Insurance coverage of psychological servicesWiggins, Jack G.
doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1162pmid: N/A
Disputes M. L. Meltzer's (1975) contention that psychologists enter private practice because of the money they can make from insurance reimbursements. It is proposed that psychologists' motivations for entering private practice are a reaction to restrictions on the freedom to practice and innovate in psychiatrically or medically dominated institutions.
Toward a taxonomy of human performanceFleishman, Edwin A.
doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1127pmid: N/A
Discusses general problems in the development of taxonomic systems for describing human tasks and performance. Alternative approaches and provisional classification schemes are presented. Specific techniques of measurement and scaling, applicable to certain task classification systems, are described and their reliability evaluated. Attempts to evaluate these systems are summarized, and attempts to apply them to several areas of human performance research (e.g., studies of drug effects, learning procedures, alcohol, and vigilance) are examined. A series of studies linking task characteristics with ability requirements is described. Some of this research is considered encouraging, in that the generalizability of data on performance increases when certain classification systems are used to describe the tasks utilized in such research. (44 ref)
On the conflicts between biological and social evolution and between psychology and moral traditionCampbell, Donald T.
doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1103pmid: N/A
Reports the APA Presidential address delivered at the Chicago convention, August 1975. Urban humanity is considered as a product of both biological and social evolution. Evolutionary genetics shows that when there is genetic competition among the cooperators (as for humans but not for the social insects), great limitations are placed upon the degree of socially useful, individually self-sacrificial altruism that biological evolution can produce. Human urban social complexity is a product of social evolution and has had to counter with inhibitory moral norms the biological selfishness which genetic competition has continually selected. Because the issues are so complex and the available data are so uncompelling, all of this should be interpreted more as a challenge to an important new area for psychological research than as established conclusions. It is emphasized, however, that these are important issues to which psychology should give much greater attention, and that scientific reasons exist for believing that there can be profound system wisdom in the belief systems our social tradition has provided us with. (31/2 p ref)
Economic legitimacy for professional practitionersKovacs, Arthur L.
doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1160pmid: N/A
In response to M. L. Meltzer's (1975) article on insurance reimbursement for psychologists, the economic legitimacy that professional psychologist practitioners have secured over the past 2 decades is discussed. This legitimacy is illustrated by the US government's recognition that psychologists may now be reimbursed by insurance companies for providing psychotherapy for government employees. The effects that the enactment of national health insurance will have on the profession of psychology are addressed.
Publish and perishRoskies, Ethel
doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1165pmid: N/A
Presents an informal and irreverent guide to publishing an academic book, drawing on personal experiences. This guide discusses manuscript preparation, location of a publisher, the wait for actual publication, the aftermath, and royalties. (0 ref)