to formulate their own playlists have dramatically increased the prevalence of music in both the sports training and health club environments. Even at the high
The term narcotics is commonly used to refer loosely to a broad range of drugs, from marijuana to cocaine. More accurately, the narcotic drugs consist of opium and its derivatives, also known as opiate drugs. The most common opiate drugs include heroin, morphine, and codeine, and their use leads to a sense of numbness resulting
Among the most frequently occurring neurologic diseases in Europe and North America are multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebrovascular diseases, brain and spinal cord trauma, and chronic headache. These neurologic disorders are also the most relevant for treatment with sport therapy, a motion-therapeutic method that compensates and regenerates disturbed bodily, mental, and social functions; prevents secondary
In the fields of neuroscience and cognitive science, human cognition is broadly defined as a component of brain function that includes information processing, memory, attention, perception, language, and executive function related to decision making (DM) and the initiation or inhibition of behavior. In the context of sport and exercise psychology, researchers have been interested in
In a broad sense, norms reflect inferences about accepted, appropriate, valued, and/or desirable behavior. Norms differ from rules and laws in that they are implicit (as opposed to explicit) in nature, and normative influences have been studied since at least the late 19th century in the fields of social psychology and sociology. More recently, these
Obesity is commonly defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m2or higher. Increasing rates of obesity in many countries represent a great challenge for public health. In the United States, for example, the rate of adult obesity exceeds 35%. Obesity is associated with increased risk of premature mortality resulting from chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes,
Optimism is an expectation for positive or desirable outcomes to occur. Viewed by some as an inherent and evolutionarily adaptive aspect of human biology, it has been examined by psychologists both as a relatively stable dispositional trait (“big optimism”) and as a less stable, situation-specific state of mind (“little optimism”). In its dispositional form, optimism
The statement “No sweet without sweat!” is well known by athletes of any age. It expresses the time and cost athletes have to invest to achieve top-class performances. K. Anders Ericsson suggested that athletes must practice for 10,000 hours or 10 years to become experts in an activity. However, extensive training holds many pitfalls if
The developmental psychologist Jacquelynne Eccles suggested that parents influence their children’s involvement in sport in three ways: as providers, role models, and interpreters. Parents provide children with opportunities to participate in sport by signing them up for programs, transporting them to practices and matches, paying registration fees, and so on. Parents can act as role
The most commonly and consistently cited motives for participating in sport are developing and displaying competence (from learning new skills), experiencing challenges and success, acquiring social benefits that arise from affiliation to a group or team, improving fitness, and having fun. On the other hand, reasons for sport withdrawal include the attraction of other activities,
The dualistic model of passion (DMP) describes two types of passion, namely harmonious and obsessive passion. This model allows for a better understanding of the passion of people involved in sport (athletes, coaches, referees, and fans) as well as the outcomes they experience. The DMP defines passion as a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity
In the sporting domain, pattern recognition and recall refer to the capability of athletes to recognize or recall the patterns formed by the configuration of key elements (such as teammates and opposing players) that exist within the playing environment. An enhanced capability to quickly and accurately extract information from these unique pattern structures has been
Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards for performance, accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations. It is a disposition that may pervade all areas of life, particularly areas in which performance plays as major role (e.g., work, school). Therefore, it comes as no surprise that perfectionism
Performance enhancement is of major importance in competitive and elite sports. Among the many methods to enhance performance in sports, such as specialized training and diet regimes, some athletes seek resort to performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Following the drug-related death of British cyclist Tom Simpson during the 1967 Tour de France, a controversy erupted concerning the
Personality is typically defined as a person’s distinctive and enduring (i.e., cross-situational) thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the person’s reactions to life situations. Personality traits are also defined as specific properties that predispose a person to react in certain ways in given classes of situations—sport, for example. Some personality traits are genetically determined and
In the past 30 years, personality researchers have amassed a considerable body of evidence to support the importance of traits as crucial determinants of behavior. This research has shown that personality is structured similarly across over 50 cultures, shows evidence of genetic heritability, has high stability across time, and does not relate strongly to parental
Pleasure and displeasure comprise a bipolar dimension that is the most important ingredient of core affect. As such, pleasure and displeasure provide texture to conscious experiences and form the foundation of emotions and moods. Furthermore, pleasure and displeasure have long been considered by many philosophers and psychologists as powerful motives. Pleasure is of particular interest
Traditionally, sport psychologists have placed great value on athletes thinking positively about upcoming and imminent performances. Compared with practicing sport psychologists who have demonstrated a keen interest in positive thinking, theorists and researchers have not. As a result, a systematic and thorough knowledge base regarding what positive thinking is and why it is so sought
As a child, whom did you want to be when you grew up? A firefighter? A professional athlete? Where did this idea come from? Something you saw on television? Or perhaps you were emulating parent or other significant adult. As you entered high school, it’s likely you began to think more seriously about your future.
Practice typically comprises activities that are designed to help a person acquire a new skill, improve in an already acquired skill, or maintain a skill. Practice can be deliberate and engaged in for a specific purpose (such as attaining a speed or accuracy goal) or it can be more incidental in nature, potentially engaged in
Preperformance routines refer to the consistent sequence of thoughts and actions in which a performer engages before executing a skill. Typically, they are associated with performing self-paced skills in which the performer decides when to initiate the action. Examples include sports such as golf, snooker, archery, and static target shooting, as well as individual elements
Priming refers to the process of temporarily activating an individual’s mental constructs (i.e., trait concepts, stereotypes, contexts, goals) and observing the subsequent effect of this activation on psychological, social, and/or motor behavior phenomena. Every individual possesses a set of mental representations (that are constantly being added to or developed) about themselves and the world around
In sport, some events, occurrences, and outcomes are more probable than others, and the potential exists to use information about probabilities to aid performance. This entry discusses two levels on which probabilities are relevant to sport performance. The first is the individual, immediate performance level. On this level, probabilities are used implicitly during performance; performers
The protection motivation theory (PMT) originally aimed at explaining why people develop protection motivation and what role fear-appeals play in this process. A protection motivation might be an intention to adopt or adhere to a fitness program. Athletes might fear to perform not at their best form if they do not attend training. Exercisers could fear
Injury is a common occurrence in association with sport participation. Most sport injuries are minor, require minimal medical intervention, and have limited impact on the sport involvement of athletes. However, a substantial number of injuries are of sufficient severity to require more extensive medical treatment (e.g., immobilization, surgery), rehabilitation, and restriction of sport involvement. In
Psychological skills training (PST) involves training athletes and exercisers to learn psychological skills (e.g., relaxation skills) that help these performers regulate their psychological state (e.g., their feelings of confidence). PST is of interest within sport and exercise psychology (SEP) because psychological states can affect sport and exercise performance; if performers can regulate their psychological states via
Psychological well-being (PWB) is defined as one’s level of psychological happiness/health, encompassing life satisfaction, and feelings of accomplishment. At the risk of being dualistic and separating physical well-being from PWB, it is helpful to note that physical well-being encompasses physical health, including disease states, fitness level, and ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL).
Psychopharmacology refers to the study of the actions of drugs on behavior. Drugs and substances with the potential to modify or completely change human behavior are best known as psychoactive. It is noteworthy that psychopharmacology has developed along with advances in neuroscience research. These two fields of scientific inquiry revealed the mechanisms of brain function—and
Quality of life (QOL) assessments are instrumental in developing a more comprehensive understanding of the efficacy of disease prevention and health promotion interventions. There is growing interest in delineating the role of exercise in enhancing QOL outcomes. Indeed, findings from multiple reviews on the effect of exercise on QOL reveal that exercise consistently results in
The term race is not easily defined; it has complicated and contested meanings contingent upon historical and social contexts. In a general sense, scholars within, and outside, sport psychology (SP) have conceptualized race as having biological and/or social distinctions. From a biological perspective, race refers to individuals who are perceived by others, and perhaps by
Race can be understood as a concept that signifies meanings and struggles over power in reference to skin color. Within the social sciences, most consider race to be not a biologically valid concept but rather a social construction. The issue of race in sport and exercise psychology is important because while the majority of professionals
Pattern recognition and recall paradigms are the concepts, theories, and methods that are typically used to examine and explain the underlying mechanisms contributing to the capability of performers to recognize and/or recall information from their domain. A vast amount of evidence has demonstrated that experienced performers are better than novices at recalling the locations of
Given that forensic psychology involves the application of psychology to the legal system, it is not surprising that much of the work of forensic psychologists involves assisting specific legal actors. In this section, we discuss the different ways in which forensic psychologists may assist law enforcement agencies, attorneys, litigants, and others. Assisting Law Enforcement Within
With respect to assisting litigants and others in the legal system, psychologists act in quasi-judicial capacities and also provide therapeutic services. Quasi-Judicial Roles Over the past quarter of a century, psychologists have become increasingly involved in a number of activities in which they serve as decision makers for persons involved in the legal process. Psychologists’
In addition to researching the legal system and its functioning, psychologists conduct research on a multitude of psychological factors or phenomena that are of particular interest to the legal system. Some of these areas of inquiry are discussed next. Researching Psychological Phenomena Some psychological phenomena are of particular interest to the legal system given their
Legal psychology refers to psychological theory, research, and practice directly pertinent to the law and legal issues. It focuses on psycholegal research and contacts with judges, lawyers, and other law-related professionals in a wide range of contexts. The origins of legal psychology can be traced to the work of experimental psychologists in Europe in the
Flow is a special psychological state of total absorption in a task. When in flow, athletes are fully focused on what they are doing, and this heightened attention is associated with a number of positive factors. Accompanying a focused mindset are factors such as knowing exactly what one is going to do and how one
The science of psychology exists in a state of tension with the legal system in many ways (Ogloff & Finkelman, 1999). Fundamentally, the goals and processes of investigation in science differ substantially from those of investigation in the law. First, science is inductive. Researchers examine data from many field studies, correlational studies, and experiments and
Questions of potential interactions between psychology and the law existed long before the founding of the United States or the establishment of a separate United State legal system. For example, Francis Bacon (1857) expressed concerns that inappropriate psychological motives held by some actors in the legal system could compromise the system. He suggested that the
Positive Psychology History The roots of inquiry into what is good about human nature and optimal human functioning can be traced back to Aristotle. Indeed, the initial impetus of modern psychology was to gain an understanding of transcendent experience. This objective was echoed in humanistic psychology’s interest in the self-actualizing potential of human beings. However
Sport psychology professionals maintain an ethical obligation to ensure services are helping clients (and conversely, not harming them), and thus allowing clients the opportunity to provide feedback is a key element of effective service provision. Components of Evaluation There are a variety of subjective (or self-report) and objective measures available that consultants can select to
This article delves into the realm of cardiac psychology, focusing on the imperative task of managing fear and anxiety in individuals grappling with cardiovascular diseases. Beginning with an exploration of the intricate relationship between psychological factors and cardiac health, the article elucidates the nuanced understanding of fear and anxiety in the context of cardiovascular conditions.
This article explores the intricate interplay between psychology and chronic disease flare-ups within the realm of health psychology. The introduction delves into the definition and significance of chronic disease flare-ups, emphasizing their relevance in understanding the psychological dimensions of health. The first section examines the multifaceted factors influencing flare-ups, including genetic predisposition, neurobiological mechanisms, stress
This article explores the pivotal role of health psychology in the realm of family planning within the broader context of public health. Beginning with an introduction to the significance of family planning, the narrative unfolds by delving into the psychological factors that influence individuals’ decisions regarding family planning, including cultural, religious, and societal influences, as
Multiculturalism has been called the “fourth force” of psychology by Paul B. Pedersen, Pius K. Essandoh, and others (following psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism as schools of thought). Multicultural psychology is a major influence in contemporary psychology and includes such broad topic areas as racial identity development, acculturation, prejudice and stereotyping, and multicultural competence. Research focused
The idea that genetics may play a determining role in work behavior and work-related phenomena does not have a particularly long past in terms of actual research activity among industrial-organizational psychologists. Whereas research in other domains of psychology convincingly have shown that human behavior is influenced by genetic and biological characteristics of individuals, it was
This article delves into the crucial role of health psychology in asthma interventions, examining the complex interplay between psychosocial factors and asthma outcomes. Beginning with an exploration of the prevalence and impact of asthma, the introduction sets the stage for an in-depth investigation into the multifaceted relationships between stress, anxiety, and asthma symptoms. The first
Black psychology is an emerging discipline broadly defined as an evolving system of knowledge concerning elements of human nature, specifically study of the experience and behavior of people of African descent (Black populations). Historically, Black psychology stems from African philosophy, yet early perspectives in the United States focused on reacting to Western psychology’s characterization of
An increasing number of women are joining the field of psychology. According to the National Science Foundation, the percentage of women receiving psychology doctoral degrees increased from approximately 15% in 1950 to 55% in 1988. In 2002, an American Psychological Association (APA) task force found nearly two thirds of all new recipients of master’s degrees
Rehabilitation Psychology, a pivotal subfield within health psychology, addresses the intricate interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in the process of restoring individuals to optimal functioning. This article provides a comprehensive exploration of Rehabilitation Psychology, beginning with its definition and historical roots, emphasizing its integral role in the broader context of health psychology. Theoretical
This article explores the intersection of gerontology and psychology within the field of health psychology. Beginning with an elucidation of gerontology and its pivotal role in understanding the aging process, the article delves into the intricate biological and psychological changes that accompany aging, including cellular and neurological alterations, cognitive shifts, and emotional adjustments. Further, it
This article explores the intricate facets of alcohol dependence within the framework of health psychology. The introduction delineates the definition of alcohol dependence, its historical context, and the pervasive societal impact of this phenomenon. Etiological factors, encompassing genetic predispositions, neurobiological underpinnings, and psychosocial influences, are dissected in the second section. The article navigates through the
Police psychology, the practice of psychology in police settings, has been part of American policing since the late 1960s and has traditionally been a clinical endeavor by clinical psychologists. Although many large police agencies and some medium-sized ones employ full-time clinical psychologists, most agencies contract for part-time work with clinical psychologists who often maintain separate
This article is about the history of work and organizational (W/O) psychology, as it is called in Europe; it is also known as industrial-organizational psychology ( (I-OPsychology) in the United States. To correctly interpret this historical account of W/O psychology in Europe, it should be taken into account that our discipline had and has different
The confluence of dynamic external (socioeconomic, business, military, legal, technology) and internal forces (individuals, theories, research, applications) transformed the science and practice of industrial-organizational psychology from the foresights of a few individuals into a legitimate scientific and applied discipline. Throughout the evolution, an underlying theme persisted: The study and use of psychology for improving the
This entry presents the history of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology in four countries: Israel, India, Singapore, and Australia. It points out some similarities in the evolution of the profession across diverse cultures. Industrial-Organizational Psychology in Israel Early 20th Century The presence of psychology in Israel is traced back to 1930, when a group of German-Jewish psychoanalysts
There are many opportunities for positive interaction between the fields of psychology and the law; however, this marriage of two disciplines does not come without some inherent conflict. Judges and attorneys are trained to look at human behavior in a way that is quite different from the perspective of psychologists. It is this difference that
There is no consensual definition of forensic psychology. Perhaps it is surprising, given the relatively long history and growth of forensic psychology over the past 40 years, that there is no uniform or consensual definition for this specialty area, and most differences involve how narrowly or broadly the field is defined. Definitions range from expansive
Phrenology, an outmoded scientific discipline, predicted individual traits and characteristics in humans by analyzing the shape of the skull. Franz Joseph Gall, a Viennese physician practicing in the late 18th century, held that the brain shaped the skull, and the resulting bumps and ridges could be used to predict human behaviors, aptitudes, and tendencies. Gall
Terrorism is certainly the scourge of our times. Considerable economic, military, political, and scientific resources are devoted these days to the “war on terrorism.” Psychological research is not only relevant but also essential to understanding this issue. Indeed, the psychology of terrorism has become one of psychology’s major growth markets. Books and journals on the
The impact of exercise and sport on our society is pervasive. They are relevant topics for study both because of their societal importance and because they exert a significant influence on physical and psychosocial development across the life span. This entry provides a brief history of exercise and sport psychology, examines the relationship between counseling
Self-handicapping is a future-oriented, self-protection strategy used to (a) maintain personal perceptions of competence, control, self-worth, and self-esteem and/or (b) protect or enhance one’s public image in the eyes of coactors or observers. It consists of thoughts, statements, and behaviors that take place in advance of performance, and that increase the likelihood of situational factors
The dialogues of Plato allegedly do no more than report the teaching of Socrates, but much of what is found in these works is surely Plato’s own invention. Their composition spans a period of years such that one must distinguish between the early, the middle, and the late works, with sometimes dramatic departures found across
Of the many creative undertakings of classical Greece, surely Greek medicine must rank as high as any, and the Hippocratic School takes the laurel. That biological cast of thought reflected in Aristotle’s works certainly benefited from the background influences of the Hippocratic School and from Greek science in general. Hippocrates is not easily dated, nor
Aristotle studied in Plato’s Academy for 20 years, from its founding (c. 347 BCE) until Plato’s death (c. 347 BCE). His father was personal physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II, father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great, whose teacher Aristotle became. Though a devoted admirer and friend of his great teacher
Understanding the place of mind and body in nature gave rise to several schools of thought. Examining Mind Several intertwined questions arose from the new scientific, Cartesian, view of mind and its place in nature. Some are philosophical. If I am locked up in the subjective world of consciousness, how can I know anything about
The two decades between 1890 and 1910 constituted a crucial time for the professional foundation of psychology. Americans were coming to recognize the value of science, notably its apparent utility in enhancing commercial productivity and health. Science, including psychology, ultimately was portrayed as a practical pursuit, and American psychologists adopted this utilitarian attitude. The reformism
Woolley, Hollingworth, and Ladd-Franklin lived and worked during a period when women were making important strides in American society. The suffrage movement had secured women the right to vote in the United States by 1919. Thus, their work in psychology was buttressed by what is now called “first-wave feminism.” The middle of the 20th century
There was no formal discipline called psychology in the Middle Ages, but a number of medieval writers, particularly those from the thirteenth century, discussed concerns similar to those of present-day psychologists. More important, at least a few, for example, Avicenna and Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), seem to have been genuinely interested in psychological theory It is
The rise of humanistic psychology was led by Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), and others, also in line with Kantian precepts. This was called a “Third Force” in academic circles, adding to the first force of behaviorism and the second of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has been continually and roundly criticized for its lack of grounding in
This article explores the intricate interplay between psychology and reproductive health within the framework of health psychology. The introduction outlines the significance of reproductive health in overall well-being, establishing a foundation for exploring the psychological dimensions of this domain. The first section examines influential psychological factors, such as emotional well-being, cognitive elements, and social influences
This article delves into the realm of the psychology of food choices and preferences within the framework of health psychology. The introduction sets the stage by emphasizing the critical importance of understanding the psychological factors influencing individuals’ decisions related to food. The first section explores cognitive, emotional, and social factors shaping food choices, investigating the
This article explores the intricate interplay between psychological factors, dietary habits, and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders within the realm of health psychology. The introduction provides a foundational understanding of health psychology, emphasizing the crucial connection between psychological well-being and physical health. Delving into the core theme, the first section investigates the influence of stress and emotional
This article explores the intricate realm of Child Psychology within Stressful Medical Settings, shedding light on the profound impact that healthcare environments can have on children’s psychological well-being. Explicating the manifestations of fear, anxiety, and trauma experienced by children in medical settings, the first section elucidates the psychological effects that may linger long into their
This article on psychology of symptom perception and reporting is a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted processes underlying individuals’ awareness and communication of health-related symptoms. The article explores the intricate interplay of sensory, cognitive, and emotional factors that shape how individuals perceive and interpret their symptoms. Highlighting the significance of attention, expectation, and cognitive appraisal
This article explores the role of pediatric psychology in the management of chronic pain among pediatric patients. The introduction delves into the essence of pediatric psychology and underscores the prevalence and impact of chronic pain in the pediatric population, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive approach to its management. The first section examines the significance
The field of health psychology encompasses a diverse range of factors that influence sports and athletic performance, with psychological, cognitive, and psychophysiological aspects playing pivotal roles. This article explores the intricate interplay of these factors, beginning with an introduction to health psychology and its relevance to sports performance. The first section delves into the psychological