Monitor on Psychology - September 2011 - (Page 40)

about these interventions is just one issue among many that psychologists are facing as they aim to scale up the research from a trial in a single classroom to a school-wide or schooldistrict-wide intervention. Other issues may be even thornier. For example: How do we know that what works in one context will work in another? Most of these interventions have been tested in one classroom or one school. Usually, those classrooms are diverse — they include both men and women, or both black or Latino and white students, in order to let the researchers compare the groups. But many classrooms around the country are ethnically and racially homogeneous. Would an intervention designed and tested in a diverse school also work in a homogeneous one? Researchers don’t yet know. Along the same lines, will something that works with elementary school students translate to high school or college students, and will something that works with college students translate to lower grades? Much more refining and testing needs to be done to find out, the researchers say. And what about delivering the interventions? The psychologists who design them can’t be around to train every teacher, as they are during their experiments. And as Dubson’s experience shows, the experiments depend on some subtlety on the teachers’ part. They must be able to explain convincingly to students why they’re doing the writing exercises, without giving away the real purpose. Could teachers be trained to do that effectively on a large scale? Figuring out the answers to these questions is important, says Purdie-Vaughns, who has worked on several of the valuesaffirmation studies with Geoffrey Cohen, because scaling up this research is what really matters in the end. Purdie-Vaughns spent her first years after college working with disadvantaged elementary school students for the I Have a Dream Foundation. Trying to figure out what was holding those children back academically is what drew her to graduate school in psychology. Now that her research and others’ is providing some answers, Purdie-Vaughns is eager to figure out how to move the knowledge from the lab to the school district. “I think the delivery is as important as the basic science behind this research,” she says. She’s been traveling the country, talking to teachers and school district officials who are interested in working with her on larger-scale intervention studies. Stanford graduate student Dave Paunesku, meanwhile, is working on the delivery issue from another angle. He’s developing online versions of the interventions that students can access from home or school computers. He’s aiming to test the program in at least 50 schools next year. He’s already begun testing in nearby Cupertino High School, where Principal Kami Tomberlain says the AP A P RA CT ICE ORG A N IZ ATI O N work fits perfectly with the school’s COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY philosophy. “I think it points to the self-fulfilling prophecy of stereotypes, and the way that people can swallow what’s being Psychopharmacology said about them without even noticing Examination for Psychologists that they’re doing it,” she says. “That’s (PEP) one of the things we [teachers] talk about all the time here. How can we • An examination designed for use by communicate that what we’re teaching psychology licensing authorities to implement is important, and that they’re all capable laws permitting the prescribing of psychotropic of learning it?” medications by quali ed psychologists The psychologists, meanwhile, know that their research by itself won’t solve • Secure and con dential banking of PEP scores the achievement gap for Tomberlain and for quali ed graduates of postdoctoral other educators. psychopharmacology educational programs “I think it’s really important to understand that this is not a silver • Psychopharmacology training programs may bullet,” says Walton. “If you delivered use the PEP to ful ll exit requirements a great [psychological] intervention but the teaching was terrible, the intervention would have no effect.” 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242 But in the right places, under the Phone: (202) 336-6100 • Fax: (202) 336-5797 right circumstances, these interventions E-mail: apapocollege@apa.org Website: apapracticecentral.org might just make a difference in students’ lives. n M o 3/29/11 9:10:57n p s y c h o l o g y • s e p t e M b e r 2 0 1 1 n i t o r o AM 4.5x4.5_APACollege_ad.indd 1 40 http://www.apapracticecentral.org http://www.apapracticecentral.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - September 2011

Monitor on Psychology - September 2011
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Supreme Court hears psychologists on prison and video game cases
Antipsychotics are overprescribed in nursing homes
New MCAT likely to recognize the mind-body connection
A $2 million boost for military and families
In Brief
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS UPDATE
On Your Behalf
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
TIME CAPSULE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Speaking of Education
SCIENCE WATCH
An uncertain future for American workers
Advocating for psychotherapy
PRACTICE PROFILE
ETHICALLY SPEAKING
Seared in our memories
Helping kids cope in an uncertain world
APA and Nickelodeon team up
Muslims in America, post 9/11
Bin Laden’s death
‘They expect us to be there’
Answering the call of public policy
Candidates answer final questions
APA News
Division Spotlight
New leaders
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
Disaster relief training
Honoring teaching excellence
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - September 2011