Timothy P. Melchert

Measuring Well-Being: A Review of Instruments

Interest in the study of psychological health and well-being has increased significantly in recent decades. A variety of conceptualizations of psychological health have been proposed including hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, quality-of-life, and wellness approaches. Although instruments for measuring constructs associated with each of these approaches have been developed, there has been no comprehensive review of well-being measures. The present literature review was undertaken to identify self-report instruments measuring well-being or closely related constructs (i.e., quality of life and wellness) and critically evaluate them with regard to their conceptual basis and psychometric properties. Through a literature search, we identified 42 instruments that varied significantly in length, psychometric properties, and their conceptualization and operationalization of well-being. Results suggest that there is considerable disagreement regarding how to properly understand and measure well-being. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

Neuropsychological Functioning of Homeless Men

Numerous biological and psychological factors associated with impaired neurological functioning have been identified as common among the homeless, but there has been relatively little systematic examination of the cognitive functioning of homeless people. This study explored the neuropsychological functioning of 90 homeless men. There was great variability in their test scores, but the presence of possible cognitive impairment was detected in 80% of the sample. Average general intellectual functioning and reading abilities were found to be relatively low, and the incidence of impairments in reading, new verbal learning, memory, and attention and concentration was high. These findings suggest that the homeless men in this study had considerable assessment and treatment needs that were not being met by most of the health and social services offered to them.

Testing the validity of an instrument for assessing family of origin history

Family of origin history information is often gathered for research and clinical purposes in psychology, but there has been relatively little examination of the validity of the data obtained. This report describes several tests of the validity of the recently developed Family Background Questionnaire, a relatively behaviorally specific instrument designed to comprehensively assess characteristics of ones family of origin. Using a sample of 678 nonclinical and clinical participants, it was found that a history of incest, parental chemical dependency, clinical status, socioeconomic status, and birth order all predicted Family Background Questionnaire scores as hypothesized and that 38% of the variance in Total Scale scores was accounted for by these variables.

Relations Among Childhood Memory, a History of Abuse, Dissociation, and Repression

The author of this study investigated several questions regarding the relationships between a history of child abuse, recovered abuse memories, childhood memory in general, repression, and dissociation. Of the total sample (N = 560 undergraduate students), one quarter reported a history of child abuse, and 18% of these reported that they had a period when they lacked memories of their abuse. These participants endorsed a variety of descriptions of their recovered memories, many of which do not suggest a lack of conscious access to the memories. General quality of childhood memory was found to be unrelated to a history of abuse, and most participants, regardless of their abuse history, reported recovering memories from their childhood in general. Repressive personality traits were found to be unrelated to recovering abuse memories, but dissociative traits were found to be weakly associated with recovering abuse memories.

Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Counselors’ Attitudes and Resources for Integrating Research and Practice

The state of Wisconsin recently launched a Research-to-Practice Initiative. One aspect of the Wisconsin initiative was to survey Wisconsin-Certified Alcohol and other Drug Abuse Counselors (CADCs) to assess their attitudes, reported practices, and resources in regard to the integration of research and practice. The sample for the present study included 366 CADCs. Of the 366 respondents, 62 percent (n = 226) were female and 38 percent (n = 140) were male. The respondents were primarily Caucasian (90 percent) with the remaining respondents identifying as African American (4 percent), Native American (2 percent), Hispanic (1 percent), and Asian American (0.5 percent). The results from the survey indicated that the majority of respondents have access to computers, e-mail, and the Internet at their workplace; report being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their education and training; and tend to approve of the efforts to integrate research and practice. Incentives, barriers and strategies to integrate research and practice are discussed.

Leaving behind our preparadigmatic past: Professional psychology as a unified clinical science

The behavioral and neurosciences have made remarkable progress recently in advancing the scientific understanding of human psychology. Though research in many areas is still in its early stages, knowledge of many psychological processes is now firmly grounded in experimental tests of falsifiable theories and supports a unified, paradigmatic understanding of human psychology that is thoroughly consistent with the rest of the natural sciences. This new body of knowledge poses critical questions for professional psychology, which still often relies on the traditional theoretical orientations and other preparadigmatic practices for guiding important aspects of clinical education and practice. This article argues that professional psychology needs to systematically transition to theoretical frameworks and a curriculum that are based on an integrated scientific understanding of human psychology. Doing so would be of historic importance for the field and would result in major changes to professional psychology education and practice. It would also allow the field to emerge as a true clinical science. (PsycINFO Database Record

Strengthening the scientific foundations of professional psychology: Time for the next steps.

The field of professional psychology has been tremendously successful, although it has also been characterized by many competing preparadigmatic theoretical orientations, which have led to a great deal of contention as well as conflicting views regarding psychological development, functioning, and behavior change. There is now widespread agreement regarding scientific explanations of many psychological processes, however, and, consequently, it is time to update the basic conceptual frameworks used for professional psychology education and practice. Replacing the traditional reliance on an array of theoretical orientations with a sciencebased biopsychosocial framework would resolve many of the contradictions and conflicts that characterized the preparadigmatic era and would also provide a common perspective for unifying psychologists around a shared approach to practice, research, and training. Few would disagree that both the science and the practice of psychology have enjoyed phenomenal growth and success since their emergence just over a century ago and that the growth of professional psychology during the latter half of that period has been particularly impressive. As early as 1961, E. L. Kelly, the past president of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12, noted that the growth of clinical psychology was “well nigh phenomenal. Before World War II, clinical psychologists were few in number, poorly paid, and had but little status.... Ours is a success story without counterpart in the history of professions” (p. 9). Since World War II, the number of licensed psychologists in the United States has grown from zero in 1945, when the first psychology licensure law was enacted, to close to 88,500 today (Duffy et al., 2002). Much of the dramatic growth in membership in the APA, which went from 4,173 to over 90,000 during that same period, is also attributable to the large increase in the number of professional psychologists, from a minuscule number before World War II to approximately two thirds of the membership today (APA, 2005b). Given the youth, reach, and dramatic growth of psychology as a field, it was inevitable that the evolving discipline would experience significant tension and discord and that the science and practice areas in particular would come into conflict, given their differing needs and orientations. At times, the disagreement has been so strong that it is easy to forget that much of the success of professional psychology is directly dependent on the scientific credibility of

Performance of a Brief Assessment Tool for Identifying Substance Use Disorders

ObjectivesEvaluation of the performance of a brief assessment tool for identifying substance use disorders. The Triage Assessment for Addictive Disorders (TAAD) is a triage instrument that provides professionals with a tool to evaluate indications of current substance use disorders in accordance with the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The TAAD is a 31-item structured interview that addresses both alcohol and other drug issues to discriminate among those with no clear indications of a diagnosis, those with definite, current indications of abuse or dependence, and those with inconclusive diagnostic indications. MethodsEmploying a sample of 1325 women between the ages of 18 and 60, reliability estimates and problem profiles produced by the TAAD were evaluated. ResultsThe Cronbach alpha coefficients for internal consistency for both the alcohol and drug dependence scales were .92. The alpha coefficients for the alcohol and drug abuse scales were .83 and .84 respectively. The diagnostic profiles elicited from the TAAD indicate that alcohol and drug dependences are the more definitive and distinct syndromes compared with the abuse syndromes. DiscussionThe diagnostic profiles from this sample are consistent with previous research. The Cronbach alpha coefficients suggest that the TAAD provides an internally consistent index for alcohol and drug dependence and abuse. Implications for use in clinical practice and the need for further research regarding the psychometric properties of the TAAD are discussed.

Understanding and Resolving Theoretical Confusion in Professional Psychology

The theoretical foundations of professional psychology are quite complex and confusing. There are clear historical and scientific reasons for this situation, however. This chapter examines the underlying reasons for the wide diversity of theoretical orientations that have been developed in psychology and the theoretical and conceptual confusion that has resulted as a consequence. The complicated and confusing preparadigmatic nature of the field is explained, followed by a discussion of the basic requirements that a unified conceptual framework for the field would need to meet in order to provide a satisfactory theoretical approach for the profession. It is then argued that current scientific explanations for human psychology are now sufficiently comprehensive to support a unified, science-based, biopsychosocial approach to understanding human psychology and behavioral health practice.

The Public We Serve: Their Mental Health Needs and Sociocultural and Medical Circumstances

Publisher Summary The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how the definition of professional psychology can clarify the nature, scope, and purposes of professional psychology education and practice. Greater clarity regarding these issues will be very helpful for resolving several of the disagreements regarding the appropriate approaches to teaching and practice that have divided the field. The definition of professional psychology proposed in the previous chapter identified the primary function of a professional psychologist as providing psychological services to meet the behavioral health and biopsychosocial needs of the public. When focusing on behavioral health needs, it might seem to be a straightforward process to learn the assessments and interventions that are most effective for treating common behavioral health problems. Epidemiological data could be used to identify the mental health disorders most commonly faced by the public, and then the available research could be reviewed to identify the assessments and interventions that are most effective for addressing those issues. Treatment guidelines could then be written that would suggest the indicated treatments for various mental health disorders.