Dr. David B Strohmetz

Undergraduate psychology curricula commonly require a research methods course (Norcross et al., 2016). Despite it being central to high-quality programs (Dunn et al., 2007), students often dislike their methods course (Rajecki et al., 2005). If we wish to improve student attitudes and learning in research methods courses, we should endeavor to garner a deeper understanding regarding students’ perceptions of research methods. We did this by having research methods students complete an online survey during the first few weeks of the semester, asking about their perceptions of the course’s purpose and challenges. While respondents endorsed the idea that the course helps them learn to conduct research, students perceived that the primary purpose was preparation for graduate school or other psychology classes. Participants expected that the scientific writing and data analysis aspects of the course would be most challenging. Not recognizing a methods course’s value may lead students to underappreciate the course’s utility and miss out on a valuable opportunity to cultivate skills. Through a better understanding of students’ attitudes toward their methods course, instructors can identify opportunities for reinforcing the course’s importance within the psychology curriculum as well as students’ postbaccalaureate success.

Communication is a core outcome for psychology undergraduates upon graduation (American Psychological Association, 2013) and a skill that employers expect (Appleby, 2014). Within research methods courses, students' psychology programs tend to focus heavily on teaching APA style as a way for students to learn the rhetoric of the field (Madigan et al., 1995). As we teach students APA style writing in undergraduate psychology curricula, we may overemphasize APA formatting, just one aspect of APA style, over the skill of communication (e.g., appropriate voice). Hence, we may be missing the forest for the trees. Focusing on mastering APA formatting, which changes over time and is increasingly available as built-in software templates, over learning to communicate in a precise and persuasive way may be a disservice to students. We argue that faculty resources for teaching APA style need more emphasis on the facilitation of scientific voice over formatting. In addition, psychology faculty need more empirically tested support for how to best serve the needs of students beyond graduation in determining how to balance APA format and scientific voice in teaching APA style. The discipline also needs more research to determine how learning APA format influences students' perceptions and enjoyment for the science of psychology.

The American Psychological Association (APA) advocates for professional development within undergraduate psychology programs, emphasizing the development of several employable skills before graduation (APA, 2013). However, there are few resources to help psychology programs, or students themselves, monitor skill development. The Employable Skills Self-Efficacy Survey (ESSES) allows departments, faculty, and students to determine a baseline of skill efficacy, as well as monitor the development of skills throughout a psychology program or as a result of a particular experience. We assessed the psychometric properties of the ESSES. The scale has strong internal consistency (α = .66 to .87) and test-retest reliability (r = .76 to .89), as well as convergent validity between particular skill domains and various professional self-efficacy measures. We discuss the ways departments, faculty, and students may use the ESSES as a tool for skill development.

Nearly every psychology major takes a course in research methods. While several studies have examined students' perceptions of research methods courses (e.g., Rajecki, Appleby, Williams, Johnson, & Jeschke, 2005; Vittengl et al., 2004), few investigate faculty's views on these courses. The current study explored faculty perceptions regarding course purpose, major course challenges for faculty and students, students' achievement, skill development, and pedagogy. One hundred and one psychology faculty throughout the United States who had experience teaching research methods completed an online survey. Results indicate consensus about the purposes of the course, particularly the importance of teaching scientific thinking, and perceived student achievement of this goal. Faculty report a variety of challenges to teaching and student learning in a methods course, some of which focus on student-related, rather than course content issues. When examining teaching techniques, faculty indicate that having students conduct research is more of a conceptual teaching tool than it is a course goal. The findings also suggest a potentially missed opportunity for skill cultivation in the course. By learning what people think the purpose of the course is, faculty can make sure teaching practices align with those goals and more effectively accomplish them. The results of this study can also help faculty better communicate the "why" behind methods requirements, which may help students better see and appreciate the utility of methods, and improve students' perceptions of the course.

Teaching strategies for topics related to death and dying are often journaling, reflection, and group discussions. This study describes an innovative demonstration in which pairs of students made hypothetical medical decisions using a technique similar to the one used on the American game show, The Newlywed Game. One hundred students at a private mid-Atlantic University participated in a study evaluating the impact of this demonstration on raising students' awareness of issues surrounding medical decision-making and the need to clearly communicate one's desires to others. This active demonstration helps students learn about difficult issues in a meaningful way.

In light of the rising cost of attendance and student indebtedness, a national conversation has emerged regarding the value of a college degree and its ability to support the types of skills employers consider necessary or important for a graduate's long-term career success. We first discuss these skills along with national initiatives such as the Association of American Colleges and Universities' (AACU's) Liberal Education and America's Promise and Lumina Foundation's Degree Qualifications Profile that strive to reconceptualize an undergraduate education to emphasize the broad skills and knowledge one should acquire. Next, we review the APA Guidelines 2.0 and their overlap with these national initiatives with the emphasis on skill development. Finally, we make a series of recommendations as to how psychology faculty and departments can use these guidelines to develop a curriculum with an emphasis on skill development that optimizes student success in both the workplace and in graduate or professional school.

It is estimated that approximately one third of first-time driving-under-the-influence ( DUI) offenders are at risk for committing a subsequent offense. To reduce the risk of recidivism, most states require mandatory screening and counseling of convicted DUI offenders. Unfortunately, the majority of offenders are not receptive to either screening or recommendations for further interventions designed to reduce their level of risk. The current study examines the relationship between locus of control and receptivity to risk status. To test this hypothesis, both the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (I-E) and the Drinking Related Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (DRIE) were administered to a group of convicted first DUI offenders. The results indicate that the offenders manifesting a more internal locus of control were more receptive to risk information compared to their external locus of control counterparts. Important clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

It has been argued that there is a growing trend in personality and social psychological science concerning the preference of self-report measures over the use of direct observations of behavior for the outcome variables of interest. Augmenting the use of self-reports with measures of behavior helps achieve methodological pluralism that allows researchers to triangulate on the phenomenon of interest and have increased confidence in understanding the phenomenon. To facilitate this process, we discuss a sample of social psychological and personality studies published during APA's 'Decade of Behavior' that use straightforward and innovative ways of measuring behavioral outcome variables. Specifically, we identify three different strategies for incorporating behavior in a study: behavioral traces, behavioral observations, and behavioral choice. In each case, we show how measures of behavior complement self-report measures. By making a conscientious effort to include more behavior measures in our research, we can broaden the appeal of psychological science by enhancing our understanding of the causes and antecedents of human behavior.

In psychological research with human subjects, experimenters need to anticipate potential artifacts that may be attributable to the social context of such research. Called research artifacts in this review, they are essentially uncontrolled, systematic errors (or biases) that threaten the degree of validity of statements made about whether changes in one variable result in changes in another variable. This discussion focuses on a proposed Markov-like model emphasizing three mediating variables that operate in a theoretical chain of events. One variable refers to the likelihood of the subject's receptivity to task-orienting cues (called demand characteristics), or incidental hints about the experimenter's expectations. A second variable refers to the likelihood of the subject's motivation (or willingness) to comply with those cues or hints. A third variable refers to the likelihood of the subject's capability of responding in accordance with the cues or hints. These three variables are discussed along with strategies that researchers can use to break the chain of events.

Last year was a tumultuous one for democracy in Muslim-majority countries. On July 22, 2007, despite Turkish military warnings three months earlier about the danger to secularism posed by the impending election,[1] the Islamist Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi—AKP) won the Turkish parliamentary elections, leading Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to proclaim "democracy, security, and stability" to be the real winners."[2] Then, on November 3, 2007, General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan, suspending the constitution. Shortly after, assassins gunned down Benazir Bhutto, the leading secular oppositionist. Such events demonstrate not just the fragility of democracy in Muslim countries, but the complicated role that the military plays in such states—sometimes as a protector of secularism, but frequently, as an enforcer of the power of anti-democratic regimes.