the psychologist vol 28 no 10 october 2015 www.thepsychologist.org.uk

Out of this world A special feature takes psychology into alien territory

letters 782 what would you say to an alien? 800 news 788 psychology in deep space 804 careers 840 eye on fiction: the alien in us all 808 looking back 816 close encounters 812 Contact The British Psychological Society the psychologist... St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East ...meets Leicester LE1 7DR 0116 254 9568 [email protected] www.bps.org.uk

The Psychologist What would you say to an alien? 800 www.thepsychologist.org.uk Jon Sutton talks to Douglas Vakoch, clinical www.psychapp.co.uk [email protected] psychologist and Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the Search for tinyurl.com/thepsychomag Extraterrestrial Intelligence 800 @psychmag ...features Research Digest www.bps.org.uk/digest Psychology in deep space 804 www.twitter.com/researchdigest Nick Kanas considers issues and Advertising countermeasures Reach 50,000 psychologists at very reasonable rates. Eye on fiction: Display Aaron Hinchcliffe The alien in us all 808 020 7880 7661 We asked for your favourite alien [email protected] entity, and what their depiction Recruitment (in print and online says about our own psychology at www.psychapp.co.uk) Giorgio Romano 020 7880 7556 Close encounters of the [email protected] psychological kind 812 Christopher C. French considers September 2015 issue 53,489 dispatched explanations of UFO sightings, alien 804 encounters and even abductions Printed by Warners Midlands plc on 100 per cent recycled ...looks back paper. Please re-use or recycle. Encountering extraterrestrial intelligence 816 Albert Harrison looks to lessons from history ISSN 0952-8229 7 years ago © Copyright for all published material is Go to www.thepsychologist.org.uk for our archive, including (December 2008) ‘New horizons’ held by the British Psychological Society unless specifically stated otherwise. As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The The Psychologist is the monthly publication of The British Psychological Society. It provides a forum for Psychologist may be copied by libraries and other organisations under the communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulfil the main object terms of their own CLA licences of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’. (www.cla.co.uk). Permission must be obtained from the British Psychological Society for any other use beyond fair dealing authorised by copyright legislation. For further information Managing Editor Jon Sutton Journalist Ella Rhodes about copyright and obtaining Assistant Editor Peter Dillon-Hooper Editorial Assistant Debbie Gordon permissions, e-mail Production Mike Thompson Research Digest Christian Jarrett (editor), Alex Fradera [email protected]. The publishers have endeavoured to Associate Editors Articles Michael Burnett, Paul Curran, Harriet Gross, Rebecca Knibb, Adrian Needs, trace the copyright holders of all Paul Redford, Sophie Scott, Mark Wetherell, Jill Wilkinson illustrations. If we have unwittingly Conferences Alana James History of Psychology Matt Connolly infringed copyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfied as to the owner’s Interviews Gail Kinman Reviews Kate Johnstone Viewpoints Catherine Loveday title, to pay an appropriate fee. International panel Vaughan Bell, Uta Frith, Alex Haslam, Elizabeth Loftus the psychologist vol 28 no 10 october 2015

the issue ...features In 1948 British astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote: ‘Once a photograph of the earth, taken from outside, is New voices: The flat landscape 820 available… a new idea as powerful Clementine Edwards considers emotional deficits in schizophrenia, in the as any in history will be let loose.’ latest of our series for budding writers (see www.bps.org.uk/newvoices) For some time I have wanted to lift The Psychologist free from earthly ...reports shackles, pausing to look back at our blue planet before forging ahead news 788 to the stars in search of powerful Cheltenham Literature Festival; malnourishment; good childhood; hearing voices; new ideas. This, finally, is an ‘out of A-level psychology; fear in organisations; psychological terms to avoid; and more this world’ issue. We meet a clinical psychologist society 824 who is Director of Interstellar President’s column; what ‘good’ looks like for children; PsyPAG; and more Message Composition at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. ...debates Frankly, that would be enough. But we also have close encounters, letters 782 aliens in fiction, psychology in deep psychology’s non-stick frying pan: the debate continues; confidence intervals; space and lessons from historical ADHD; the real world column on ‘migrants’; and more hoaxes. This might be one of our ...digests more ‘out there’ editions, but I am convinced it’s grounded in serious what happened when psychologists tried to replicate 100 previously published and sensible science. I’m also findings?; political skills in the workplace; what is it like to be a refugee with hopeful you will humour me at psychosis?; ‘interpersonal gazing’; and what do long distance runners think https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ about?; in the latest from our free Research Digest (see www.bps.org.uk/digest) 794 aliens-are-coming-look-busy – if we had credible warning of an imminent ...meets alien invasion, how would humanity – and psychologists – react? careers 840 Dr Jon Sutton we meet Doyin Atewologun, and psychology graduate Melanthe Grand Managing Editor @psychmag interviews her mother, Chartered Psychologist and novelist Voula Grand one on one 856 with Jo Silvester, Professor of Organisational Psychology ...reviews Oliver Sacks – an extraordinary life; the Wiley Handbook of Genius; How to Have a Better Brain; the Amazing World of M.C. Escher; People, Places and Things at the National Theatre; Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Uta Frith on her involvement with Horizon’s ‘A Monster in My Mind’; and more 850

The Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory Committee Big picture centre-page pull-out Catherine Loveday (Chair), Phil Banyard, motion illusions in static patterns: Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Harriet Gross, images and words from research by Rowena Hill, Stephen McGlynn, Peter Johannes Zanker Olusoga, Tony Wainwright, Peter Wright

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk Do we eclipse other sciences? LETTERS

Phil Banyard (‘Where is our non-stick frying pan?’, Letters, about psychology, than is popularly supposed. September 2015) bemoans what he perceives to be a lack of Sir Arthur Eddington, scientific leader of the expedition useful discoveries in psychology. Does any of what we do as and huge advocate of Einstein’s theory, felt enormous pressure psychologists amount to more than ‘a hill of beans’, in contrast to gain the ‘correct’ result. A devout Quaker, Eddington had to the glorious achievements of other sciences? In a fit of physics noted that the heavens on 29 May 1919 (the day of the eclipse) envy, Banyard declares Einstein’s general theory of relativity had seen fit to deliver a particularly favourable alignment of ‘spectacularly tested’ during the 1919 solar eclipse, when light celestial bodies for ‘weighing light’, as he put it (see Eddington, was shown to be bent ‘to the amount predicted’. 1920). However, the technology of the time was simply not up However, Banyard ‘spectacularly’ misfires with this example. to delivering the precision required (accurate testing of general There are several errors worthy of discussion in such retellings relativity had to wait another 40 years and more). Interpretation of the myth of the 1919 eclipse ‘proof’ of general relativity, not of the fuzzy results was influenced by knowing what least an enormous misunderstanding of how science actually works. Remember the ‘discovery’ of cold fusion? Genuine T scientific discovery is not like an IM S election or a football match, a one-off ANDERS contest (Newton 0; Einstein 1); rather, it must survive many rigorous validations through replication and triangulation of results. However, given the central argument of Phil Banyard’s letter – that physics trumps psychology – I wish to concentrate on the particular irony of deploying the eclipse myth here: what really happened in 1919 tells us much less about physics, and much more

A few years ago I treated a 66-year- old woman. She had suffered with psychological distress from age 16 and in that time had been in and out of mental hospitals and had experienced the full range of psychotropic medicines plus several bouts of ECT. When I met her she was pretty much housebound and socially isolated, she was alienated from her children and she lived a life of by intrusive thoughts of becoming violent but within three months of a constant misery and anxiety due to her towards other people. straightforward application of exposure extreme OCD. This was largely manifest I am not a particularly expert therapist and response prevention, a technique that

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contribute diverse audience. These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all ‘Reach the largest, most diverse audience of psychologists in the UK members of the Society, and we welcome your contributions. (as well as many others around the world); work with a wonderfully Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to [email protected]; supportive editorial team; submit thought pieces, reviews, interviews, or write to the Leicester office. analytic work, and a whole lot more. Start writing for The Psychologist now before you think of something else infinitely less important to do!’ Letters over 500 words are less likely to be published. Robert Sternberg, Oklahoma State University The editor reserves the right to edit or publish extracts from letters. Letters to the editor are not normally For details of all the available options, plus our policies and acknowledged, and space does not permit the what to do if you feel these have not been followed, see publication of every letter received. www.thepsychologist.org.uk/contribute

782 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 letters experimental data would precisely fit the theory. ‘[L]ater examination of the photographs taken on that Five greats expedition showed the errors were as great as the effect they were trying to measure. Their measurement had been sheer A recent, despondent letter effect’ plus operant luck, or a case of knowing the result they wanted to get, entitled called for information conditioning, (4) Harlow’s a not uncommon occurrence in science’ (Hawking, 1988). on the greatest scientific surrogate mother monkeys Psychologists have a name for this: it is confirmation bias: inventions in psychology. plus ‘The nature of love’, ‘the seeking or interpreting of evidence in ways that are Please permit me here to (5) the doorbell at a partial to existing beliefs, expectations, or a hypothesis in mention just a few great ones: psychotherapist’s office. hand’ (Nickerson, 1998). (1) Watson’s behaviourism Donald F. Smith Note that the Stephen Hawking quotation I have given based on Pavlov’s classical Retired Research Psychologist, above is from A Brief History of Time, a book Banyard may conditioning, (2) The Skinner Psychiatric Hospital of Aarhus well have heard of, or even own. So I suspect he would not Box; (3) Thorndike’s ‘law of University have had to look far to refute the stuff of his own argument, had he really wished to do so. Thus his claim itself evidences just how widespread and pernicious is confirmation bias: Phil Banyard seized on the 1919 eclipse myth uncritically, because it ‘confirmed’ his bias towards spectacular physics. His letter, Intelligent concept far from making the case that psychology amounts only to an undersized mountain of beans, illustrates how much we need The most useful item developed by psychological science is psychological theory to inform our understanding of other the concept of intelligence. For more than a century this sturdy sciences and ourselves. understanding has been tweaked from pure g to multiples, from Mike Kelly fixed to malleable, admired and despised. Although around the Senior Specialist Educational Psychologist (Autism Spectrum) world it may be somewhat differently interpreted, there is a basic Essex County Council understanding that individual intelligence is to do with the ability to deal with one’s world. Measures of intelligence are References reliable and regularly improved to serve their purpose of Eddington, A. (1920). Space, time and gravitation: An outline of the general relativity predicting intellectual achievement, mostly in school. It’s an theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. infinitely more valuable tool than a non-stick pan. Hawking, S.W. (1988). A brief history of time. New York: Bantam Books. Professor Joan Freeman FBPsS Nickerson, R.S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many Middlesex University guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220.

psychology (and psychiatry) can rightly claim to have invented, this woman was showing clinically significant improvement. The Big Five Eighteen months later her life was totally changed. She was able to go out by herself and shop in a nearby large town. She was My candidate for psychology’s References back in contact with her two daughters. She had nursed her answer to the non-stick frying DeYoung, C.G., Hirsh, J.B., Shane, M.S. husband through his terminal illness and was coping well with pan or chemistry’s periodic et al. (2010). Testing predictions her bereavement. She was planning to take her first ever holiday table of elements is the Big from personality neuroscience: abroad. The intrusive thoughts still came occasionally and she Five model of personality (see Brain structure and the Big Five. knew how to deal with them. e.g. Goldberg, 1981). This has Psychological Science, 21, 820–828. Phil Banyard may not think this is ‘impressive’, but I did and proved to be extractable from Goldberg, L.R. (1981). Language and so did she. She had been in contact with mental health services the lexicons of many individual differences: The search for 50 years yet it was only when she was put in contact with languages and is increasingly for universals in personality a (very ordinary, jobbing) clinical psychology service that she supported by the findings of lexicons. In L. Wheeler (Ed.) Review received effective treatment. Of course it won’t always be like neuroscience (DeYoung et al., of personality and social psychology this, and I agree that psychologists have a lot to be modest 2010). The Big Five (Vol. 2, pp.141–165). Beverly Hills, about, but let’s hear it for the treatments that work and the dimensions, and their various CA: Sage. hope they bring. circumplex combinations (see Hofstee, W.K.B., de Raad, B. & Paul Whitby CPsychol, AFBPsS e.g. Hofstee et al.,1992), have Goldberg, L.R. (1992). Integration of Wiltshire Specialist Therapies Team, Green Lane Hospital, Devizes a wide range of convenience. the Big Five and circumplex They have been empirically approaches to trait structure. related to an impressive Journal of Personality and Social number of psychological Psychology, 63(1), 146–163. THE ALIENS ARE COMING! phenomena and, with their Skodol, A.E., Clark, L.A., Bender, D.S. et facet scales, are beginning to al. (2011). Proposed changes in To celebrate our ‘Out of this world’ issue, we would like you to bring sense to the confusing personality and personality disorder visit our website to discuss the following question: taxonomy of overlapping assessment and diagnosis for DSM- If we had credible warning of an imminent alien invasion, how personality disorders (Skodol 5 Part I: Description and rationale. would humanity – and psychologists – react? et al., 2011) in the DSM-5. Journal of Personality Disorders, 2, https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/aliens-are-coming-look-busy Hugh McCredie 4–22. Dr Jon Sutton, Managing Editor, The Psychologist Vice Chair, The Psychometrics Forum

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 783 letters A place for confidence intervals In response to van der Linden and (1934) initially viewed Fisher’s fiducial without reference to a null hypothesis. Chryst’s letter (‘Why the “new statistics” limits as essentially the same as his Catherine O. Fritz isn’t new’, August 2015), their assertion confidence intervals, but later (1941), Psychology Division, University of Northampton that confidence intervals (CIs) are based following careful examination of Fisher’s on null hypothesis significance testing work and discussions with Fisher, both References (NHST) is clearly mistaken, as evidenced Neyman (1941) and Fisher (1935) Fisher, R.A. (1930). Inverse probability. Proceedings of by the history of their development and determined that they were fundamentally the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 26, 528–535. by the information provided by each different. Fisher, R.A. (1933). The concepts of inverse probability approach. CIs and NHST provide very different and fiducial probability referring to unknown The history of the development of CIs information, although they sometimes rely parameters. Proc of the Royal Soc, A, 139, 343–348. and NHST makes clear that they are not on the same statistical information. With Fisher, R.A. (1935). The fiducial argument in statistical equivalent, although both were developed NHST, the significance value is the inference. Annals of Eugenics, 6, 391–398. as alternatives to applying Bayesian probability of obtaining these data, or Neyman, J. (1934). On the two different aspects of the arguments in the absence of a priori more extreme data, if the null hypothesis representative method. Journal of the Royal expectations. These alternatives were is true. NHST does not provide any Statistical Society, 97, 558–625. developed at roughly the same time, by information about the likelihood of the Neyman, J. (1941). Fiducial argument and the theory of different people in different places: Fisher data if the null hypothesis is not true. confidence intervals. Biometrica, 32, 128–150. for NHST (1930, 1933, 1935, England) CIs, on the other hand, straightforwardly Pytkowski, W. (1932). The dependence of small farms and Neyman for CIs (1934, 1941, Poland; provide a range of plausible values for a upon their area, the outlay and the capital invested in see also Pytkowski, 1932). Neyman statistic (in future samples) or a parameter cows. Warsaw: Series Bibljoteka Pulawaka.

We were puzzled by van der Linden and Chryst’s claim that practice from the arguments we presented. They are no fans of confidence intervals (CIs) are based on null hypothesis NHST, but instead want psychologists to adopt a third approach, significance testing (NHST). Their argument seems to be that Bayesian statistics. We have sympathy with Bayesian approaches, both CIs and NHSTs can make use of the same statistical tools but we do not recommend a wholesale and enforced conversion in their calculations – in their example, standard errors and of psychological data analysis to Bayesian methods for two main Z-scores. You might, however, argue similarly that, for example, reasons. The challenge of persuading all psychologists to retrain a grave and a flower bed are the same because they both involve in the sophisticated Bayesian techniques seems beyond what the use of the same tool, in this case, a spade. could be accomplished at the moment. We have found that even The thrust of our argument in our article on building getting psychologists to think about effect sizes, rather than confidence in confidence intervals (June 2015) was that CIs, merely reporting them from statistical package output, is a combined with effect sizes (ESs), provide researchers with much challenging task. Secondly, moving to a Bayesian approach will more useful information than NHST tests. We acknowledge that not eliminate problems and disputes. Most Bayesian methods some researchers, shaped by the NHST world, will use CIs to (but not all; see Wagenmakers et al., 2011) require the choosing draw conclusions about the likelihood of their results occurring of prior probabilities on which the calculations develop. Such by chance, and will probably be encouraged to do so by journal priors are often contentious. As one recent example, editors. We do not believe that this is a bad thing, because all Wagenmakers et al. argue that the prior probability for analysing researchers have the practical decision to take on whether they a study on precognition should be .00000000000000000001. will or will not continue with that particular line of research, and Not surprisingly, this makes finding supporting evidence for at least the decision concerns the probable distribution of the precognition very difficult! Others who are more sympathetic effect, rather than a usually irrelevant null hypothesis. However, to the possibility of precognition would argue for a much more we hope that the researchers go much farther in using CIs. generous prior probability, leading to a greater likelihood of Of course, CIs cannot give certainty over the population positive results. parameter – but they can give a great deal more information We believe that the calculation of CIs and ESs are well than the point estimates that are all that are usually reported. within the skills of all psychologists, and that, if they explore Also, it is not surprising that, as Hoekstra et al. (2014) reported, this approach, they will find that they have more insight into many psychologists misinterpret CIs. Most psychologists are their data and are able to communicate more useful information unfamiliar with them and their use. Perhaps more depressing are to their readers. the misinterpretations of NHSTs that occur, despite researchers’ Peter E. Morris familiarity with them. Graham D. Smith It is wrong for van der Linden and Chryst to claim that one Psychology Division, University of Northampton has no idea whether or not a CI contains the population value. That conclusion would be true only if one accepts the strict References frequentist interpretation of CIs that they set out. But the Cumming, G. (2012). Understanding the new statistics: Effect sizes, confidence intervals, interpretation is hotly debated among statisticians. Instead we and meta-analysis. New York: Routledge. hold, as does Cumming (2012), that it is logical to believe that Hoekstra, R., Morey, R.D., Rouder, J.N. & Wagenmakers, E.J. (2014). Robust values within a CI are relatively plausible potential population misinterpretation of confidence intervals. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, values and therefore CIs are much more intuitive than van der 1157–1164. Linden and Chryst suggest. Wagenmakers, E.J., Wetzels, R., Borsboom, D. & van der Maas, H.L.J. (2011). Why We would not want the casual reader to believe that van der psychologists must change the way they analyse their data. Journal of Personality Linden and Chryst have successfully defended current statistical and Social Psychology, 100, 426–432.

784 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 letters

ADHD – recognising FORUM THE REAL WORLD Can a single picture change the course of history? Will the image of the signs three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s dead body on a Turkish beach change the way we respond to those fleeing economic and political turmoil? Ellie van Staden’s letter In the ensuing weeks there have been a spate of events we may (‘Recognising ADHD in have thought we would never see. Cheering crowds welcoming school’, August 2015) refugees at Munich station. Hundreds of thousands petitioning expressed very effectively my Parliament. Convoys of aid to the Calais camps massively over- own thoughts and feelings subscribed. Impromptu acts of solidarity across the country. whenever I arrive at a But exactly what has changed is unclear. It could be that no one diagnosis of ADHD for an has actually changed their minds, but suddenly those who abhorred undergraduate. Almost the demonisation of migrants have realised that they were not alone. inevitably such students have This would fit with a fascinating literature which suggests that the been referred to me because of Philip Asherson, Professor in media doesn’t so much influence what people think, but what those late submission of work and Molecular Psychiatry at King’s people think others think (meta-representations rather than under-achievement in exams College London, arrived at the representations). But this still matters because it affects what we are and coursework. Very consensus that practitioner prepared to do. Once we feel that we are not alone, that ours is part frequently there is also psychologists and specialist of a collective voice, we are much more willing to act in public. a history of mental health teacher assessors, could, with That is important, but it isn’t all that is going on. In a recent issues, especially bouts relevant training, undertake article on the BBC website, the Home Editor, Mark Easton, struggled of depression. My feelings ADHD assessments and make to accept that Aylan’s picture could have made a difference. It ‘may of exasperation are further appropriate recommendations have pricked our conscience,’ he concluded, ‘but I doubt it has heightened when a student for support in further and changed our mind.’ Easton’s perplexity was premised on the has had a previous diagnostic higher education. It is vital to assumption that we are of one mind. We must either be for opening assessment for a learning note that such an assessment our borders to more people, or for keeping them shut. We can’t be difficulty that has failed to is for ADHD as a specific both. And the evidence is overwhelming as to where we stand. British recognise that ADHD is learning difficulty rather than social attitudes surveys consistently tell us that some 10 times as present and is a significant being a medical diagnosis. many people want the number of migrants to be reduced as want it contributory factor to the (This consensus outcome can to be increased – and the level of rejection continues to grow. academic problems being be found at www.sasc.org.uk.) Yet consider the questions that are asked: Do you want more encountered. Since then I have made migrants (or refugees, or asylum seekers) in the country? Already One of the key reasons freely available an ADHD people have been labelled. Not only are they ‘not us’, they belong to for the generalised failure to diagnosis protocol guide a particularly pathologised category. The word ‘bogus’ always haunts recognise that an individual (hosted on the Patoss these terms and was again invoked by Cameron when, after Aylan, he has ADHD may well be (www.patoss-dyslexia.org) and insisted that Britain is open to genuine refugees and asylum seekers. negative stereotyping. This ADSHE (www.adshe.org.uk) The term is associated with notions of invasion, pollution, was captured in the comment websites. I am also currently exploitation. Asking ‘Do you want more migrants?’ it is not far from by one trainee primary school collaborating with a study asking ‘Do you want alien hordes who threaten much of what you teacher that she had not skills tutor on a letter to be hold near and dear?’. thought she could have ADHD sent to schools that will Aylan’s image led us to recategorise the subject of the question. ‘because ADHD is all about provide some guidance on Aylan became a little boy rather than a migrant. Abdullah Kurdi eight-year-old boys throwing key facts about ADHD and became a father to that boy rather than a migrant. And through them chairs about in the classroom’. a shortlist of characteristic others began to be recategorised as less alien, less toxic, and indeed ADHD takes different forms, ADHD behaviours: members of the same groups as ourselves. It is not that we have and for about 50 per cent of procrastination, distractibility, changed our minds about the same question, it is that the question the individuals I see uneven educational has changed. hyperactivity/impulsivity is performance, propensity to These issues of language and categorisation have long been not an issue. In such instances make simple/careless errors, understood by those at the sharp end. We have investigated the way the diagnosis is one of ADHD disorganisation, and being Bulgarians were successfully mobilised to stop the Nazis deporting (Inattentive presentation). It fidgety. Jews to the death camps, and more recently, Caoimhe Ryan, at the is also worth pointing out that Educational psychologists University of St Andrews, has completed a three-year study of anti- I diagnose as many females as are well positioned to help deportation campaigns in the UK, showing that appeals based on males. ADHD is not educate schools about how to common categorisation (‘being one of us’) actually work. They predominantly a male-specific recognise signs of ADHD and mobilise compassion and support – even more than describing those learning difficulty. to provide advice on support. in need simply as ‘people’. Language is critical to our responses. Ellie asks what Following the outcome of the As long as we talk of a ‘migrant crisis’ we perpetuate rather than psychologists are doing to ADHD consensus meeting address the issues. And certainly, a migrant is not a migrant by any raise awareness. A major step there can be no excuse for not other name. Or when endowed with a name. Aylan. forward was taken in May doing so. 2013 when a SASC (SpLD Dr David W Grant CPsychol, Steve Reicher is at the University of St Andrews. Alex Haslam is at Assessment Standards AFBPsS the University of Queensland. Share your views on this and other ‘real Committee)-convened group, Independent educational world’ psychological issues – e-mail [email protected]. drawn from many different psychologist An archive of columns can be found at www.bbcprisonstudy.org. disciplines and chaired by London W7

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 785 letters Demanding greater rigour As a child I remember leafing through know about demand characteristics. him and what the experimenter hopes to Sense and Nonsense in Psychology by Hans However, as I discovered when I spent find – can therefore be crucial variables. Eysenck. It seems that A-level Psychology a few months teaching A-level again, there Some time ago I proposed that these cues is at risk of promoting a new version of was a misunderstanding that arose from be called the “demand characteristics of nonsense. I was prompted to write this use of language. It transpired that they an experiment”’ (Orne, 1969. p.146). letter after reading the Research Digest learnt stock phrases such as ‘participants Having finally accepted, if doubtfully, article ‘What the textbooks don’t tell you might show demand characteristics’. that it was not the participants’ about psychology’s most famous case The expression is to be found in some characteristics that were being referred to, study’ (August 2015) about textbooks. Their understanding was vague students duly sat their exam. One of the misrepresenting research in textbooks, but they guessed it might be something to questions on the paper, to my despair, no doubt a result of a form of Chinese do with the characteristics of the asked students to explain how the whispers where knowledge is distorted by participants. They took some convincing, participants in the Strange Situation might serial reproduction without reference to to say the least, that the characteristics show demand characteristics. I contacted the original. This is evidently the case in were cues, particularly in experiments, the chief examiner, but suffice to say that some textbooks written for students. The that prompt participants to work out what the exam question was considered to be article reminded me of a recent experience is expected of them. As Orne said: ‘The adequate. I know that one of my students of my own. cues which govern his [sic] perception – crossed out the question in the answer Students at A-level are expected to which communicate what is expected of booklet and wrote ‘participants cannot show demand characteristics’. The student was able to answer as expected, however, and would have gained the marks. However, no doubt many of the students thought I had had no idea what I was talking about, now justified by the question in front of them. The gripe might seem insignificant but is representative of a situation that Richard Griggs highlighted in his analysis of textbooks, covered by the Research Digest. It is the tip of a rather messy iceberg. The A-level syllabus is very broad, and it can be hard to track down original sources. However, an associated difficulty is that academic rigour runs the risk of falling foul of exam papers, mark schemes and the knowledge of markers. Teaching psychology, it seems, requires knowledge of these as much as an accurate knowledge of psychology. Dr Hilary McQueen Lewes

Fossil fuel divestment and the BPS

As Francis Vergunst and Treasurer Ray Miller effectively action’ in the above quotation. assets that prioritise Bergljot Gjelsvik point out tells us that we don't need to We therefore call on the BPS to community wellbeing while in their letter on fossil fuel worry because the BPS Board publish a list of its investments delivering adequate returns. divestment (August 2015), of Trustees will continue to with a breakdown by sector, to Mark Burton ‘climate change poses an monitor investments closely. describe how the Trustees Carolyn Kagan unacceptably high risk to This is not good enough. make decisions on investment Manchester Metropolitan human health and wellbeing The request was to clarify ethics, clarifying if they make University and necessitates urgent action’. what investments the BPS has these decisions themselves or They go on to ask the BPS to in the fossil fuel industry and outsource them to fund Editor’s note: This issue was clarify its position on fossil to make a commitment, like managers, and to initiate a due to be discussed by the fuel investments and to divest a number of other leading programme that immediately Board of Trustees as we went for good. The disappointing universities, pension funds and freezes fossil fuel investments to print. We will seek an and complacent-sounding NGOs, to divest from this and then, over a five-year update in due course. response from Honorary sector. Note the words ‘urgent period, divests, reinvesting in

786 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 letters

obituary Dr Trevor Butt (1947–2015)

We were extremely sad, this And though Darren and Trevor year, to lose our dear friend never agreed on theory, they found and colleague Dr Trevor Butt. a common interest in social justice He was diagnosed with cancer more than enough to bring them last autumn and died in April. together as academic collaborators His death is a great loss both and wonderful friends. for psychology and for the At his funeral back in April many close friends and family one of his closest friends read out who he left behind. a short piece that Trevor had written Trevor was originally for the occasion, for, as he himself a clinical psychologist who said, ‘he couldn’t resist a lecture, worked in a psychiatric unit in even from the grave’. In this, he told Bradford in the 1970s, but he us that in the last few months of his soon realised that clinical work life he had come to know a deeper wasn’t for him and shifted into intimacy than ever previously with academic psychology as a his wife, June, and daughter, Claire. teacher and researcher at what It was typical of Trevor that he was later became the University of thinking about human experience Huddersfield. He remained at right up until the end, and that he Huddersfield until his wanted to share that hopeful knowledge retirement as Emeritus Reader in 2007, whereupon he took on with the rest of us. He will be very sorely missed. a role as Visiting Fellow at City University. It was at Huddersfield Dr Meg John Barker that he produced an impressive body of work and cultivated Professor Darren Langdridge many great friendships with people with whom he also wrote The Open University and researched, including Viv Burr, Jeff Hearn, Nigel King and Darren Langdridge. Trevor was Chair of the Psychotherapy You can read a longer piece about Meg John’s memories of Trevor and his work on: Section of the BPS (2000–2001) and was centrally involved in http://rewritingtherules.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/in-memory-of-trevor-butt the History & Philosophy of Psychology Section, as Secretary from 2005 to 2008 and organising a number of their annual conferences. obituary Trevor’s great theoretical fascination was with personal construct psychology (PCP). He wrote many books and papers on PCP as well as organising the 2003 annual conference, and was co-editor of the journal Personal Construct Theory and Svetlana Boym Practice. Meg John recalls picking up Viv Burr and Trevor’s book Invitation to Personal Construct Psychology in the late 1990s and (1959–2015) finding it a life-changing introduction to constructionist and constructivist perspectives. Not only was the book an accessible Svetlana Boym, Professor of Slavic introduction to these theoretical perspectives in – and on – Literature and Languages and of psychology, but it was also a call to live differently by Comparative Literature at Harvard, questioning the taken-for-granted assumptions that structure will not be known to many our self-perceptions, our understandings of the world, and our students of our discipline. relationships. This was an approach that continued throughout Hopefully in the years to come that Trevor’s immensely engaging and entertaining teaching, in the will change. Her works on nostalgia and freedom are revision of this book in 2004 and in his own Understanding indispensable guides to understanding the longings and People (2004) and George Kelly and the Psychology of Personal belongings that characterise the human condition in the modern Constructs (2008). age. Her examination of these through the twists and turns of Beyond the theoretical interest in personal construct aesthetics, politics, history, art and philosophy defy conventional theory, Trevor focused a great deal of his academic attention academic boundaries and mix personal narrative and incisive on researching and writing about sexualities. It was through analysis with an unrivalled poetic flair. this work, alongside a shared interest in phenomenology, that Svetlana was, by some distance, the most brilliant original the relationship with Darren Langdridge was forged. Trevor was and witty thinker I have ever encountered. She was also one of a passionate advocate of sexual equality and fought against the the warmest. We became friends following an unlikely though pathologisation of minority sexualities. He was also passionately fortuitous chain of events. Her untimely passing at the age of 56 opposed to corporal punishment and was centrally involved in following a struggle with cancer leaves the world a poorer, less the STOPP campaign group that sought the abolition of corporal vibrant and colourful place. The academic world will miss her punishment in schools. Both of these themes were represented in daring originality. For those who knew her personally and whose his research, with his writing about the sexualisation of corporal lives she enriched it is an incalculable loss. punishment and the construction of consensual sadomasochistic Dr Ron Roberts CPsychol, AFBPsS practice (e.g. Butt & Hearn, 1998; Langdridge & Butt, 2004). Kingston University

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 787 NEWS Inquisitive thinking at Cheltenham Alastair Campbell will be among the authors interviewed they are born or made and what winning means by eminent figures in psychology and neuroscience at BPS- in different contexts. He added: ‘I’ll be probing supported events at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. them both on specific examples they use in their We spoke to some of the speakers as well as the psychologists books. I’ll ask what makes a winner, whether who will be interviewing them. winning is always essential and how important Campbell, the former Director of Communications for it is to lose. I’ll also be talking about how people Tony Blair, will be interviewed build resilience to deal with inevitable failures by Vincent Walsh (University people meet with when they try and get the best College London) about his new out of themselves.’ book Winners and how they Professor Kevin Dutton (University of succeed. Campbell told The Oxford), will be interviewing journalist Åsne Psychologist that he had a great Seierstad whose book One of Us explores Anders fascination with the workings of Behring Breivik, the Norwegian mass murderer the human mind. He said he had who killed 77 people in two terrorist attacks. been previously inspired after Dutton said he was hoping to speak to Seierstad speaking with a psychiatrist at about several main areas, including a general view a National Theatre event. of who Anders Breivik is, whether he is sane, He said: ‘One of my favourite what triggered his murderous spree and what parts of the book actually came similarities he shows with other mass murderers. by chance from a similar kind of When asked what psychology can bring to event when I shared a platform at such an event, Dutton said: ‘For a long time I’ve the National Theatre with an been of the opinion that us psychologists got on American-Iranian psychiatrist called to the science of the brain pretty late. Right back Alastair Campbell Nassir Ghaemi. We were there to to the Ancient Greeks and medieval poetry there’s talk about power and madness before a lot of psychology there, but it’s just not written Åsne Seierstad a performance of King Lear, but he in a psychological form. We add a bit of science to was fascinating about what in the book I describe as the insights which have already been put out there by positive side to what we would term mental illness. Those the poets, writers and philosophers of yesteryear. people and those qualities that sometimes drive them beyond In my chat with Åsne I hope to carry on that tradition, what we would consider normal but in a way that does real sit down together, work as a team and put science and art good for the world. Churchill. Darwin. Lincoln. Martin Luther literature together and form an offender profile of sorts.’ King. So who knows – maybe Vincent Walsh will end up in the Rory O’Connor (University of Glasgow) said he thought paperback if he comes out with some interesting insights.’ it was very important for those from the arts and sciences to Professor Walsh, who will also be interviewing journalist come together at events such as the Cheltenham Literature Matthew Syed in the same session, said he was hoping to ask Festival not only to share with each other but to reach the both questions around the philosophy of winners – whether general public. He added: ‘If you work in an area like suicide Understanding malnourishment A psychologist will be part of a team developing world. After a successful pilot work in The Gambia will working in The Gambia to extend project the multidisciplinary group, led allow us to see, from the a project that was the first functional by Professor Clare Elwell (UCL, Medical earliest possible point, imaging study of infants in Africa. The Physics and Biomedical Engineering), how these children longitudinal project named BRIGHT Dr Sophie Moore (Cambridge, Human develop and any (BRain Imaging for Global HealTh) and Nutrition Research) and Dr Lloyd-Fox, deviations from normal funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates will now follow 200 children in The developmental patterns. Foundation, will look at whether Gambia from birth, using fNIRS and We don’t know whether malnutrition leads to atypical brain a multitude of cognitive tasks. malnutrition affects brain development and cognitive changes The fNIRS technology to be used development in a global across the first two years of life. in The Gambia, and also on a control manner or whether some Sarah Lloyd-Fox, a Research Fellow group of 50 infants in Cambridge, uses parts of the brain are at Birkbeck University of London’s Centre a headband that emits and detects non- susceptible to under- for Brain and Cognitive Development, has invasive near infrared light. This light development.’ spent much of her career optimising an travels through the skin and skull, but is Malnutrition before imaging technique, fNIRS (functional near reflected differently depending on oxygen the age of two can have infrared spectroscopy), for the study of level, therefore brain activity, in that area. far-reaching effects, extending into infant cognition. Recently her work has Dr Lloyd-Fox said: ‘It’s often said that adulthood. Dr Moore said: ‘Nutritional turned to the use and transportation of the first 1000 days of an infant’s life, from deficiencies in low-income countries fNIRS into rural communities in the conception, are the most important. This impair the growth and development of

788 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 news DBS checks and and self-harm, it is vitally important that we go beyond our ivory towers to mental health communicate the science, the Many people applying to work or volunteer with children or evidence-based practice, and in health care face background checks from the Disclosure and also dispel the many myths Barring Service (DBS – previously CRB). A review last year raised that exist, in my case, around concerns that irrelevant information about people being detained suicide.’ under the Mental Health Act was being released and having a Professor O’Connor will negative impact on the employment prospects of such people. be interviewing journalist and Now new guidelines call for a number of factors must be taken author Matt Haig about his into account before an individual’s mental health crisis is extraordinarily popular book revealed. Reasons to Stay Alive, which The guidelines point out that detention by the police discusses his own personal under the Mental Health Act ‘does not constitute a criminal experiences with suicidal investigation and should therefore be treated with great caution thoughts and attempts. When when considering relevance for disclosure’. They point out that if asked what psychologists a person showed a risk of harming others during their detention can bring to interviews with this may be disclosed if it is relevant, and how long ago an authors, O’Connor said: incident happened should also be taken into account before ‘As psychologists we try to including such information on criminal record certificates. understand mind and If a mental health crisis is disclosed during a DBS check the behaviour – so I’ll attempt to Home Office guidelines recommend the certificate should give bring that inquisitive thinking enough information as to why this may be relevant to the to the interview. I’ll also take a employer or voluntary organisation. life-course approach and explore Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind, said having a mental the emergence of his mental health problem or having been detained under the Mental Health health problems, the moment Act should not necessarily be a red flag in the case of DBS when, aged 24, he was on the checks. However, he added, there was still room to go further: brink of suicide, his subsequent recovery and his fear of ‘For example, people should automatically be allowed to make becoming unwell again. As I was reading his book, lots of representations about the current state of their mental health if things struck me as interesting and intriguing, so hopefully concerns are raised. At the moment it is left to the discretion of some of the questions that I plan to ask will resonate with the chief police officer to give someone that opportunity. In a other readers at Cheltenham.’ ER society where stigma about mental ill health is still rife, we need I To find out more about the events at the Cheltenham Literature all the checks and balances possible to negate any fears and Festival, which runs from 2 to 11 October, see preconceived ideas about the one in four of us who experience tinyurl.com/kwwsxlb mental health problems every year.’ ER B L AND ILL M ELINDA

G Fox said up to 20 per cent Fox said, was that it allowed researchers ATES could be severely malnourished. to measure infant development in an F

OUNDATION Therefore in the project they will objective manner, and to potentially look be able to trace both typical and more closely at individual differences compromised development in rather than global effects across groups. these infants from birth. Brain She will spend her time between the UK activity during social cognition, and The Gambia, while researchers at the attention and memory tasks will Medical Research Council International be measured with fNIRS along Nutrition Unit in Keneba will carry out with functional connectivity to testing in the country. see how well the brain is Principal investigator Professor Clare communicating across regions. Elwell said: ‘Extending this work to a The families will also take part in long-term study gives us a unique chance a number of general behavioural to understanding how infants are affected cognitive tests and questionnaires by growing up in extreme poverty and to to help the research group to guide interventions to give these children children and contribute to almost half of understand the interplay between the best chance of healthy and productive all child deaths worldwide’. nutrition, brain function and other lives.’ ER Of the 200 Gambian infants environmental factors. I For more information see the project potentially involved with the study, Lloyd- One of the benefits of fNIRS, Lloyd- website www.globalfnirs.org

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 789 news ‘We can make changes – we just need to be brave’

A group of psychologists successfully A guy came and said he wanted had affected him. He walked 100 miles between Leicester to join in but due to mobility added: ‘In the food banks and London to highlight the impact of problems he couldn’t walk far. and shelters we visited, austerity on mental health. Their journey However he did take our bags people were losing hope. caught the attention of both local and in his car for 10 miles of the They said they didn’t think

Psychological health and wellbeing are national media as well as many members journey, this made such a huge largely dependent on social circumstances. the systems were going to We must reduce poverty and social inequality. of the general public. difference to our energy and our If we are to care for individuals, we must change. They got some care for society and promote social justice. Our actions, words and policies must hold Dr Ste Weatherhead, who organised walking speed. psychological wellbeing at their centre. hope from what we did.’ Walk the Talk, and his group visited food The group were interviewed He told the story of banks and homeless shelters along the by The Guardian, the Mirror, #wwalkalktheetalk20152 one woman he met whose route and collected the stories of those BBC Radio Leicester, BBC partner of 11 years had who had been hit hard by austerity Northampton, and the BBC passed away: ‘Her mental measures and welfare reform. The group’s World Service, as well as RT TV. health really suffered and she ended up aim was to highlight three areas in Weatherhead said he was overwhelmed on the streets and needed benefits, but particular: the benefits system, to be joined by dozens of supporters on I’ve heard so many times that there are homelessness and food poverty, and at the London section of their walk. simply too many hoops for people to each of the food banks and shelters they He added: ‘As psychologists, our job jump through and they lose hope. visited they took video or audio is in part to show we are listening to what Speaking of the future, Weatherhead recordings of people’s stories and how people are saying. Hitting the streets in added: ‘This isn’t about one person and their mental health has been affected by this way, really did that. It took active one mission. Now we need other people, such cuts. listening to a new level, and made us very professional bodies and organisations to Along their route, Weatherhead said, visible in showing our connection with take new approaches, be brave and step he was struck by how their cause had important issues, our desire to be with outside their comfort zone in order to caught the imagination of the general people in calling for change, our belief show they want to make a positive public as well as professionals, the media in the possibility of change, and our impact. We can make changes, we just and politicians. He added: ‘We had lots of willingness to actively make that change need to be brave.’ people stop us in the streets to say hi and happen.’ To see the media coverage garnered by make points of support for what we were The stark reality of life for people the walk and to find out more about their doing. One lady met us at one of our using food banks and struggling with cause see their website scheduled stops and brought us cakes. their mental health, Weatherhead said, walkthetalk2015.org. ER Seeking closure on ‘closure’ A list of 50 words and phrases more rigorous and clear objects or non-genital body presenting signs or symptoms, to be avoided when writing to limit potential parts and should not be used the assumption that about psychology was recently misunderstanding. simply to describe general psychological issues are better published, leading to much In the inaccurate or preferences for objects, ideas treated with medication than debate among academics and misleading terms section of or people. Secondly, closure, psychotherapy and the belief science journalists. The article, the article, the authors warn they write, should be used in that mentally ill people who in Frontiers in Psychology, against calling drugs such as its original gestalt context as act irresponsibly are not fully includes misleading terms, SSRIs or tricyclics a way to describe a tendency at fault for such behaviour. misused or ambiguous terms, ‘antidepressant medication’. to see incomplete figures as Although it may be argued oxymorons and pleonasms – They write that there is no wholes rather than a feeling that the changing usage of where more words than evidence to suggest these of resolution following trauma. these words is part of the necessary are used to convey drugs are any more useful in The use of medical model natural evolution of language, meaning. the treatment of depression is listed in the article’s the authors do claim some The authors, who include than for other conditions, ‘ambiguous terms’ section, as terms are just plain wrong: for Scott Lilienfeld, (Emory including anxiety disorders many authors who use it think example, the term hierarchical University), state the terms or bulimia nervosa. it always means the same stepwise regression when included should be avoided or Among the five ‘frequently thing, although it has a huge hierarchical and stepwise used sparingly. They suggested misused terms’ listed is fetish. number of possible meanings. regression are entirely separate that, as the field of psychology The authors suggest this For example, the authors processes. They also suggest is often full of ambiguous should only be used, as write, it has been used to the use of the term biological terms and concepts, the use of initially intended, to describe describe an emphasis on an and environmental influences is language should be all the sexual arousal from inanimate underlying disease rather than unnecessarily wordy when

790 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 news Not such a good childhood? Children in England show some of the lowest levels of happiness in England were more than twice as likely as boys to say they with their school lives, compared with 14 other countries were unhappy with their bodies, and perhaps surprisingly this surveyed by the Children’s Society. Bullying seems a particular gender difference was not found in many other countries. problem, with more than half a million 10- and 12-year-olds The Children’s Society have urged the government to make it having been physically bullied each month. a legal requirement for schools in England to provide counselling The Good Childhood Report surveyed 53,000 children aged to pupils to bring it in line with Wales and Northern Ireland. 10 and 12 in Algeria, Poland, England, Colombia, Turkey, Spain, ‘We would like to see independent and qualified counselling Estonia, Germany, Nepal, Norway, South Africa, Ethiopia, professionals available in all schools to support young people Romania, Israel and South Korea. with low wellbeing and those who have Children in England were found to be emotional needs. The provision of school- unhappier with their school lives than based counselling should be flexible and those in 11 other countries – only faring should take into account local demand, T he s The ubjec Goo tive w d Ch ell-bein ildhood g of c 201 hildr 5 en in t better than children in Germany, South he UK demographics and existing structures and Korea and Estonia. In terms of happiness services in the local area. Young people should with life in general, they only fared better also have the ability to self-refer to a school than those in South Korea. counsellor to make it easier for them to get This work, which marks a decade of help when they need it.’ the society’s work on children’s wellbeing Dr Sue Whitcombe, Communications Lead in collaboration with the University of for the British Psychological Society Division York, also found that more than a third of Counselling Psychology, has worked in (38 per cent) of 10- and 12-year-olds in schools with children, young people and England had been physically bullied in The Good Childhood school staff. She said the trends highlighted Report 20 the last month, and half (50 per cent) had 15 in the report were concerning, but added felt excluded. Children in England who ‘they are unlikely to come as a surprise to were bullied frequently were six times those who work with children and young more likely to have low wellbeing in people on a daily basis’. Dr Whitcombe told 1 general. us that although there is increasingly a focus As well as showing unhappiness with on programmes in schools to increase wellbeing, school life, the study showed that there were concerns among practitioners about children in England were notably dissatisfied with their delays and extended waiting times for therapy when referrals appearance and body confidence. Girls in England ranked are made to CAMHS services. She added: ‘It is important to grasp bottom in terms of happiness with their body confidence, that staff wellbeing is a key factor in whole school functioning appearance and self-confidence compared with girls in every and individual pupil experience. Some of our colleagues are now other country surveyed, with the exception of South Korea. Girls engaged to provide therapeutic support or professional supervision to staff in schools. Counselling psychologist colleagues are employed or contracted to provide a range of services for which our relational approaches and understanding of system dynamics are particularly beneficial.’ Chartered Psychologist Marc Smith, who is also a teacher and PhD student at the University of York, said in a blog for the environmental influences alone academic literature.’ Huffington Post that during 10 years of teaching he had seen encompasses all the effects on In reply to Bell’s article, growing numbers of young people suffering anxiety and stress a living being from the Lilienfeld said the list was related to exam pressure. He added: ‘While we all want our moment it is conceived. not intended as a ‘ban list’ of young people to do well, our measure of success is a rather Vaughan Bell, writing terms, but as a guide to use narrow one, being based almost entirely on exam grades… The on his Mindhacks blog, said: them with more clarity. He Children’s Society call for counselling to be more widely available ‘Some of the recommendations wrote: ‘We are lobbying for and programmes to promote positive mental health in schools are essentially based on the considerably greater clarity are certainly laudable and positive steps… but as the emphasis premise that you “shouldn’t in the use of certain terms, on high-stakes testing and material success increases, such use the term except for how especially those that are often interventions will need to run even faster to catch up.’ ER it was first defined or defined used loosely or sloppily in the I For the full Good Childhood Report see: tinyurl.com/oynsee9; to where we think is the psychological and psychiatric read Marc Smith’s Huffington Post blog see tinyurl.com/p6pyx8g authoritative source”. This is literatures. When we suggest and for his article on academic resilience in schools from The just daft advice. Terms evolve “avoiding the use of a term,” we Psychologist see tinyurl.com/ovmjzwv over time. Definitions shift typically mean avoiding the use and change. The article of that term in certain ways recommends against using and in certain contexts.’ ER “fetish” except for in its I The Frontiers article is at Visit http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk for much more news, DSM-5 definition, despite the tinyurl.com/opyyb3x; including the latest on the American Psychological Association fact this is different to how Mindhacks and Lilienfeld stance on interrogation and a report from an event bringing it’s used commonly and how response (in comments) together psychopharmacology and cognitive behavioural therapy. it’s widely used in other tinyurl.com/pxqnzkh

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 791 news Video games and aggression A report from a task force of the American The report stated: ‘No single risk aggressive behaviour. What researchers Psychological Association has found that factor consistently leads a person to act need to do now is conduct studies that although violent video game play is linked aggressively or violently. Rather, it is the look at the effects of video game play in to increased aggression in players, there is accumulation of risk factors that tends to people at risk for aggression or violence insufficient evidence to link such games lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The due to a combination of risk factors. For with actual criminal violence. research reviewed here demonstrates that example, how do depression or The APA Task Force on Violent Media violent video game use is one such risk delinquency interact with violent video carried out a review of research literature factor.’ game use? While there is some variation published between 2005 and 2013, which In light of the group’s conclusions the among the individual studies, a strong and included four meta-analyses that reviewed APA has called on the industry to design consistent general pattern has emerged more than 150 research reports published video games that include increased from many years of research that provides before 2009. The group parental control over the amount of confidence in our general conclusions.’ then conducted a violence the games contain. The APA’s In 2013 around 230 media scholars, systematic evidence Council of Representatives adopted a psychologists and criminologists signed review and a quantitative resolution at its meeting in Toronto to an open letter to the APA expressing review of the literature encourage the Entertainment Software concern over the generalisation of published between 2009 Rating Board to refine its video game findings in lab-based studies onto the and 2013. rating system to reflect the levels and general population, as well as the use of A consistent characteristics of violence in games. The meta-analyses which can be misleading. relationship was found resolution also urged game developers to They wrote: ‘As a simple matter, boys both between violent video design games that are appropriate to users’ consume more violent media and are game use and increases age and psychological development. more aggressive, so small correlations may in aggressive behaviour, The report pointed out limitations in reflect gender effects. Naturally, other aggressive cognitions and the research, including a failure to look variables may well explain small aggressive affect, and for any differences in outcomes between correlations as well. From our decreases in prosocial behaviour, empathy boys and girls who play violent video observation, considerable research data and sensitivity to aggression. Mark games; a lack of studies that have bears this belief out.’ ER Appelbaum, who chaired the task force, examined the effects of violent video game I For Christopher Ferguson’s discussion in said in a statement that there was very play on children younger than 10; and not The Psychologist on whether video game limited research into whether these enough research examining the games’ violence is bad see tinyurl.com/ozupg5r; violent games lead to acts of criminal effects over the course of children’s see tinyurl.com/nzmj3o4 for a news violence, while the link between violence development. article from The Psychologist on the in video games and increased aggression Appelbaum added: ‘We know that changing face of attitudes towards video in players is well established. there are numerous risk factors for games AWARD FOR It’s a jungle out there BULLYING Fear within organisations clinical and organisational Kingsley said that prior RESEARCH has been in the news of late, psychotherapist and author to labour laws workers had following a New York Times of The Fear-Free Organization: no bargaining power, Emeritus Professor Peter Smith exposé of online retailer Vital Insights from Neuroscience compensation was low, hours (Goldsmiths, University of Amazon’s treatment of its staff to Transform your Business were long, jobs were scarce London) has been given an (tinyurl.com/o2vdvtf), and Culture, said: ‘It is easy to and unemployment was high. award for his extensive research publication of a report, make assumptions that a She said: ‘Management styles on bullying. He has published commissioned by employment business that promotes such may have evolved but what numerous papers comparing the law specialists Slater and high values on customer hasn’t changed is the use incidence and characteristics of Gordon, showing 37 per cent needs, such as Amazon, is of fear by leaders and bullying and cyberbullying of 2000 people surveyed had following the same ethos with managers to keep order and across different countries in experienced bullying at work its employees. So readers were to motivate. The use of fear Europe and in Western and (see tinyurl.com/ngqnxk5). rather surprised to read about as a management tool means Asian countries. But is fear in organisations management tactics producing a person’s energy is entirely Smith received the William a growing phenomenon, or extreme levels of fear that are diverted from thriving to Thierry Preyer Award for are we simply more willing to reportedly running rampant. surviving. Leaders and Excellence in Research on speak out about these issues The article vividly illustrates managers would do well to Human Development at the in our culture of online a bruising workplace culture, educate themselves and all European Conference for naming and shaming? And do but unfortunately fear-based employees about the Developmental Psychology in psychologists have a role in management strategies are the devastating impact of fear- Braga, Portugal. tackling fear? rule of the day in far too many based strategies.’ Joan Kingsley, a consultant organisations.’ Psychologists can help

792 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 news

A-LEVEL PSYCHOLOGY The number of young people Boost for research studying psychology at AS- and A-level has increased, while there has been a 10 per cent A multidisciplinary, five-year project that aims and inner speech, including pioneering new drop in entrants for Scottish to research and explore voice-hearing has approaches to studying their neural bases.’ Highers in the subject. received £2.75 million from the Wellcome On the collaboration between such a diverse After a small decrease in Trust. Hearing the Voice involves experts from group of researchers, Fernyhough said the thing psychology at AS- and A-level cognitive neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, that helped them work together was their drive last year, in 2015 there was philosophy, English literature, theology and the towards the same end – to understand voice- a 4 per cent increase in those medical humanities, led by psychologist Charles hearing by speaking to people who have taking A-level (the total was Fernyhough (Durham University). experienced it. He said the funding would be 57,014) and a 2 per cent increase This funding is one of the first of the Trust’s essential in helping the group engage with the in those taking AS-level Social Science Collaborative Awards; a second public. was given to the Centre for the History of the ‘A big part of our work involves trying to Emotions (Queen Mary, University of London). change perceptions about voice-hearing and Hearing the Voice, which started in 2012, reduce the stigma associated with it. In the next will now be expanded to help the research team five years we will be working on major continue their work with local clinicians, exhibitions, publications and artistic initiatives mental health professionals, voice-hearers and that will, we hope, help to dispel some of the other ‘experts by experience’. myths and misconceptions that surround Professor Fernyhough said the group’s hearing voices,’ he said. research so far had revealed voice-hearing to be Dan O’Connor, Head of Humanities and a complex, varied experience with rich Social Science at the Wellcome Trust, added: significances across cultures and historical ‘We are absolutely delighted to be able to psychology this year (up to periods. He said of the future of the project: support these two genuinely innovative and 103,476). The pass rate for both ‘We’ll be asking about the varied sensory exciting research visions. These are some of the has also increased from last experiences that accompany voice-hearing and largest research awards ever made to the year, reaching 71 per cent how they help us to understand it as a humanities in the UK, almost unique in their achieving A* to C at A-level and communicative act. We’re looking at how voices scale and scope. Both hold out the promise of 53.7 per cent achieving the same relate to autobiographical memory, imagination making genuinely ground breaking changes in at AS-level. and creativity, and continuing with our both our understanding of, and approaches to, Psychology is still the fourth examination of the links between voice-hearing the diverse spectrum of human experience.’ ER most popular A-level behind maths, English and biology, but candidate numbers in chemistry and history both continue to rise. In Scotland there was a 10 per cent decrease in students taking a psychology Scottish Higher, individuals to deal with stress, increased considerably. in the knowledge that the from 3479 to 3175, the pass rate anxiety and fear, but can they She added: ‘There are many outcome may not be positive, also decreased by 1 per cent to also help managers to learn reasons posited for this, but the staff member has 74 per cent. about the role emotions play including job insecurity, learnt a great deal of general BPS Policy Advisor for in day-to-day life at the office? zero-hours contracts, rapid information and learning en Psychology Education, Kelly Kingsley concluded: ‘Leaders turnaround of staff and route.’ Auty, said: ‘The overall trend and managers who are undercutting by foreign According to Keegan, of a growth in the numbers emotionally savvy develop workers.’ many organisations deal with of students taking psychology insight. Empathy for others Keegan said the key their staff in mechanistic ways. at pre-tertiary level is is built on knowing oneself. to tackling fear was for ‘For example, senior managers encouraging, although the Empathic leadership will have organisations to develop are removed from workers on situation in Scotland is obviously zero tolerance for bullying, greater levels of trust the floor with limited a cause for concern and we will aggression and undermining throughout the whole connections between staff in be looking at factors that may be behaviours.’ company. She added: ‘This different departments. Building influencing that. The next issue Dr Sheila Keegan, a is not an easy task, especially trust and connection helps to the Society will be keeping a Chartered Psychologist and where suspicion between build strong, self-sufficient watching brief on is the author of The Psychology of senior managers and other workforces. There is a good implementation of A-level Fear in Organisations, said that groups of staff has been built deal of scope for psychologists reform and whether the de- although fear had always been up over years. It may involve within organisations, working coupling of AS- from A-level will a factor in organisations, there encouraging a staff member at senior levels to help build have an impact on psychology.’ was strong evidence that levels to embark on a project they resilience, empathy and group of fear, across the globe had are particularly enthused by, cohesion.’ ER

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 793 When psychologists tried to replicate DIGEST 100 previously published findings

After some high-profile and at times acrimonious failures to Just because a finding doesn’t replicate doesn’t mean the replicate past landmark findings, psychology as a discipline and original result was false – there are many possible reasons scientific community has led the way in trying to find out more for a replication failure, including unknown or unavoidable about why some scientific findings reproduce and others don’t, deviations from the original methodology. Overall, however, including instituting reporting practices to improve the reliability the results of the Project are likely indications of the biases of future results. Much of this endeavour is thanks to the Center that researchers and journals show towards producing and for Open Science, co-founded by the University of Virginia publishing positive findings. For example, a survey published psychologist Brian Nosek. a few years ago revealed the questionable practices many In August the Center published its latest large-scale project: researchers use to achieve positive results, and it’s well an attempt by 270 psychologists to replicate findings from 100 known that journals are less likely to publish negative results. psychology studies published in 2008 in three prestigious The Project found that studies that initially reported journals that cover cognitive and social psychology: Psychological weaker or more surprising results were less likely to replicate. Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the In contrast, the expertise of the original research team or Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and replication research team was not related to the chances of Cognition. replication success. Meanwhile, social psychology replications The Reproducibility Project is designed to estimate the were less than half as likely to achieve a significant finding ‘reproducibility’ of psychological findings and complements the compared with cognitive psychology replication attempts, but in terms of declines in size of effect both fields showed the same average reduction from original study to replication attempt, to less than half (cognitive psychology studies started out with larger effects, and this is why more of the replications in this area retained statistical significance). Among the studies that failed to replicate was research on loneliness increasing supernatural beliefs; on conceptual fluency increasing a preference for concrete descriptions (e.g. if I prime you with the name of a city, that increases your conceptual fluency for the city, which supposedly makes you prefer concrete descriptions of that city); and links between people’s racial prejudice and their response times to pictures showing people from different ethnic groups alongside guns. A full list of the findings that the researchers attempted to replicate can be found on the Reproducibility Project website (as can all the data and replication analyses: see In Science https://osf.io/ezcuj). This may sound like a disappointing development for To hear about what it was like to take part in the project, and for links psychology, but in fact really the opposite is true. Through the to further coverage, see https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ Reproducibility Project, psychology and psychologists are reproducibility-project-disaster-or-triumph-psychology blazing a trail, helping shed light on a problem that afflicts all of science, not just psychology. The Project, which was backed by the Association for Psychological Science (publisher of the journal Psychological Science), is a model of constructive Many Labs Replication Project, which published its initial results collaboration showing how original authors and the authors of last year. The new effort aimed to replicate many different prior replication attempts can work together to further their field. In results to try to establish the distinguishing features of fact, some investigators on the Project were in the position of replicable versus unreliable findings – in this sense it was broad being both an original author and a replication researcher. and shallow and looking for general rules that apply across the ‘The present results suggest there is room to improve fields studied. By contrast, the Many Labs Project involved many reproducibility in psychology,’ the authors of the Reproducibility different teams all attempting to replicate a smaller number of Project concluded. But they added: ‘Any temptation to interpret past findings – in that sense it was narrow and deep, providing these results as a defeat for psychology, or science more more detailed insights into specific psychological phenomena. generally, must contend with the fact that this project The headline result from the new Reproducibility Project demonstrates science behaving as it should’ – that is, being report is that whereas 97 per cent of the original results showed constantly sceptical of its own explanatory claims and striving for a statistically significant effect, this was reproduced in only 36 improvement. ‘This isn’t a pessimistic story’, added Brian Nosek per cent of the replication attempts. Some replications found the in a press conference for the new results. ‘The project shows opposite effect to the one they were trying to recreate. This is science demonstrating an essential quality, self-correction – despite the fact that the Project went to great lengths to make a community of researchers volunteered their time to contribute the replication attempts true to the original studies, including to a large project for which they would receive little individual consulting with the original authors. credit.’ CJ

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Having strong political skills can What is it like to be a refugee with psychosis? be a drawback in the workplace In Psychosis In Journal of Applied Psychology We’re in the midst of a ‘migrant crisis’ the torture itself also had a voice: ‘Some If you overheard someone at work refer to as tens of thousands of brave, desperate voice I have it’s like from the past. But some you as ‘a real political operator’, would you people seek new lives in Europe, risking life of them are not from the past. I don’t know. feel complimented, or alarmed? The latter and limb to get here. Amidst the tragedy Sometimes it’s like a voice of the thing that turns out to be a sensible reaction, as new and controversy, the continued plight of was done to me when I was back home, research suggests that supervisors and those people who actually make it to relative when I was tortured. Sometimes I hear the colleagues have less faith in the safety is often forgotten. Unsurprisingly, voice of that person.’ performance of the highly politically skilled. given all they’ve endured, refugees often Reflecting on the nature of such Study authors Ingo Zettler and Jonas have serious mental health problems, symptoms, the researchers see them as Lang noted a conundrum in their field: including hallucinations. As an indicator, distinct from the flashbacks associated with researchers treat political skill as a uniform research published in 2011 reported that post-traumatic stress (PTSD). ‘The trauma- good, the more the better, yet a meta- 80 per cent of 130 young Somali refugees related intrusions did not appear to be analysis found a spotty relationship between surveyed in Minnesota had symptoms of relived experiences in the classic “PTSD” more political skill and improved outcomes psychosis. sense,’ they explained, J like job performance. Might deft politicking, Now a timely, heart-rending study ‘but rather to be ESS H however well intentioned, create suspicions published in Psychosis has reported the engrossing and URD / in co-workers? Once others lose trust in results of in-depth interviews with seven believable perceptions REPORTDIGITAL a politically focused performer, their ability African refugees or asylum seekers in the “flavoured” by past to get things done is stymied. Or perhaps UK (aged 26 to 43; one woman), all of whom trauma.’ Such habitually working the angles leads highly reported experiencing symptoms of experiences do not fit . CO . skilled individuals to make like Machiavelli psychosis. The researchers’ aim was to gain well with conventional UK and potentially do harm. insight into the ‘lived experience’ of their Western psychiatric Zettler and Lang predicted that thanks participants. This is the first time the first- categories, they to these reasons, those who live and hand perspective of refugees with psychosis argued. Rather than breathe political approaches would actually has been documented. ‘Such information is interpreting their do worse at their jobs compared with those crucial participants’ merely competent in political skill. This for understanding and working with such hallucinations as Calais refugee camp prediction was confirmed in two studies. clients,’ the researchers said. indicative of The first, involving on-the-job apprentices, Clinical psychologist John Rhodes and schizophrenia or PTSD, they suggest a found that the relationship between self- his colleagues analysed the interview neutral description: ‘complex trauma with ratings of political skill and supervisors’ transcripts and identified six key, recurring perceptual disturbance’. ratings of their job performance was themes in their participants’ accounts. The participants also described their positively correlated, but only up to a point. The first was bleak agitated immobility – powerful feelings of fear and mistrust. Beyond a political skill score of 3.5 on a the participants’ sense that their lives were Belvie feared a man on a bus was planning five-point scale, supervisor ratings flatlined going nowhere. One participant likened the to kill her just because he looked at her. and then began dropping. The second study feeling to being in a never-ending race. All the participants also had a sense of found the same overall pattern in Similarly, Amine (aged 43) said: ‘I feel like a broken self. ‘My emotional state has employees with longer work experience, I’m finished. There’s no life, there's no changed and my personality has changed… each rated by a supervisor and also a future, there’s no anything any more. I think I really haven’t been alright,’ said Frederic colleague. This study also found that this everything is going to become like (aged 39). They also described the pain of ‘curvilinear relationship’ between political darkness.’ losing everything. ‘The degree of loss for skill and job performance (whereby The second theme was trauma-related these participants is difficult for us to intermediates in political skill outperformed voices and visions. These tended to be the understand,’ the researchers said. ‘They low- and high-skilled participants) – was sounds or sights of lost relatives or have lost their worlds. A new location or most pronounced when the rater was not attackers from the past. Belvie (aged 30, role does not replace “home”, that place personally close to the participant. female) heard voices of a past torturer, and of familiarity and warmth.’ Consistent with Savviness and bluntness alike can be forgiven by close colleagues – ‘that’s just how Chris gets things done’ – but others The material in this section is taken from the Society’s Research Digest blog are less trusting. at www.bps.org.uk/digest, and is written by its editor Dr Christian Jarrett These are cross-sectional studies, so and contributor Dr Alex Fradera. we can’t confirm cause and effect. And we should also take into account that political Visit the blog for full coverage, additional current reports, an archive, skill is judged quite differently in people in comment, our brand new podcast, and to book your place at our blog’s 10th other parts of an organisation that weren’t birthday party, on 9 December in London. Only a few places remaining! studied here, such as in leadership circles. But this research is a preliminary validation Subscribe to the fortnightly e-mail, friend, follow and more via of a new idea gaining currency in www.bps.org.uk/digest organisational research – that you can have ‘too much of a good thing’ – that even traits considered universally positive can in excess have negative consequences. AF

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 795 digest

this, many of the painful feelings described Weird things start to happen when you stare into someone’s by the interviewees, such as there being no eyes for 10 minutes future, were the same regardless of whether they’d be granted asylum (as four In Psychiatry Research of them had) or whether they were still waiting to hear about their status. A psychologist based in Italy says he has perception’. The participants’ task was The final theme concerned the found a simple way to induce in healthy simply to stare into each other's eyes for 10 attraction of death. Several of the people an altered state of consciousness – minutes, all the while maintaining a neutral participants described past suicide attempts simply get two individuals to look into each facial expression. A control group also sat in and the unbearable strain of life. ‘The worst other’s eyes for 10 minutes while they are a dimly lit room in pairs, but their chairs part,’ said Sando (aged 26), ‘is I keep sitting in a dimly lit room. The sensations faced the wall and they stared at the wall. harming myself… and you know knocking that ensue resemble mild ‘dissociation’ – Beforehand both groups were told that the my head to the wall, kinda too much stuff a rather vague psychological term for when study was going to involve a ‘meditative in there, you know, I just want to open my people lose their normal connection with experience with eyes open’. head and finish with this.’ Yet, the reality. It can include feeling like the world When the 10 minutes were over the participants also expressed optimism. is unreal, memory loss, and odd perceptual participants filled out three questionnaires: The researchers described the participants’ experiences, such as seeing the world in the first was an 18-item test of dissociative wish to die ‘held in tension with their wish black and white. states; the other two asked questions about to live and build a purposeful and Giovanni Caputo recruited 20 young their experience of the other person’s face worthwhile life’. This final theme is adults (15 women) to form pairs. Each pair (or their own face in the control group). important for clinical services, the sat in chairs opposite each other, one metre The participants in the eye-staring researchers said, which ‘need to recognise apart, in a large, dimly lit room. Specifically, group said they’d had a compelling that while many [refugees] speak of building the lighting level was 0.8 lx, which Caputo experience unlike anything they’d felt a new life, there is an attraction to suicide says ‘allowed detailed perception of the fine before. They also scored higher on all three as escape’. CJ face traits but attenuated colour questionnaires than the control group. On the dissociative states test, they gave the strongest ratings to items related to reduced colour intensity, sounds seeming quieter or louder than expected, becoming LINK FEAST spaced out, and time seeming to drag on. On the strange-face questionnaire, 90 per How Reliable Are Psychology Studies? cent of the eye-staring group agreed that Findings from the Reproducibility Project have sent shockwaves through psychology. they’d seen some deformed facial traits, 75 At The Atlantic, Ed Yong provides commentary and reflection. per cent said they’d seen a monster, 50 per www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/psychology-studies-reliability- cent said they saw aspects of their own face reproducability-nosek/402466 in their partner’s face, and 15 per cent said they’d seen a relative’s face. On My Radar: Steven Pinker’s Cultural Highlights Caputo thinks the facial hallucinations The psychologist and popular science author on data graphics, spectacular planet are a kind of rebound effect, as the photography and the ambitious comedy of Amy Schumer. participants in the eye-staring group www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/aug/23/on-my-radar-steven-pinker- returned to ‘reality’ after dissociating. This psychologist-author is largely speculation and he admits that the study should be considered preliminary. I’d How to Have a Better Brain also highlight that while it’s true the eye- New BBC Radio 4 series of short programmes on ways to look staring group scored higher than controls after the health of your brain. See reviews (p.850) on dissociative states, they didn’t score any www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b067gcj6 of the items on the scale higher than 2.45, on average, on a five-point scale (where 0 is What It’s Like to Have ADHD As a Grown Woman ‘not at all’ and 5 would be ‘extremely’). ‘Having ADHD is challenging regardless of gender but in a world predisposed to We don’t know what the crucial undermining women, not having your shit together can feel like a dereliction of elements of the eye-staring exercise were feminine duty,’ writes Rae Jacobson at NY Mag's The Cut. for inducing the described effects (nor why http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/08/what-its-like-to-have-adhd-as-a-grown- they had these effects). We can infer that woman.html low lighting was not the only important element because the control group sat in Identity Is Lost Without a Moral Compass the same dim room. Other clues come from ‘Research on neurodegenerative diseases suggests that, more than anything else, prior research finding that simply staring at moral traits like kindness and integrity define who we are,’ writes Nathan Collins at a dot on the wall for a prolonged duration the Pacific Standard. can induce dissociative-like states, as can www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/identity-is-lost-without-a-moral-compass staring at one’s own face in the mirror. However, comparing the questionnaire How Autistic People Helped Shape the Modern World scores in the current study with those Carl Zimmer interviews Steve Silberman for WIRED about his new book, NeuroTribes: reported in his past research, Caputo says The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. that what he calls ‘interpersonal gazing’ has www.wired.com/2015/08/neurotribes-with-steve-silberman a more powerful dissociative effect than staring into a mirror. CJ

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What do long-distance runners think about? In International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology DIGEST DIGESTED Full reports are available at www.bps.org.uk/digest Marathon runners are on the killing me this morning’); road for hours at a time, what about the causes of pain and You might want to avoid pulling on earth goes through their discomfort (e.g. ‘Hill, you’re a ‘duck face’ the next time you minds? Past investigations have a bitch ... it's long and hot’); and take a selfie. Research with relied on asking runners to thoughts about coping, including users of the Chinese Sina Weibo remember what they were motivational strategies (e.g. microblogging website found that thinking, but of course that is an ‘neck and shoulder relax’; ‘that people who posed with their lips unreliable method. Now Ashley sucked but it’s going to be an pouted in this exaggerated Samson and her team have awesome run on the way back’). fashion were judged to be more conducted the first ever ‘think The final category, making neurotic and less conscientious aloud’ investigation of long- up 28 per cent of all thoughts, than others. Computers in Human distance runners, which involves pertained to thoughts directed Behavior them verbalising ‘everything outwards to the environment. that passes through your head’. This included thoughts about People who think they have expert knowledge in a given field are The researchers recruited geography, especially those particularly prone to ‘over-claiming’ in that area – that is, saying 10 amateur long-distance nasty hills, and the weather they are familiar with impossible words or concepts that don’t really runners (four women) with (e.g. ‘I need it to start raining’); exist. Psychological Science an average age of 41, all with admiration for scenery (e.g. ‘it's a habit of running long-distance so beautiful, the ocean, the A comparison of five-month-olds’ sitting ability across six cultures at least three times a week. mountains’); thoughts about revealed some striking differences. For example, none of the Italian All were in training for a half- wildlife (e.g. ‘hope I don’t see infants studied showed independent sitting compared with 92 per marathon or longer distance. any snakes’), and finally, cent of the Cameroonian infants. Journal of Cross-Cultural The runners were given some thoughts about traffic and other Psychology practice recording their runners and cyclists (e.g. ‘this thoughts while on a treadmill. is such a fucking busy street. Free personality tests based on the Big Five factors of personality Then they were given the I hate it’; ‘ton of bikes out now ... are more reliable than proprietary versions. That’s according to an equipment and asked to record I've been passed by 20 of them’). assessment of the tests’ ‘internal consistency’. Researchers say the their thoughts while out on a If you were wondering reason could be that users of paid-for tests are usually prohibited real run of at least seven miles. whether long-distance runners from changing them, thus preventing any chance of refinement. The researchers ended up use the time to solve life’s Journal of Psychology with over 18 hours of recordings dilemmas – relationship to analyse, with the runners’ troubles or metaphysical Gay people’s ‘coming out’ experiences are related to their thoughts falling into three conundrums, say – it seems not, psychological wellbeing 10 or more years later. Specifically, distinct categories. The majority at least not in this sample of participants who recalled more negative reactions from a friend (40 per cent) of thoughts runners anyway. They’re too or family member tended to be less happy in the present day, an pertained to pace and distance, busy focusing on their association that was mediated by their having weaker feelings of showing just how important it is performance, bodily sensations autonomy in their relationship with that person. Self and Identity even in a non-competition and surroundings. Of course, it’s context for long-distance likely the participants censored Taking part in a brain-scan experiment appears to change how runners to continually calculate some of their thoughts, so we children think about brains and minds. Eight-year-old children their optimum speed, can’t know for sure. who’d had their own brain scanned two years earlier were more considering their energy levels This is the first time long- likely than controls to say that dreaming and imagination require and the distance left to cover. distance runners’ thoughts have both the mind and the brain. Trends in Neuroscience and Education This category included thoughts been recorded live, and the to do with monitoring pace (e.g. researchers said there were Teenagers are ‘downhill, don’t kill yourself, just some specific insights that the most prolific cruise’); strategies to maintain could be useful to sports liars, while young pace, such as correcting form psychologists. For example, adults (aged 18 to (e.g. ‘lean and steady, make it they noted that nearly all the 29) are the most a long stride, lean and steady’); runners recorded thoughts near skilled. That’s and thoughts about altering the beginning of the run that according to a pace (e.g. ‘6.50 mile that’s suggested they were finding test and survey alright ... 2 miles to go ... 6.20 it difficult, but things nearly conducted with that's better’). always seemed to get easier members of the Making up 32 per cent of all as the run progressed. From public aged up to thoughts, the next major a practical perspective, it would 77 years who category was, perhaps be interesting if future research visited a science unsurprisingly, pain and using this methodology could museum in discomfort. This included identify specific thoughts or Amsterdam. Acta thoughts about injuries (e.g. thought styles that tend to Psychologica ‘My hips are a little tight. I’m correlate with better pacing stiff, my feet, my ankles, just and performance. CJ

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 797 YOU RECEIVE A COMPLAINT FROM A CLIENT. YOU COUNT ON YOUR BROKER TO HELP. BUT CAN YOU TRUST YOUR INSURANCE POLICY TO PROTECT YOU?

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798 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Psychology heaven and hell Celebrating a decade of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog Wednesday 9 December 7-10pm Introduction Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor, The Psychologist) Senate House, London Methods Dr Christian Jarrett (Editor, Research Digest) Results Professor Andy Field #digestblog10 (University of Sussex) Discussion Professor Uta Frith For further information and booking (University College London) www.bps.org.uk/digest/10 Conclusion Wine and nibbles

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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 799 was the third, consisting of those who believed that extraterrestrial life may well exist, but who doubted that UFOs What would you say provide evidence of them. These respondents Bainbridge labelled ‘allopatrists’, drawing on a term from INTERVIEW to an alien? population genetics to refer to gene pools that are geographically separated. These Jon Sutton talks to Douglas Vakoch, clinical psychologist and Director of questionnaire-takers seemed aware of the Interstellar Message Composition at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence immense distance between stars, and thus the unlikelihood of face-to-face contact, but kept open the prospects of intelligence somewhere. Allopatrists were less religious than average, and whereas less than half of ufophiles had graduated ou’re the only social scientist languages and cultures. Similarly, from college, over 70 per cent of Yemployed by a SETI (Search for anthropologists are trained to encounter allopatrists had. Extraterrestrial Intelligence) radically different cultures and organisation. Your job title is ‘Director perspectives – that’s the kind of openness Is that kind of information any practical of Interstellar Message Composition’. required of astronomers searching for use to you in your role? That has to be both the coolest and intelligence of a form they cannot quite Most past studies of beliefs about oddest role I have ever heard of. imagine. extraterrestrial life have focused on UFOs, It’s interesting, the whole venture is which makes their results less relevant for a leap that many psychologists will And psychology is well placed to contact at interstellar distance. In feel very uncomfortable with. Since join in? standard SETI scenarios, civilisations are psychology separated from philosophy Yes. Consider the expertise of separated by trillions of miles, providing at the end of the 19th century, we have psychologists, not the labels by which a buffer that can shield respondents from prided ourselves in being an empirical the work we need to do is categorised. fears of the impact of direct alien contact. science. What could be less empirical I don’t artificially separate But some research, than speculation about the nature of an relevant work of other for example by extraterrestrial intelligence that we do not scholars because their PhDs Pettinico, posited even know exists? And yet, I would argue, are in sociology or cognitive “What if aliens are like contact through the contributions of psychologists can science or musicology, cats – they know we’re a signal sent at help provide a foundation that rather than psychology… here, they don’t care?” interstellar distances. substantially increases the chances that I just ask that psychologists Educational level SETI scientists can find and ultimately collectively ask what their predicted likely response even communicate with intelligent life profession can contribute to a broader to detection: those with a college in the cosmos, if in fact it exists. understanding of life in the cosmos. education were two and a half times less likely to say they would be afraid and I imagine that so far the search has I firmly believe intelligent life is out nervous than were those with a high been dominated by astronomers, there, but I am very sceptical that it school degree or less. Among those who computer scientists, engineers? has visited us. Is that a common view already believed that life beyond Earth is Yes, but other disciplines have made amongst scientists? likely to exist, fully 90 per cent would a growing contribution, particularly Well, that’s interesting. A survey by advocate sending a reply. So studies like archaeologists and anthropologists, Bainbridge a few years ago suggested this help us anticipate who will be in perhaps because their mindset matches three groups. ‘Geocentrists’ rejected the favour of sending a reply to that of the SETI scientist. Like possibility of either extraterrestrial extraterrestrials, and who will be astronomers who attempt to find, intelligence on distant planets or as opposed. reconstruct and understand other visitors to Earth. The ‘ufophiles’ thought civilisations distant from us in space, UFOs were from other planets, and thus, So if we do respond, you’re the guy archaeologists piece together temporally also believed that other planets must be that speaks for Earth? Tough gig! distant civilisations and their lost populated. The most interesting group Yes, and in fact Pettinico’s survey revealed

To find out more and to watch Doug’s TEDx talk ‘What would you say to an extraterrestrial intelligence? An analysis of responses to ‘Earth Speaks’. Acta extraterrestrial?’, see www.seti.org/users/douglas-vakoch Astronautica, 86, 136–148. Vakoch, D.A. & Harrison, A.H. (Eds.) (2011). Civilizations beyond earth: Extraterrestrial reading Vakoch, D.A. & Dowd, M.F. (Eds.) (2015). The Drake equation: Estimating the prevalence life and society. New York: Berghahn Books. of extraterrestrial life through the ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vakoch, D.A. (2011). A narratological approach to interpreting and designing Vakoch, D.A. (Ed.) (2014). Archaeology, anthropology, and interstellar communication. interstellar messages. Acta Astronautica, 68, 520–534. Washington, DC: NASA. Vakoch, D.A. (2011). What does it mean to be human? Reflections on the portrayal of Vakoch, D.A. (Ed.) (2014). Extraterrestrial altruism: Evolution and ethics in the cosmos. pain in interstellar messages. Acta Astronautica, 68, 445–450. Heidelberg: Springer. Baird, J. (1982). Human pattern detection and recognition in the search for Vakoch, D.A., Lower, T.A., Niles, B.A. et al. (2013). What should we say to extraterrestrial intelligence. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 20(2), 74–76.

800 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 out of this world something else interesting about that. So all you need to do is get agreement extraterrestrials is not simply to tell Only half of the respondents answered on the fundamentals of human them about ourselves, but to teach positively to the question ‘If beings from existence! them something new, it could be in our another planet sent a message to us I know, easy, right?! Many SETI scientists approach to death that we have the most through deep space, do you think we have assumed that we should speak as to teach. Such a species, with replaceable would be able to figure out what they one Earth. Consider, for example, the parts, may cease to comprehend death – were saying?’. When SETI first began, New Horizons Message Initiative, called or at least, to treat it very different than its proponents typically held hope that One World. But in truth, we humans does a species with an expected lifetime mathematics and science would provide inhabit many different worlds. And of less than a century. The dread of an a universal language, capable of bridging whereas many subfields of psychology existential psychologist comes to the the gap between civilisations. More recent seek to identify truths that hold across fore… Since Freud we have become scholarship is sympathetic to the many cultures, others place an emphasis on the accustomed to psychologists helping challenges that must be overcome to diversity of our experience and us get in touch with aspects of ourselves create an intelligible message. understanding. we have sealed off. Within the realm of But the fundamental point here is that clinical psychology, we continue to focus Setting that considerable challenge I’m suggesting a big shift in what we look on the hidden, the obscured, even as we aside for a moment, what kind of to communicate. The usual shift from the more mechanistic models things would we say? presupposition is that the best possibility of cognitive psychology. An alien species Most often messages to may find our unacceptable

extraterrestrial audiences S beliefs and desires as have focused on human ETH fascinating as we S

strengths. Take the Voyager HOSTAK psychologists always have. spacecraft’s interstellar message – in over 100 And ‘fascinating’ them is pictures of life on Earth, important? with an emphasis on Of course! How do you human presence, there intrigue an alien? My wife were no depictions of war, and I have two cats. What poverty or disease. But it is if aliens are like them – precisely an emphasis on they know we’re here, but our vulnerabilities that they don’t care? What’s the may be of most interest to ‘interstellar yarn’ that will extraterrestrials. We will make them respond? not be the most intelligent beings in the galaxy, if we Brilliant! Maybe we need make contact. Humans to become more alien to have had the capacity to communicate with communicate with radio aliens? for less than a century – Exactly! Yet to do that we a blip in the 13-billion-year need to understand our history of our galaxy. If own psychology and its extraterrestrial civilisations limitations. As we ponder the seeking contact are comparably young for a language to be understood by messages we would send to other worlds, technologically, the chances that their extraterrestrials is one of based on maths we evoke images and sounds that century of communicability and that of and science. Those are the prerequisites characterise life on our world. And yet, humankind will coincide are nil. The to creating the technologies needed for what if the denizens of other worlds don’t only way we will make contact, on purely interstellar communication. But if we rely on the same senses? As we consider statistical grounds, is if extraterrestrials only explain what we and the the proportion of our cerebral cortexes have been around much longer than extraterrestrials already have in common, devoted to processing various sensory humankind. Perhaps it is not the beauty what’s the point? Once we have modalities, we see a much greater of our symphonies that will set us apart communicated basic principles of percentage devoted to processing visual from extraterrestrials, nor our moral mathematics, physics, and chemistry, how and auditory information than our other perfection – living true to our ideals of might we go on to talk about what makes senses. How then can we imagine what altruism. If we wish to convey what it is us distinctively human? Isn’t it endlessly it’s like to experience the world as about us that is distinctive, it may be our more fascinating to consider how we anything but seeing, hearing creatures? weakness, our fears, our unknowing – might portray an aspect of our species Here we can look to comparative and yet a willingness to forge ahead to that may seem quintessentially human – psychology, in order to become more attempt contact in spite of this. Perhaps our sense of beauty, say? Perhaps we open to non-human ways of messaging. we will be the intelligent species that has would look to communicate the the most exquisite balance of joy and Fibonacci sequence, how certain You’re the Principal Investigator sorrow of any civilisation in the Milky proportions are deemed beautiful. Or the on ‘Earth Speaks’ (see Way. And it is the fundamental facts of cognitive structures of music perception. www.earthspeaks.seti.org). Tell me human existence such as these that might about that. best be explained to other civilisations, What if any intelligence is so alien, say People from around the world are invited and here that psychology may be of silicon-based artificial intelligence? to submit pictures, sounds and text greatest help. Then if our goal in sending a message to messages that they would want to send to

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other worlds. The project aims to foster a dialogue about what we should say to extraterrestrial intelligence, as well as whether or not we should be sending intentional messages. It differs from previous efforts to collect messages to extraterrestrials, in that it looks to identify and ‘tag’ the major themes that people address in their messages. By tracking demographic variables for each person submitting a message, The Allen Telescope Array is a ‘Large Number of Small Dishes’ (LNSD) array for SETI projects we will be able to identify commonalities and differences in message programme would benefit greatly by that humans are especially good at content that are related to such factors as using organisational psychology to identifying signals of a form that cannot nationality, age and gender. So that takes understand and assist multigenerational be anticipated. Automated computer the pressure off me a little: rather than crews in their search. Investigating the programs are limited to the use of trying to identify a unified ‘Message from mindset of the explorer. Considering algorithms that detect clearly defined Earth’, this draws on a dialogic model for exactly what we mean by ‘intelligence’ signals. That remains the case today. interstellar message design to provide a in the ‘search for extraterrestrial more broadly representative view of our intelligence’. But perhaps the biggest So what can people do in practical species. Psychology is vital here in the question is to step right back to our terms? lexical analysis, in interpreting the themes motivations for making contact, and In an effort to get human help in finding – for example, in terms of Maslow’s whether we dare. Religion, fear, risk hard-to-characterise signals, the SETI hierarchy – and in cross-cultural and responsibility… these are huge Institute launched a web-based project understanding – for example, how psychological questions, and unless we called SETILive, inviting lay citizen a Maori or someone from Papua New face them head on, we risk cutting off scientists to scan visually screen shots Guinea depicts a human being, visually promising new ways of making contact. made from live SETI observations. But and in descriptive terms, can be very And do we dare not to? Ecopsychology we have no confirmed signal from an different from the Western view which is important in learning how we can face extraterrestrial civilisation; at best, we has dominated efforts so far. our own challenges, to sustain ourselves, have archived examples of false alarms but we need to ensure our focus is dual – that could not be confirmed by follow-up What does the future hold for you and inward and outward. observations. So a major challenge is to your role? find motivated participants who are Oh, infinite possibilities! The most Finally, I have to ask, what do you think willing to visually scan screenshot after contentious question in SETI right now are our chances of detecting life out screenshot, even though they may never is whether we should transmit powerful, there? Is it just a case of pointing the find a signal from ET. SETI would profit information-rich signals to possible electromagnetic telescopes to the sky from the input of learning theorists, as we extraterrestrials even before we know for and waiting for the computers to beep? plan how to create an experimental task sure they’re out there. This is a strategy No – humans have a real role to play. that would be engaging for participants, called ‘active SETI’, and no less a From the outset of SETI, a major even if they aren’t able to find a signal luminary than Stephen Hawking has constraint in the search has been the from another civilization. We could warned that it could attract the attention processing of the electromagnetic signals intersperse the screenshots coming in live of hostile aliens, so Hawking says we entering the telescope, looking for with periodic archived screenshots of should avoid targeting other stars with something that stands out from the signals such as those created by powerful transmissions. I take the cosmic background radiation as distinctly spacecraft. In effect, we’re creating a opposite view. I’m a strong advocate artificial. As signal cosmic slot machine – using of active SETI, and I’d argue that any processing has an intermittent reinforcement civilisation with the ability to travel to improved into the “Tonight could be the schedule that gives periodic Earth to do us harm could already pick 21st century, night that we discover an small payoffs could be enough up our accidental leakage radiation. We billions of radio extraterrestrial” to sustain the hope of someday don’t expose ourselves to any increased channels can be hitting the jackpot. risk of alien invasion by sending an analysed for each As we are speaking, the intentional signal, letting them know we star by computer, telescopes are searching. Tonight want to make contact. But fear is getting and as SETI searches became increasingly could be the night that we discover an in the way of people objectively automated in the 1980s the human eye extraterrestrial. And if we do, evaluating the merits of this new search was eclipsed as a signal detector in favour psychologists should be right in there strategy – fear of annihilation by aliens, of computer algorithms that could detect determining how we respond, and also or for SETI scientists who understand faint signals. Yet as early as 1982, ensuring that the decisions aren’t just that interstellar space provides a natural psychologist John C. Baird and colleagues made by a handful of astronomers… buffer, fear of losing public support and tested human participants’ abilities to people all around the world have a funding by doing something that’s detect signals of the sort that could be responsibility to consider what they controversial. A sustained active SETI received in a SETI experiment, and noted would say to an alien.

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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 803 control personnel during on-orbit missions to the Mir and the International Space Stations (Boyd et al., 2009; Kanas

ARTICLE et al., 2000, 2001, 2007). A total of 30 astronauts and cosmonauts and 186 American and Russian mission control personnel were studied, who participated Psychology in deep space in space missions lasting from four to seven months. We found no significant Nick Kanas considers issues and countermeasures changes in levels of crewmember mood and group interpersonal climate over time. However, there was significant Manned space missions involve a ntil now, manned space missions evidence for the displacement of negative number of psychological and have ventured no further than emotions outwardly, with crewmembers interpersonal stressors. Dealing Uthe Moon, and the longest that perceiving lack of support from mission with these becomes a major issue if a person has been in space has been control. Crew cohesion correlated we are going to venture forth to the 14 months. Using current propulsion positively with the supportive role of the planets and beyond. This article technology, a round trip mission to Mars mission commander. Using similar reviews what we know about will take 2½ years, and expeditions to the methodology, these findings have been psychosocial issues from on-orbit outer planets will take between 4½ years replicated in a space station simulation research and discusses future (for Jupiter) to 26.3 years (Neptune) study in Beijing (Wang & Wu, 2015). challenges beyond the Earth’s (Kanas, 2011). If we are able to develop In our two studies, crewmembers neighbourhood. advanced propulsion systems that allow scored higher in terms of experience with us to travel at 10 to 20 per cent the speed other cultures as compared with mission of light, one-way expeditions to the stars control personnel. Americans reported would still take decades to centuries to significantly more work pressure than accomplish. This would likely involve Russians in both studies, and less tension putting the crewmembers in suspended during International Space Station (ISS) animation or using multi-generational missions. crews. Other investigators also have studied Space missions are stressful (Kanas, orbiting crewmembers. Gushin and his 2015). Periods of monotony alternate colleagues found that space crews showed with periods of frenetic activity, the body decreases in the scope and content of must adapt to the novel conditions of their communications and a tendency to microgravity, and potential danger in the filter what they said to outside personnel, vacuum of space is always present. People which the investigators called on long, isolated missions beyond the ‘psychological closing’. Crewmembers Earth’s neighbourhood will encounter also interacted more with some additional psychological and individuals than others in mission What has on-orbit research told us interpersonal stressors, and it is important control. This was felt to be due to about psychological and interpersonal to develop strategies to cope. But before a process of withdrawal and issues in space? discussing countermeasures for dealing ‘autonomisation’, where isolated questions questions What psychosocial challenges will we with such long-duration manned space crewmembers became more egocentric face during future interplanetary and missions, let’s examine what we currently and perceived some outsiders as interstellar missions? know from research done close to home. opponents (Gushin, 2003; Gushin et al., 1997). Tomi and her colleagues surveyed 75 astronauts and cosmonauts and 106 Kanas, N. [2015]. Humans in space: The On-orbit psychological research mission control personnel in order to psychological hurdles. Switzerland: My colleagues and I conducted two assess intercultural issues that could lead Springer. http://nickkanas.com international NASA-funded studies of to problems during space missions. Both resources psychological and interpersonal issues subject groups rated coordination affecting crewmembers and mission conflicts between space organisations

Boyd, J.E., Kanas, N.A., Salnitskiy, V.P. et the crew communication with psychological hurdles. Switzerland: and Dordrecht: Springer. al. (2009). Cultural differences in external communicants under Springer. Kanas, N.A., Salnitskiy, V.P., Boyd, J.E. et crewmembers and mission control prolonged isolation. Aviation, Space, Kanas, N. (2011). From Earth’s orbit to al. (2007). Crewmember and mission personnel during two space station and Environmental Medicine, 68, the outer planets and beyond: control personnel interactions during

references programs. Aviation, Space, and 1093–1098. Psychological issues in space. Acta International Space Station Missions. Environmental Medicine, 80, 1–9. Ihle, E.C., Ritsher, J.B. & Kanas, N. Astronautica, 68, 576–581. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Gushin, V.I. (2003). Problems of distant (2006). Positive psychological Kanas, N. (2014). The Protos mandate: A Medicine, 78, 601–607. communication of isolated small outcomes of spaceflight: An scientific novel. Switzerland: Springer. Kanas, N., Salnitskiy, V., Grund, E.M. et groups. Human Physiology, 29, 548–555. empirical study. Aviation, Space, and Kanas, N. & Manzey, D. (2008). Space al. (2000). Interpersonal and cultural Gushin, V.I., Zaprisa, N.S., Kolinitchenko, Environmental Medicine, 77, 93–101. psychology and psychiatry (2nd edn). issues involving crews and ground T.B. et al. (1997). Content analysis of Kanas, N. [2015]. Humans in space: The El Segundo, CA: Microcosm Press; personnel during Shuttle/Mir space

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involved with the missions as the biggest of viewing the Earth below and the every respondent reported at least some problem, followed by miscommunications cosmos beyond (Kanas, 2015). In his positive change as a result of his or her due to simple misunderstandings. Other diary, cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev stated experience. A cluster analysis of the difficulties related to differences in that photographing the Earth from the questionnaire responses found eight language and work management styles, Salyut 7 space station was a restful and subscale categories: Perceptions of Earth, and communication problems between stress-reducing experience (Lebedev, Perceptions of Space, New Possibilities, mission control personnel and their 1988). Appreciation of Life, Personal Strength, support teams (Tomi et al., 2007). Extending pioneering research Changes in Daily Life, Relating Others have surveyed cosmonauts on positive factors begun in to Others, and Spiritual in order to gain their perspective on the early 1990s, Change. The only psychological issues during an expedition Suedfeld and his subscale to show a to Mars. Factors seen as potentially colleagues content significant change causing problems included isolation and analysed the was Perceptions monotony, distance-related published of Earth, and communication delays with the Earth, memoirs of observing our differences in management style among 125 space home planet the involved space agencies, and cultural travellers. from space problems resulting from the international As a result sometimes makeup of the crew (Nechaev et al., of being in led to 2007). space, lifestyle Sandal and Manzey conducted a astronauts alterations survey of 576 employees of the European and after the Space Agency in order to assess important cosmonauts space cultural issues that could impact on reported traveller performance. They found a positive link more returned between experience with other cultures Universalism home. For and ability to work with fellow employees (i.e. a greater example, three (Sandal & Manzey, 2009). appreciation for of the subscale Finally, Stuster performed a content other people and items (‘I realized analysis of personal journals from 10 ISS nature), Spirituality how much I treasure astronauts. He found that 88 per cent of and Power the Earth,’ ‘I learned the entries dealt with the following (Suedfeld et al., to appreciate the content categories: Work, Outside 2010). These ‘Once a photograph of the earth, taken from fragility of the Earth,’ Communications, Adjustment, Group changes likely outside, is available… a new idea as powerful and ‘I gained a Interaction, Recreation/Leisure, reflected seeing as any in history will be let loose.’ – Fred stronger appreciation Equipment, Events, Organisation/ the Earth as a Hoyle, 1948 of the Earth’s beauty’) Management, Sleep, and Food. Despite beautiful, fragile were significantly a 20 per cent increase in interpersonal orb in infinite associated with the problems during the second half of the space, with no obvious political behavioural item ‘I increased my missions (such as conflicts with boundaries separating its inhabitants. involvement in environmental causes’ crewmates), the astronauts reported that In a survey of 54 astronauts and after returning (Ihle et al., 2006). their life in space was not as difficult as cosmonauts who had flown in space, Alan they had expected prior to launch Kelly and I found that our subjects rated (Stuster, 2010). the positive excitement related to their Missions to other planets mission as being one of the strongest Although seeing the beautiful Earth and factors enhancing communication within communicating with family and friends Treasuring the Earth from space the crew and between the crewmembers on the ground can be positive Travelling in space also can be a positive and mission control personnel on the experiences, there seems little doubt that experience. Some astronauts and ground (Kelly & Kanas, 1992, 1993). living with the same people in space for cosmonauts have reported transcendental In a follow-up study, my colleagues and months on end can lead to interpersonal experiences, religious insights, or a better I surveyed 39 astronauts and cosmonauts problems that are difficult to express sense of the unity of mankind as a result who had flown in space. We found that openly, given that one must depend on

missions. Aviation, Space, and space. Aviation, Space, and interstellar multi-generational space cultural issues in space operations. Environmental Medicine, 71(9 Suppl.), Environmental Medicine, 63, 721–726. travel. In Y. Kondo, F.C. Bruhweiler, J. Acta Astronautica, 65, 1520–1529. A11–A16. Kelly, A.D. & Kanas, N. (1993). Moore & C. Sheffield (Eds.) Stuster, J. (2010). Behavioral issues Kanas, N., Salnitskiy, V., Weiss, D.S. et al. Communication between space Interstellar travel and multi-generation associated with long-duration space (2001). Crewmember and ground crews and ground personnel. space ships (pp.80–88). Burlington, expeditions. Houston, TX: personnel interactions over time Aviation, Space, and Environmental Ontario: Apogee Books. NASA/Johnson Space Center. during Shuttle/Mir space missions. Medicine, 64, 779–800. Nechaev, A.P., Polyakov, V.V. & Morukov, Suedfeld, P., Legkaia, K. & Brcic, J. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Lebedev, V. (1988). Diary of a cosmonaut. B.V. (2007). Martian manned mission: (2010). Changes in the hierarchy of Medicine, 72, 453–461. College Station, TX: Phytoresource What cosmonauts think about this. value references associated with Kelly, A.D. & Kanas, N. (1992). Research Information Service. Acta Astronautica, 60, 351–353. flying in space. Journal of Personality, Crewmember communication in Moore, J.H. (2003). Kin-based crews for Sandal, G.M. & Manzey, D. (2009). Cross- 78, 1–25.

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these same people for support and homesickness, depression, and other assistance in accomplishing mission goals. unpleasant psychological problems due to A supportive commander becomes vital the profound sense of truly being isolated The psychology of for crew cohesion, and in multinational in the heavens. crews, cultural differences (both national and organisational) can produce stress. Frank M. Robinson’s The Oceans are Wide is Intra-crew tensions may be displaced to Coping with long-duration a novella published in Science Stories in April people in mission control, which interplanetary space missions 1954 (reprinted in Starships edited by Isaac negatively affects crew–ground In dealing with these issues, it is possible Asimov et al., Fawcett Crest/Ballantine Books, communication. It is important for to conceptualise countermeasures around 1983). In this story, starship governance is crewmembers to learn strategies of coping four areas: crew selection, pre-flight through a hereditary board of executives with psychological problems before they orientation and training, in-flight whose chairman is dying and whose son is ill- can fester and lead to withdrawal and monitoring and support, and post-mission equipped to take over, due to his more passive additional difficulties with their readaptation to Earth (Kanas, 2015). Crew personality and the plotting of competitive crewmates and with mission control. selection should include people who are family members. With the assistance of a Given these psychosocial issues comfortable in working alone on a task Machiavellian-like Predict, the son grows up to affecting crewmembers during on-orbit when necessary as well as interacting with become the chairman and ultimately the new missions, what can we say about potential their crewmates around social events, Predict, as he outwits his former mentor. The problems on space missions beyond the such as meals and celebrations. story involves father–son and mentor–student Earth’s neighbourhood? Interplanetary Commanders should be selected who not conflicts, within an interesting sociological expeditions will include many of the only are task-oriented, but also description of life on a multigenerational same stressors as missions close to home: psychologically sensitive and supportive starship. microgravity, danger, isolation, of the needs of the crew. Brian Aldiss’ Non-Stop, published in 1958 confinement, separation from family and Before launch, crewmembers and (available from Overlook Press, 2005), has its friends, and a limited social environment. mission control personnel should receive protagonist as part of a primordial tribe living in However, there will be additional stressors psychosocial education training aimed at a jungle-like setting. As he and his colleagues that will affect humans travelling to the recognising and dealing with important are exploring their environment, they encounter distant reaches of the solar system. The psychological and interpersonal issues other people and discover that they all are crew will experience a severe sense of that might arise during the mission. Topic inhabiting a giant starship that is returning isolation and separation from Earth, with areas should include: ways to work and from a planet around the star Procyon, where no hope of evacuation or assistance from interact productively during isolated and 23 generations earlier the ship’s populace had the ground during emergencies. The confined conditions; recognising and suffered from a pandemic. The story contains tremendous distances involved will dealing with intrapsychic and numerous surprises about the true mission, increase the average two-way interpersonal problems; understanding and psychoanalytic theory and terminology is communication times with Earth from cultural differences as manifested by used throughout to describe the rituals and 25 minutes (Mars) to 500 minutes verbal and non-verbal behaviour; and interactions of the starship inhabitants. (Neptune) (Kanas, 2011). Consequently, coping with increased autonomy and In Gregory Benford’s Redeemer, a short the crewmembers will be much more dependence on local resources. story published in Analog Science autonomous from mission control than During the mission, the crew should during near-Earth missions, and they will receive computer-based psychosocial need to plan their schedules and deal education training refresher courses to with problems themselves. remind them of key issues discussed prior and their families readjust to life together Finally, no human being has ever to launch. Crewmembers need to plan on Earth. These strategies should include experienced the Earth as an insignificant time for ‘bull sessions’ to discuss personal protected private time and methods of dot in the heavens, the so-called ‘Earth- and interpersonal issues and stressors dealing with the fame and glory that will out-of-view phenomenon’ (Kanas, 2015; before they fester and become result from highly visible space missions, Kanas & Manzey, 2008). Since gazing at problematic. Strategies should be such as the first expedition to Mars. the Earth has been rated as a major developed to allow space travellers to positive factor of being in space, the communicate efficiently with people on absence of this experience during an Earth during distance-related time delays. Interstellar travel expeditionary mission on crewmember These might include writing e-mail During multi-year missions to the fringes psychology may result in increased messages that append suggested responses of the solar system (such as to the outer at the end, to which the recipient may planets, the Kuiper Belt, or the Oort reply in order to minimise time- Cloud), or beyond to the stars, the long consuming back-and-forth interactions. distances involved will make travel using A virtual reality system or an on-board current propulsion systems highly Tomi, L., Kealey, D., Lange, M. et al. (2007, 21 May). Cross-cultural training telescope with which to see the Earth in unlikely. New propulsion systems and the requirements for long-duration space real time may help the crewmembers deal possibility of putting the crewmembers in missions. Paper delivered at the Human with feelings around separation from their suspended animation will need to be Interactions in Space Symposium, home planet. Families at home need to be considered. Both strategies present Beijing, China. supported during the mission, both technical problems that are beyond the Wang, Y. & Wu, R. [2015]. Time effects, informally (peer-led groups) and formally scope of this article, and the interested displacement, and leadership roles on a (counselling or psychotherapy). reader is referred to the discussion in the lunar space station analogue. Aerospace Post-mission readaptation debriefings scientific appendix to my interstellar Medicine and Human Performance, 86, and supportive strategies should be science fiction novel The Protos Mandate 819-823. employed to help returning crewmembers (Kanas, 2014).

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star realise that they are entering an area of interstellar travel in fiction low interstellar hydrogen, which is needed to fuel their starship. The chief executive wants to divert around the low hydrogen region, but he is Fiction/Science Fact in 1979 (reprinted in Skylife: colonise newly discovered worlds; the crew, met with resistance from the central computer. Space Habitats in Story and Science edited by whose members are adapted for permanent Complicating his actions are the facts that he is G. Benford & G. Zebrowski, Harcourt, 2000) a life on the ship; and the founder generation, depressed over the death of his wife and is man travelling in a faster-than-light space ship composed of people born hundreds of years aware that given his age, he will die before the overtakes an interstellar starship launched 75 earlier at the time of the settlement of the last completion of the decades-long mission. years earlier that is travelling at sub-light star system. The other world to be learned is In Stephen Baxter’s short story StarCall speed. The slower vehicle contains thousands a planet that is the first ever to be discovered (published in Starship Century edited by J. of future colonists in suspended animation, with intelligent life. A number of psychological Benford & G. Benford, Microwave Sciences and a small maintenance crew that is awake, and and ethical issues are raised as these two Lucky Bat Books, 2013), a sentient computer a cache of frozen DNA that the man intends to groups discover each other, with surprising probe named Sannah III has been launched on capture to replenish radiation-damaged DNA changes occurring to both societies. a long mission to Alpha Centauri. For public back home that was affected by a devastating In Ben Bova’s short story A Country for relations purposes, several hundred children war. The psychological twist is that on the Old Men (published in Going Interstellar by have been selected to speak with the probe slower starship he encounters his great- L. Johnson & J. McDevitt, Baen Publishing, every 10 years. The story follows the grandmother. 2012) the crewmembers heading for a distant communications between Sannah III and a In Ship of Fools, written by Richard British boy named Paul over six decades. Paul Russo (Ace Books, 2001), a huge During this time, both human and robot multigenerational starship with several experience numerous developmental changes, thousand inhabitants has a class system of some of which take place in a similar manner ‘topsiders’, who hold positions of power, and that reflects complementary changes in their ‘downsiders’, who perform the more menial environments. duties on the ship. There also is a clerical Finally, my own novel The Protos Mandate group led by a bishop who wields significant (which along with my other novel The New power. The plot involves the relationship of Martians was published in 2014 as part of the crewmembers with each other, including Springer’s ‘Science and Fiction’ series) explores their anxieties and intrigues. the vicissitudes of a crew undertaking the first In Ken MacLeod’s Learning the World (Tor interstellar expedition. The story deals with the Books, Tom Doherty Associates, 2005), there building and launching of the giant starship, are two worlds to be learned. One involves problems facing the multigenerational the society on board a giant starship with a crewmembers during their 107-year mission, complicated social system composed of three and surprises they face after reaching their groups: a young space-borne group of destination. A referenced appendix explains the individuals who are bred genetically to science behind the story.

Another scenario that has been members would rear the younger ones about life on Earth, and later generations advocated for interstellar expeditions and serve as teachers and advisers. People may want to return to the home planet. has been the use of giant self-contained in the middle echelon would perform the Alternatively, they may wish to continue multi-generational starships. Moore has routine maintenance activities. As a travelling indefinitely in space in their discussed some of the practical issues result, the social network and use of familiar and comfortable starship rather of such a mission involving a crew of resources would remain stable across than deal with the unknowns of a new 150–180 people on a 200-year expedition generations (Moore, 2003). world (Kanas, 2014). to Alpha Centauri. Based on his computer Such a scenario raises a number of As can be seen, travel to distant stars models, he has suggested several social psychological and sociological questions. presents a number of psychosocial issues engineering principles to maintain a Who would be selected for such a that will test human adaptability and stable population that would not tax the mission? How many extended family resources. Hopefully, by the time such limited food, water, and on-board space members would be allowed to start the missions are planned, we will have had resources. These strategies include journey? How much cultural and enough experience with interplanetary beginning the mission with a crew of religious diversity could be tolerated? travel to enable starship crews to deal childless married couples, who would How would a diverse enough gene pool effectively with the new psychological be required to postpone parenthood until be assured to minimise the appearance and sociological challenges. their 30s and would limit the number of of dangerous recessives and maximise children they have to conform to the the stability of future generations? What population needs of the mission. This kind of governance system would be Nick Kanas MD cycle would be repeated for subsequent used? How will the starship populace is a Professor Emeritus in generations. The result would be the accept such social engineering? Will the Department of production of well-defined demographic later generations view these echelons Psychiatry at the University echelons of roughly equal numbers over as a normal part of life, or will they rebel of California, San Francisco time, with people clustering into age against such a regulated system? The [email protected] groups some 30 years apart. The older launch generation likely will reminisce http://nickkanas.com

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 807 became another drone connected to the Borg hive mind (the Collective). All independent thought and emotions removed. At a sociological level the Borg touched upon contemporary anxieties The alien in us all such as the loss of cultural distinctiveness in the drive towards globalisation. At an We asked for your favourite alien entity, and what their depiction says about our individual level the Borg resonate with

EYE ON FICTION own psychology psychological concepts such as deindividuation, social identity and groupthink. Narratives featuring Borg assimilation survivors would focus on the PTSD effects suffered by those rescued Beyond the Borg and cannot be negotiated or reasoned from the Collective. Alan Redman, Occupational with (‘resistance is futile’). The Collective nature of the Borg, Psychologist, Criterion Partnership So far, so Cybermen, but the Borg with every individual interconnected and added darker qualities than the Dr Who all thoughts shared, represents the apex f I’m going to out myself as a science enemy. Rather than invade and occupy, of group cohesiveness. The pooling of fiction fan in front of the rest of my the Borg would forcibly assimilate other intellectual resources and the elimination Iprofession I might as well do it races in a quest to attain physical, of dissent in favour of harmony and properly. That means turning to what is technological and ideological perfection. single-minded purpose gave the Borg the arguably the nerdier end of the SF canon: Individuals from other races would be edge over their human adversaries, whose Star Trek. subjected to a terrifying assimilation fundamental flaw was intra-personal Despite its recent sexy reboot, Star process, involving the replacement of conflict and the cult of the individual. Tre k has never developed the same patina body parts with Borg implants and the The terror of assimilation, beyond the of cool as Star Wars, but it does try harder erasure of all individuality. The outcome physical depredations, was the loss of to hold a mirror up to the human of assimilation was that the individual self, the repression of personality and condition through the powerlessness to break free from the melting pot of alien races tyranny of the group. T

that make up the HE As an occupational psychologist,

Federation and its foes. K when I first encountered the Borg I was While the Klingons, OBAL fascinated with the way it chimed with

Vulcans, and Romulans all C contemporary organisational theory. The offer a lens on humanity, as OLLECTION Borg modelled key 1990s organisation a psychologist I believe it is design (OD) themes, such as flat

the Borg who provide a /P organisations, team-based processes richer metaphor for many ARAMOUNT and the removal of hierarchies. The Borg of humanity’s more were able to harness the power of their defining psychological collective organisation to adapt quickly T

characteristics. ELEVISION to any new threat or technology they Created for the 1990s encountered. This mirrors concepts being Captain Picard era Star promoted in OD at the time around the Tre k , the Borg became the learning organisation and change defining nemesis for the management. This adaptability gave the Enterprise and her crew. Borg another advantage over humanity, The Borg are a race of which was stuck with the unfashionable cybernetic organisms, command and control model. bodies augmented by As the Klingons represented the technology and emotions Western cold-war anxiety about the suppressed. The Borg are Soviet bloc, the Borg articulated late 20th- aggressively expansionist century fears about the superiority of Asian economic and leadership models. Borg decision making operated in an analogous manner to the Japanese ringi system, where decisions are made Chaudhuri, S. (2014). Cinema of the Dark MIT Press. Side. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Levine, J. (1983). Materialism and qualia: consensually by the entire workforce. Press. The explanatory gap. Pacific Many Western manufacturing facilities Gelman, S.A. (2004). Psychological Philosophical Quarterly, 64, 354–361. were assimilated into these new ways of

references essentialism in children. Trends in Newman, G.E. & Bloom, P. (2012). Art and working while the Enterprise continued Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 404–409. authenticity. Journal of Experimental its fictional fight with the Borg to preserve Gelman, S.A. & Wellman, H.M. (1991). Psychology: General, 141(3), 558. humanity’s culture, individuality and Insides and essences. Cognition, 38(3), Newman, G.E., Diesendruck, G. & Bloom, ways of thinking. 213–244. P. (2011). Celebrity contagion and the It is not clear whether the Star Trek Keil, F. (1989). Concepts, kinds, and value of objects. Journal of Consumer writing team had any interactions with cognitive development. Cambridge, MA: Research, 38(2), 215–228. the British Psychological Society.

808 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 out of this world

cockroaches, beetles and praying T Not so alien? HE

Catherine Pugh, University of Essex mantises. They are designed to K graduate elicit fear and disgust, especially the OBAL

Brain Bug. Despite its intelligence C The 1997 film Starship Troopers, directed and sentience, it is essentially no OLLECTION by Paul Verhoeven, follows the fascist more than a mound of flesh,

Federation military as they fight an reminiscent of both brain and /C interplanetary war against giant insectoids mollusc. Shohini Chaudhuri argues OLUMBIA known as ‘Bugs’. Although the Bugs that while the science-fiction appear as the monstrous Other, the film tradition of portraying aliens as T suggests that humans are equally insectoids aims to evoke dread, it RISTAR complicit in their brutality. also ‘reflects on processes of The line between humankind and dehumanisation that enable others Bugs becomes increasingly blurred, to be oppressed and destroyed more highlighted by Carl (Neil Patrick Harris). easily, recalling the Nazi’s An affable character to start, his behaviour characterisation of Jews as vermin becomes increasingly less human. He and Hutus’ labelling of Tutsis as shows little empathy, even towards cockroaches’ (Chaudhuri, 2014, p.137). propaganda announcement delights in childhood friends, declaring coldly: ‘We’re The film’s strong use of fascist mise-en- presenting its torture. The Brain Bug is in this for the species, boys and girls. It’s scène and lack of anthropomorphic brutal in its methods, sucking out human simple numbers. They have more. And features in the aliens support this theory. brains to gain intelligence, but the film every day I have to make decisions that Starship Troopers establishes alien and asks if this is really any different to earlier send hundreds of people like you to their humankind as the same, both capable of images of scientists experimenting on the deaths.’ In Carl’s final appearances he has terrible atrocities. It is strongly insinuated most efficient ways to kill the Arachnids. prematurely aged and is notably less that humans started the war by invading Despite humankind’s efforts to distance healthy, giving him the sharper, more |a planet already colonised by Bugs. The themselves from the Bugs, ultimately, as shell-like look of the Bugs. revelation that the Brain Bug experiences a General in the film points out: ‘They’re Different types of Bugs appear fear not only elicits ecstatic cheering from just like us… They want to know us so throughout, utilising the features of the crowd but a final Federation they can kill us.’

Snatching the essence

Dr Heath Matheson, does not. Consciousness? A with a celebrity more than Postdoctoral Fellow, Center LLIED A unique ‘self’? A soul? Why a duplicate watch that had for Cognitive Neuroscience, do we think such things exist? A not (Newman et al., 2011), RTISTS University of Pennsylvania The sense that the original is and people are willing to pay

You look across the room to your unique and immutable – this /T more for an original artwork loved one and, though they look psychological essentialism – HE than an exact duplicate K

and act normally, you are is a robust feature of the OBAL (Newman & Bloom, 2012). convinced they’re an impostor! human mind. Together, these findings C

This plot has terrified Psychological essentialism OLLECTION suggest that we believe audiences for decades, famously is the idea that other people people, animals and explored in the classic novel The have an essential quality, artefacts, carry with them Body Snatchers (1954) by Jack some underlying nature, that some sort of essence that Finney. In it, an alien species is unobservable but central to is special, unique and floats to earth undetected, them (Gelman 2004). meaningful. duplicates the bodies of sleeping Psychological essentialism Regardless of whether people, and masquerades as has been revealed by a people do have essences, authentic citizens. Horrifyingly, number of different studies. psychological essentialism the replicants are For instance, seven-year-olds has many benefits, including indistinguishable. who are told that a raccoon allowing us to make The plot, while entertaining, was transformed into a skunk inferences about those reveals some startling aspects (with a haircut, dye, and around us (Gelman, 2004); of the human mind. The idea of smelly stuff) insist that the imagine how hard it would be body snatching is unnerving raccoon is still a raccoon to talk to someone if you thought because it capitalises on a very (Keil, 1989). Indeed, children appearance, children think the they were a new person every important psychological think a turtle is still a turtle animal retains some sort of time you met them! Either way, phenomenon. without its shell (but a hollow essential nature. And essences psychological research suggests Despite perfect replication, shell is not a turtle; Gelman & extend to objects, too. In one that body snatching frightens us we feel that the original person Wellman, 1991). This suggests study, people wanted to wear because there is a psychological has something that the replicant that despite transformations in a watch that came into contact premium on the original.

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 809 out of this world

Bridging the gap Adorable killers Dr Tom Stafford, Dr Ellen Migo, Postdoctoral Research Worker, Institute of University of Sheffield Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London Greg Egan writes novels full Picking my favourite alien race is remarkably tricky. Obviously the of complex maths and the far alien I would most like to have a drink with was an easy choice (Londo future. The effect is a kind of Mollari for what it’s worth, at least before the darkness of the Shadow existential vertigo about what War; as an aside, on this issue Sheldon could not be more wrong it means to be human and about Babylon 5). what it could mean to be After much thought I have chosen the Ewoks. The original Star human. In his Diaspora the Wars movies are my favourite films, and I’m sure I’m also influenced human species has lived so by their short-lived mid-80s cartoon show. The question then is, why? long, and merged so Why do these little walking teddy-bears have a special place in so successfully with computers, many people’s hearts? that we have spread to explore One explanation is that my love of the Ewoks is analogous to hugely different environments, shared frame of reference. our (and maybe especially academics’) love of cats (have a look at diverging as different species – A concrete, but #AcademicsWithCats). They’re furry, difficult to understand and aliens to ourselves – fundamental, example is can look adorable. They’re also adept killers when needed. Much as ‘developing new ways of research on infant cognition I remember them for being cuddly and curious, the Ewoks also tried mapping the physical world which shows that human to cook and eat Han, Luke and Chewbacca when they first met them. into the minds, and adding babies are primed to They live under a tribal system, and while their technology is specialised neural structures understand what adults do as primitive, it is very effective. They’re smart little creatures, who can to handle the new categories’. attempts as communication. apparently ride In the novel, the central This readiness allows them speeder-bikes characters realise they need to to make sense of what people T

HE with no training, talk to these off-shoot human mean, even if they don’t use

K as well make species to warn them about an the right words (or if the OBAL large traps and impending disaster (a life- words are completely novel to

C have their own ending blast of neutron energy the baby). Communication is OLLECTION hang gliders. from an exploding star, as only possible because the two My cat is less you’d expect). The problem is parties have from the

/L advanced, but that some human species live beginning a shared

UCASFILM can look in such a different world, have understanding about how adorable just been separate from the rest of communication is done (and before (and /20 humanity for so long, that assume communicating is one

TH indeed after) communication with them is of the things the other is likely

C dragging a dead impossible. It isn’t just that to do). ENTURY bird into the they speak different languages, In the novel, the house. but that the methods of communication with the aliens F

OX The communicating and the is made by Bridgers – humans relationship underlying concepts they use who alter themselves into between the are so radically divergent that intermediate species that exist Empire and the they can’t even begin to in a manner that is in between Ewoks mirrors recognise the need to standard humans and the so many human communicate. human-aliens they are trying conquests. The This is exciting because to connect to. Through a chain invading force it reminds me that our of ‘Bridgers’ they are able, at subjugates the psychology is based on a last, to speak to about the local population particular way of being in the urgent need to evacuate earth who rise up world. Jakob von Uexküll (but, ironically, not to be against them. called this an ‘umwelt’, or life- believed). We feel for the world. The important thing is The problems we face as Ewoks; we want that other animals don’t just individuals and as a society are them to win their think differently from us. It less spectacular, but can be as freedom. The Ewoks isn’t just that dogs, say, don’t urgent. When different groups, expose why armies struggle to overcome guerrilla warfare; they are understand mathematics, but ideologies or individuals can’t easy to underestimate and can use what they know about the terrain there is a more profound agree, I sometimes fancifully to their advantage. The Ewoks’ help allows the Rebels to win the difference: that the categories wonder if part of the problem Battle of Endor and destroy the Death Star. dogs use to carve up the world is the different life-world the It’s also interesting that the word ‘Ewoks’ is not mentioned at all in cut across those we use. two inhabit, and if – instead of the Return of the Jedi. Without the closing credits, we might not have Wittgenstein said ‘If a lion more shouting at each other – a name for the species that helped to take down the evil Imperial could talk, we could not communication would be best Empire. This may have been a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, understand him’ and I take made by finding people who but how often does our own history favour those telling it, pushing out this to be expressing the same inhabit intermediate umwelts the contributions of those less able to spread the story themselves. thought – communication and so could bridge between requires a shared world, a the different minds.

810 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 T HE K OBAL C OLLECTION /M OSFILM

Solaris and ‘The Other’ the original. Kelvin tries to hate it but he Dr Ian Hocking, Canterbury Christ Church University can’t. Slowly, it remembers the suicide of the original. Solaristics, wrote Muntius, is a should be – the qualia of being (Levine, ‘Kris, I have the feeling that substitute for religion in the space 1983) – solaristics misses something something has happened.’ She broke age. (Lem, Solaris) essential of Solaris. off. I waited, the turned-off razor in Gravinsky’s compendium, which was my hand. For me, the 1961 science fiction classic most often used in school as a simple Solaris by Stanislaw Lem is forever crib, was an alphabetically arranged The aliens of Solaris do not have pointy associated with J.S. Bach’s church cantata collection of solaristic hypotheses, ears, American accents, or trundle about Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, which plays from Abiological to Zoo-degenerative. with sink-plunger attachments. They are throughout the 1972 film adaptation so utterly different that there is no basis directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. On board the station, Kelvin finds chaos. for common understanding. The science The organ gives an ecclesiastic feel to He looks for a scientist called Gibarian, of Solaristics cannot even settle the the slow-moving shots of Kelvin, the who had once been an instructor at question of whether the aliens are alive psychologist hero, as he walks around the Kelvin’s university. or an inanimate, but active, element of lake of his childhood home before leaving Gibarian is dead and his colleagues are the planet’s geology. The geology of Solaris Earth for Solaris Station on a mission to making no sense. Kelvin soon learns that might think the same about us. discover the fate of the scientists aboard. there are visitors on the station. They are What, as literature, is Solaris about? The lake and its forest is ancient. The not human. They are manifestations of The failure to communicate, both between depiction of Kelvin is stark: he is guilt and trauma; patterns pulled from intelligences and within minds. We never dissociated, depressed. human minds by something connected find out whether this failure is deliberate There is no lake in the book. Lem’s with the ocean below, or perhaps the on the part of Solaris. In the 2015 BBC Solaris begins in outer space as Kelvin’s ocean itself. television documentary Bitter Lake, Adam shuttle docks with Solaris Station. One of these manifestations looks like Curtis argues that the stories we are told – Kelvin, I’m sorry. It’s nothing, you a woman whom Kelvin failed to help. She about why we go to war, how we divide know, just the surprise. I wasn’t killed herself not long after her marriage – the world into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and ‘us’ expecting you. to Kelvin. and ‘them’ – no longer make sense, and It was Harey, in a white summer with this obfuscation comes control. Does Anti-gravity generators keep Solaris dress. Her legs were crossed, she was the ocean on Solaris control the humans Station floating above a planet whose barefoot, her dark hair was tied back; on Solaris Station? Humanity wants to ocean may, or may not, be sentient. The the sheer material was taut over her make sense of Solaris, but physics can’t struggle to understand this ocean began breasts. help. Kelvin wants to make sense of a century before with a mystery about the Harey, but psychology can’t help. What’s planet’s orbit. According to physical law, This version of Harey walks and talks like left is the essence of the alien: otherness. the orbit should be elliptical, not circular. A discipline called solaristics has sprung up, but it hasn’t got much further What’s your favourite alien, and what does its depiction tell us about our own than description. Just as some claim that psychology? Join the conversation on the web version of this article at our psychological literature excludes http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk or connect on Twitter @psychmag something essential of what psychology

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 811 intelligent life elsewhere in the universe but are far from convinced that alien visitation of our home planet has ever

ARTICLE Close encounters of the happened. Even if our own galaxy is teeming with life, it may well be the case that the vast interstellar distances psychological kind between inhabited planets is such that any direct human–alien contact is simply Christopher C. French considers explanations of UFO sightings, not possible. alien encounters and even abductions If indeed the earth has never been visited by ET, how are we to explain the numerous reports of UFO sightings and In recent years astronomers have t is a pretty safe bet that virtually every even alien contact and abduction that discovered an ever-increasing reader of this article has heard of, and have taken place in the last 60 years or number of earth-like planets, Ipossibly even seen, Steven Spielberg’s so, and arguably even before that? I will fuelling speculation that we may 1977 blockbuster UFO movie Close argue that psychology provides plausible not be alone in the universe. Many Encounters of the Third Kind. However, counter-explanations for close encounters members of the public are already I suspect that most readers are not of all kinds. convinced that not only is there entirely sure what the film’s title really intelligent life elsewhere in the means. In fact, it refers to J. Allen Hynek’s universe, but also that aliens visit classificatory system for alleged alien The first kind our planet regularly. Indeed, many contact of various kinds. Hynek was an A simple sighting of a UFO with no other claim to have had personal American astronomer who acted as a supporting evidence is referred to as a experiences that prove that this is scientific adviser to the US Air Force close encounter of the first kind (CE1). so. Are there plausible alternative on a number of high-profile projects Ever since human beings first looked up explanations for such claims? investigating UFOs beginning back in at the sky, they have seen objects that the 1940s. He began as a sceptic and they could not identify – literally debunker – but ended up as a strong unidentified flying objects. In modern defender of both the so-called times, however, the acronym UFO has What are the possible implications for ‘extraterrestrial (ET) hypothesis’ and the become synonymous in many people’s our view of ourselves and our place in even more controversial ‘extradimensional minds to that of ET. A moment’s the universe if contact is ever made with (ED) hypothesis’ as possible explanations reflection will reveal that this is a huge

questions questions an advanced extraterrestrial civilisation? for such reports. Specifically, close inferential leap. Some attempts to estimate the number encounters of the third kind (CE3s) refers Our readers will be well aware that of intelligent civilisations that might live to alleged encounters that involve in our galaxy, such as the famous Drake actual human–alien interaction. equation, imply that such civilisations Opinion polls routinely show that might be surprisingly common. many members of the general public Physicist Enrico Fermi asked the also believe in the ET hypothesis. To question, ‘Why, if this is so, is there little give but one typical example, a 2013 convincing evidence of contact from HuffPost/YouGov poll of 1000 US such civilisations?’ How might you adults (tinyurl.com/moa2ez6) found answer this question? that half believed there is life on other planets, 38 per cent believed there is intelligent life on other planets, and French, C.C. & Stone, A. (2014). a quarter believed that aliens have Anomalistic psychology: Exploring visited the earth. It is important to paranormal belief and experience. note in this context that right back to Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Carl Sagan, many scientists involved resources Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit: in the SETI (Search for www.gold.ac.uk/apru Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Project How are we to explain the numerous reports of have fully accepted the possibility of UFO sightings?

Appelle, S. (1996). The abduction Voices and visions from within. Brookesmith, P. (1998). Alien abductions. Clarke, D. & Roberts, A. (1990). Phantoms experience. Journal of UFO Studies, 6, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus. New York: Barnes & Noble. of the sky. London: Robert Hale. 29–79. Bartholomew, R.E. & Howard, G.S. Clancy, S.A. (2005). Abducted. Cambridge, Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of Appelle, S., Lynn, S.J., Newman, L. & (1998). UFOs and alien contact. MA: Harvard University Press. occurrence of particular verbal

references Maktaris, A. (2014). Alien abduction Amherst, NY: Prometheus. Clancy, S.A., McNally, R.J., Schacter, D.L. intrusions in immediate recall. experiences. In E. Cardeña, S.J. Lynn, Blackmore, S. (1994). Alien abduction. et al. (2002). Memory distortion in Journal of Experimental Psychology, & S. Krippner (Eds.) Varieties of New Scientist, 144, 29–31. people reporting abduction by aliens. 58, 17–22. anomalous experience (2nd edn, Brookesmith, P. (1995). UFO: The complete Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, Devereux, P. & Brookesmith, P. (1997). pp.213–240). Washington, DC: sightings catalogue. London: Blandford. 455–461. UFOs and ufology. London: Blandford. American Psychological Association. Brookesmith, P. (1996). UFO: The Clarke, D. (2012). The UFO files. London: Frazier, K., Karr, B. & Nickell, J. (Eds.) Baker, R.A. (1992). Hidden memories: government files. London: Blandford. Bloomsbury. (1997). The UFO invasion. Amherst,

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both perception and memory are Roberts, 1990; Frazier et al., 1997; Klass, radiation levels were found at the alleged constructive processes greatly affected by 1983; Randles et al., 2000; Sheaffer, 1998; UFO landing site. In fact, the indentations the top-down influences of the observer’s Watson, 2013). were in all probability made by rabbits pre-existing beliefs and expectations. and the reported raised radiation levels UFOs are typically observed unexpectedly were actually not particularly high and under less than ideal viewing conditions, The second kind were based upon the use of inappropriate often at night. It is precisely under such A sighting that appears to be supported technology by inexperienced personnel viewing conditions that top-down by physical evidence is referred to as a (Randles et al., 2000). Confirmation bias influences will have their strongest effect close encounter of the second kind on the part of both witnesses and some upon the perceptions of the viewer. Thus, (CE2). Such evidence is typically in the investigators leads to the interpretation details may be perceived (e.g. aliens form of a photographic record, but these of any apparent anomaly, no matter how peering back at the observer through cases also include sightings accompanied minor, being interpreted as support for windows) that were not actually present by radar readings or else indentations the ET hypothesis. at all. It should also be borne in mind and/or raised radiation levels at alleged that there are typically few, if any, cues to landing sights. size, distance and speed in the sky. An The old adage ‘The camera never lies’ The third kind object that is small, near and slow- has never been true and has never been As stated, the title of Spielberg’s moving will produce the same image on less true than it is in our modern digital influential film refers to actual direct the retina as one that is large, far away age. Ever since the earliest days of contact between aliens and humans. In and fast-moving. photography, cameras have been used 1952, George Adamski claimed to have

It may initially seem incredible that to fake paranormal CREDIT phenomena, such as met a rather attractive female Venusian in people could misperceive a wide variety apparently capturing ghostly images of the Californian desert (Bartholomew & of stimuli (such as bright stars and the deceased (Nickell, 1994). With Howard, 1998). He even claimed that he planets, meteors, weather balloons, software such as Photoshop, it has never had been taken for a ride in her aircraft seen from unusual angles, laser been easier to produce hoax photographs spaceship, and wrote several bestselling displays and Chinese lanterns) as alien of all kinds. Many classic photographs of books recounting his adventures. spaceships, but even the most fervent flying saucers have been shown to be Adamski was just one of several so-called proponents of the ET hypothesis accept deliberate hoaxes (see, for example, contactees in this era who made such that over 95 per cent of all reported Hines, 2003; Hoggart & Hutchinson, claims, often involving the contactee in sightings can be explained in such terms. 1995; Korff, 1995). In other cases, the transmission of important messages The reason we can often be sure that such photographs or videos are simply from the aliens to humanity warning of explanations are correct is because the sincerely misinterpreted natural or the dangers of, say, nuclear war or precise time and direction of the sighting manmade phenomena. pollution. The claims themselves became exactly corresponds to a known event Mundane explanations can also often more elaborate as time went by, but the occurring in that part of the sky. However, be provided for other types of physical accounts were generally positive in tone proponents of the ET hypothesis insist evidence. For example, radar readings can and the aliens clearly viewed humanity that unless such explanations can be sometimes be misleading. False positives, benevolently. The contactees were not provided for 100 per cent of all reported sometimes referred to as angels, can be taken seriously even by the ufologists of sightings, the ET hypothesis is supported. caused by flocks of birds or unusual the day, who preferred instead to Is this reasonable? Of course not. Just as atmospheric conditions. This was concentrate on what they perceived to be the police cannot solve all of the crimes particularly a problem for pre-1960s more reliable reports of CE1s. However, they investigate, sometimes there is systems, which may explain why reports things were soon to take a more sinister simply not enough evidence to allow for of UFOs detected on radar are much rarer turn and an additional category was a definitive explanation of a sighting. these days (Clarke, 2012). added to Hynek’s original tripartite Even those who could be thought of as The problems of interpreting other scheme. professional observers, such as pilots, types of physical evidence are nicely astronomers, military personnel, and illustrated by the notorious case of the police officers, are not immune to such alleged UFO landing in Rendlesham The fourth kind misperceptions – as illustrated in several Forest in 1980, often referred to as One of the earliest cases of alleged human well-documented cases (see e.g. ‘Britain’s Roswell’. One aspect of this abduction by aliens, referred to as a close Bartholomew & Howard, 1998; complex case was the claim that both encounter of the fourth kind (CE4), was Brookesmith, 1995, 1996; Clarke & indentations in the ground and raised that of Brazilian farmer Antonio Villas

NY: Prometheus. paralysis. In S. Della Sala (Ed.) Tall Goodman, G.S., Quas, J.A. & Redlich, Holden, K.J. & French, C.C. (2002). Alien French, C.C. (2001). Alien abductions. In tales about the mind and brain A.D. (1998). The ethics of conducting abduction experiences. Cognitive R. Roberts & D. Groome (Eds.) (pp.380–398). Oxford: Oxford ‘false memory’ research with Neuropsychiatry, 7, 163–178. Parapsychology (pp.102–116). London: University Press. children. Applied Cognitive Hopkins, B. (1987). Intruders: The Arnold. French, C.C., Santomauro, J., Hamilton, Psychology, 12, 207–217. incredible visitations at Copley Woods. French, C.C. (2003). Fantastic memories. V. et al. (2008). Psychological aspects Hines, T. (2003). Pseudoscience and the New York: Random House. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, of the alien contact experience. paranormal (2nd edn). Amherst, NY: Klass, P.J. (1983). UFOs: The public 153–174. Cortex, 44, 1387–1395. Prometheus. deceived. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus. French, C.C. & Santomauro, J. (2007). French, C.C. & Stone, A. (2014). Hoggart, S. & Hutchinson, M. (1995). Klass, P.J. (1989). UFO abductions: A Something wicked this way comes: Anomalistic psychology. Basingstoke: Bizarre beliefs. London: Richard dangerous game. Updated edition. Causes and interpretations of sleep Palgrave Macmillan. Cohen Books. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus.

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Boas who claimed that in 1957 he was experiences. The second, by a New York dragged into a spaceship by aliens and artist turned ufologist, described his own forced to have sex with an attractive research with abductees, often involving female alien (who made barking sounds the use of hypnotic regression. Hopkins during intercourse). claimed that his evidence showed that the The first alien abduction claim to aliens were engaged in a sinister cross- receive worldwide media attention was breeding project with the intention of that of Betty and Barney Hill. The Hills producing human-alien hybrids. Much to claimed that in September 1961 they had the surprise of many, in 1994, Professor spotted a UFO while driving from John Mack, a psychiatrist at Harvard Montreal to New Hampshire and that University and a Pulitzer Prize winner, they had arrived home much later than published a book on alien abduction expected, unable to account for a full two claiming that ‘these accounts are not hours. Betty then started having dreams hallucinations, not dreams, but real about being taken on board a spaceship experiences’. by aliens and being medically examined. Although many psychologists and Alien abduction claims constitute an Years later, the couple consulted Dr psychiatrists would disagree with Mack’s intriguing phenomenon in need of explanation Benjamin Simon, a psychiatrist, with conclusions, there is little doubt that alien respect to problems in their marriage. abduction claims constitute an intriguing experienced alien contact (French & They were regressed back to that fateful phenomenon in need of explanation. It is Stone, 2014). How are we to account for night in 1961 and apparently recovered certainly the case that speculation on this this? detailed memories of their car being topic far outweighs actual empirical The most obvious explanation is that stopped by aliens at a roadblock and both evidence, yet there is enough of the latter they are suffering from false memories, being taken on board an alien craft and to support plausible psychological and there is increasing evidence to being medically examined. Although explanations for the majority of alien support such a claim (e.g. Clancy, 2005; there is little reason to doubt the Hills’ abduction and contact claims without any French, 2003; French & Stone, 2014; sincerity, there is every reason to doubt need to involve ET. We should be very McNally, 2012). A number of individual the accuracy of their account (see Klass, wary, however, of proposing any kind of difference variables, such as dissociativity, 1989, for a detailed critique). It is worth ‘one size fits all’ blanket explanation for absorption, and fantasy-proneness, have noting that Dr Simon did not believe the such a rich and multifaceted been shown to be positively correlated account produced during hypnotic phenomenon: for the interested reader with both susceptibility to false memories regression (Klass, 1989), and it is now there are numerous detailed reviews and the tendency to report ostensibly generally accepted that hypnotic covering a wide range of psychological paranormal experiences of all kinds regression, far from being a useful factors (e.g. Appelle, 1996; Appelle et al., (French, 2003). Several studies (reviewed technique to recover true memories, is 2014; Baker, 1992; Bartholomew & by French & Stone, 2014) demonstrate very likely to result in false memories Howard, 1998; Blackmore, 1994; that those claiming alien contact tend to (Baker, 1992; Spanos, 1996). However, Brookesmith, 1998; Devereux & score higher on such variables in at the time this account was taken much Brookesmith, 1997; French, 2001; Holden comparison to control groups. more seriously in many quarters than & French, 2002; Newman & Baumeister, Another approach is to compare previous tales from contactees and many 1996, 1998; Randle et al., 1999; susceptibility to false memories in groups of the features reported – a UFO sighting, Rutkowski, 2000; Showalter, 1997; of individuals with conscious memories ‘missing time’, memories being ‘recovered’ Spanos, 1996). of being abducted by aliens, those who through dreams and hypnotic regression – There is little doubt that deliberate believe they have been abducted by aliens have recurred routinely in subsequent hoaxes do occur (e.g., Klass, 1989; Korff, but cannot remember the experience, and alien abduction accounts. 1995), and sometimes people suffering others who do not believe they have been In 1987 two bestselling books served from serious psychopathology will make abducted by aliens. The Deese–Roediger– to raise public awareness of such claims claims. Yet there is also general agreement McDermott (DRM) task (Deese, 1959; even higher: Communion by Whitley amongst both proponents and opponents Roediger & McDermott, 1995) presents Strieber and Intruders by Budd Hopkins. of the ET hypothesis that the vast series of associated words but with a The first, from the pen of a successful majority of those claiming alien critical lure word missing (e.g. the words horror fiction writer, was the allegedly abduction experiences are sane, sincere snore, dream, snooze, blanket, pillow, bed true story of his own terrifying abduction people who genuinely believe they have might be presented but the word sleep is

Korff, K.K. (1995). The Billy Meier story: Psychopathology, 3, 2–16. KY: Kentucky University Press. Roediger, H.L., III, & McDermott, K.B. Spaceships of the Pleiades. Amherst, Newman, L.S. & Baumeister, R.F. (1996). Otgaar, H., Candel, I., Merckelbach, H. & (1995). Creating false memories. NY: Prometheus. Toward an explanation of the UFO Wade, K.A. (2009). Abducted by a Journal of Experimental Psychology: Lawson, A.H. (1984). Perinatal imagery in abduction phenomenon. UFO. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, UFO abduction reports. Journal of Psychological Inquiry, 7, 99–126. 115–125. 803–814. Psychohistory, 12, 211–239. Newman, L.S. & Baumeister, R.F. (1998). Randle, K.D., Estes, R. & Cone, W.P. Rutkowski, C. (2000). Abductions and Mack, J.E. (1994). Abduction. New York: Abducted by aliens. In S.J. Lynn & (1999). The abduction enigma. New aliens. London: Fusion Press. Scribner. K.M. McConkey (Eds.) Truth in York: Forge. Santomauro, J. & French, C.C. (2009). McNally, R.J. (2012). Explaining ‘memories’ memory (pp.284–303). New York: Randles, J., Roberts, A. & Clarke, J. Terror in the night. The Psychologist, of space alien abduction and past Guilford Press. (2000). The UFOs that never were. 22, 672–675. lives. Journal of Experimental Nickell, J. (1994). Camera clues. Lexington, London: London House. Sheaffer, R. (1998). UFO sightings: The

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not). The number of critical lure words reported is an indication of susceptibility to false memories. Clancy et al. (2002) ‘Abducting’ children reported that a group with conscious memories of alien abduction Otgaar et al. (2009) demonstrated that a considerable number of young children (aged either demonstrated the greatest susceptibility 7–8 or 11–12) readily accepted the suggestion that they themselves had been abducted by and a group who did not believe aliens at the age of four, especially if they were told that the researchers had been informed themselves to have ever been abducted of this event by the child’s mother and the child was shown a fake newspaper report demonstrated the least. It should be suggesting that such abductions were fairly commonplace. The children were only classified noted, however, that we have found as having false memories of the event if they provided additional details of their memory of that although individuals reporting alien the event. contact scored higher than a control This is an important study, being one of only two (the other being that of Lawson, 1984) group on dissociativity, absorption, that have attempted to directly implant false memories of alien abduction. However, paranormal belief and experience, implanting such false memories, especially in children, clearly raises some serious ethical self-reported psychic ability, fantasy issues. The only details provided by Otgaar et al. of the debriefing procedures used in this proneness, and tendency to hallucinate, study are that the children ‘were debriefed using ethical guidelines for false memory research there was no difference in scores on the with children (Goodman, Quas, & Redlich, 1998)’ (p.120). This is somewhat ironic given that DRM task (French et al., 2008). one of the recommendations for ethical false memory research with children stated by What about this interesting category Goodman et al. is as follows: ‘Although often there is little room for extraneous detail in of claimants who believe that they have scholarly reports, providing readers with the procedures used for debriefing is important in experienced alien contact even though controversial areas of research’ (p.215). they cannot actually remember it? They typically do so because they have had one or more anomalous experiences that have led them to suspect that they may have including seeing lights moving around the simply imagine that they had indeed been had such contact but that the aliens have room or grotesque figures, hearing voices, abducted, the accounts they produced then wiped their memories for the rest of footsteps or mechanical sounds, and were remarkably similar to those the event. Such ideas are widely believed feeling that one is being dragged out of produced by people who claimed that within the ufological community. These bed. We have a reasonably good they really had been abducted, even down experiences include seeing a UFO, having understanding of what causes sleep to the level of minor details. a ‘missing time’ experience, or finding paralysis in terms of a disruption to the puzzling scars on one’s body, all of which normal sleep cycle. During rapid eye- in fact could have quite mundane movement (REM) sleep, the phase of The truth is in there explanations (French & Stone, 2014) – sleep typically associated with vivid Arthur C. Clarke famously said: ‘Two but perhaps the single most common dreams, the muscles of the body are possibilities exist: either we are alone cause of such suspicions is sleep paralysis actually paralysed, presumably to prevent in the universe or we are not. Both are (French & Santomauro, 2007; the sleeper from acting out the actions of equally terrifying.’ More recently, Stephen Santomauro & French, 2009). the dream. However, the mechanisms Hawking has warned against trying to Sleep paralysis is very common controlling the sleep cycle can sometimes make contact with any alien civilisations amongst the general population and go slightly awry. To put it simply, it is as in case they respond by conquering and consists of a temporary paralysis though the brain has woken up but the colonising our home planet. However, occurring just as one is about to fall body has not. This can result in terrifying human curiosity is such that we cannot asleep or as one wakes up. It typically episodes of sleep paralysis during which help but yearn to know whether we are lasts a few seconds and is a little the sufferer is aware of their surroundings alone in the cosmos or not. Indeed, disconcerting, but nothing more. but cannot move – and creepy dream Hawking himself has backed an ambitious However, in a minority of cases it can imagery is seeping through into wakeful $100 million programme to scan the skies include a variety of other features that consciousness. searching for evidence of ET – listening can result in a truly terrifying experience. Whatever the cause of the original but not sending out any signals to give These include a strong sense of an evil suspicion that one may have experienced away the location of our planet. Should presence and difficulty breathing due to alien contact, the next step for many is to we ever prove that there are other a feeling of pressure on the chest. seek the services of a hypnotherapist in intelligent civilisations, our understanding Hallucinations may also be experienced order to ‘recover’ the memories of the rest of our place in the universe will be of the episode. It is worth noting here that transformed dramatically. For now whether one is attempting to recover though, the evidence relating to alleged memories of alien abduction, past lives, close encounters would suggest, with or ritualised Satanic abuse, the same apologies to The X-Files, that the truth is evidence. Amherst, NY: Prometheus. Showalter, E. (1997). Hystories: Hysterical techniques are used and typically deliver not ‘out there’ but within our own heads. epidemics and modern culture. London: exactly the type of memories that were Picador. anticipated. The available evidence Spanos, N.P. (1996). Multiple identities and strongly suggests that these are false Christopher C. French false memories. Washington, DC: memories (French & Stone, 2014). It is is at the Anomalistic American Psychological Association. interesting to note that when Lawson Psychology Research Unit, Strieber, W. (1987). Communion: A true story. (1984) hypnotised eight volunteers with Goldsmiths, University of New York: Morrow. minimal prior knowledge of UFOs, none London Watson, N. (2013). UFO investigations manual. Yeovil: Haynes. of whom believed they had ever been [email protected] abducted by aliens, and asked them to

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 815 There had been earlier prototypes, such as a masterful hoax by the New York Sun in 1835 that convinced readers that civilised bat-like humanoids were Encountering cavorting amidst pleasant surroundings on the Moon (Goodman, 2008) and motivated illusions of artificial canals extraterrestrial intelligence on Mars (Sheehan, 1988). But Welles’ broadcast was fresh in mind in when LOOKING BACK LOOKING Albert A. Harrison looks for lessons from history a report was prepared by the Brookings Institution for the US Congress on the peaceful uses of outer space (Committee on Science and Astronautics, 1961). Although the report focused on topics ow can researchers educate their in New Jersey, vanquishing the militia, such as communications and weather guesses about human responses and advancing inexorably on Manhattan. satellites and space probes, it also made Hto extraterrestrial life? The analysis People were frightened, and newspapers brief reference to the possibility of of precedents and prototypes is one had a field day claiming that widespread discovering extraterrestrial intelligence. prominent strategy. panic resulted. The broadcast inspired one Panelists could imagine ‘our’ astronauts Prototypes are situations and of the earliest field studies in social meeting ‘their’ astronauts, but also events that with varying degrees of psychology (Cantril, 1940). acknowledged that contact could come convincingness approximate different Yet newspaper accounts of the War about through microwave observation. contact scenarios, and models based of the Worlds incident were overstated The report expressed apprehensions on them point researchers in promising (Harrison, 1997). Most listeners did not about public reactions and urged further directions. As American astronomer and take the broadcast at face value, and studies of how events unfold when author Steven J. Dick (2013, p.227) some, alarmed by the opening lines, different cultures first meet one another. points out, analogues offer both ‘promise conducted reality checks and were and perils’, depending on the relieved to degree of correspondence discover, for The culture encounter model between the prototype and the “Are sailing ships on the example, that Under the culture encounter model the target event. He adds that horizon a new kind of fish, other stations arrival of Europeans in the New World, prototypes should not be as swimming gods, or were maintaining the rapid spread of colonialism broad and sweeping as to be floating houses?” their normal throughout the world, and the relentless meaningless, nor so specific as programming. subjugation of Native American Indians to generate false expectations Given perceptions become prototypes for understanding that the prototype will of the situation, some reactions to extraterrestrials. Because precisely mirror the target event. The illustrations of panic were descriptions extraterrestrial civilisations are expected use of precedents and prototypes is not of reasonable self-protective and even to be vastly older than our own, they are unusual in psychology: research in altruistic actions: extricating a fiancée granted technological (but not necessarily Antarctica and other spaceflight-analogous from the danger zone, sealing doors and moral) superiority. As history shows environments has advanced our windows to retard the seepage of poison technological inequality poses a risk of understanding of psychosocial adaptation gas, and reporting to armories for duty. subjugation, exploitation, dehumanisation to spaceflight, despite differences between Decades later, a conceptual replication and traumatisation. the two environments (Bishop, 2013). based on a fictionalised account of a James F. Strange describes how reactor meltdown in Denmark frightened technologically disadvantaged cultures are about eight percent of the listening likely to respond to first contact (Strange, The instant crisis model audience and about one percent 2007). Initially, indigenous people are Without doubt, the best-known prototype responded behaviorally (Rosengren et al., likely to be baffled and confused, because for contact is Orson Welles’ War of the 1975). Nobody panicked, but media the indigenous peoples have no idea what Worlds broadcast on Halloween of 1938. accounts spread the impression that panic they are seeing. Are sailing ships on the This theatrical radio play was presented as was intense and widespread and that the horizon a new kind of fish, swimming a live news broadcast of Martians landing police became dysfunctional. gods, or floating houses? Curiosity is

Bainbridge, W.S. (2011). Cultural beliefs In D.A. Vakoch (Ed.) On orbit and Books. (2011). Alien visitation, extra- about extraterrestrial intelligence. In beyond: psychological perspectives on Committee on Science and Astronautics terrestrial life, and paranormal D.A. Vakoch and A.A. Harrison [Eds.] human spaceflight (pp.25–50) Berlin: (1961). Proposed studies on the beliefs. Journal of Scientific Civilizations beyond Earth: Springer Verlag. implications of peaceful space activities Exploration 25(4), 699–720.

references Extraterrestrial life and society. Cantril, H. (1940). The invasion from Mars: for human affairs. Prepared for the Dick, S.J. (2013). The societal impact of (pp.118–140). New York: Berghahn. A study in the psychology of panic. National Aeronautics and Space extraterrestrial life. In D.A. Vakoch Baird, J. (1987). The inner limits of outer Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Administration by the Brookings (Ed.) Astrobiology, history and space. Hanover, NH: The University Press. Institution and presented to the US psychology (pp.227–256). Heidelberg: Press of New England. Colavito, J. (2005). The cult of alien gods: House of Representatives, Eighty Springer-Verlag. Bishop, S.L. (2013). From Earth analogues H.P. Lovecraft and extraterrestrial pop Seventh Congress (24 March 1961). Goodman, M. (2008). The sun and the to space: Learning how to boldly go. culture. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Dagnall, N., Drinkwater, K. & Parker, A. moon. New York: Basic Books.

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useful, because it helps them learn more. by selective perception and biased a rich source of research material. The Soon they begin responding to the visitors assimilation. emphasis is less on instantaneous impact on the basis of assigned identities. That is, Biases and inaccuracies in standard than on the long-term infiltration and they think about the visitors in terms of versions of history are a significant assimilation of ideas into the receiving entities that they have encountered, problem for this model. Many standard culture. It could take centuries before the cultural stories, and myths. They may history texts have been written to flatter full impact of contact is known. wonder if they are witnessing the arrival leaders, and build national morale by of demons or the return of the gods. In denigrating opponents (Restall, 2003). first encounters assigned identities are The influences of allies, turncoats and The SETI model mistaken identities, since they are based lucky breaks tend to get lost; deceitful There are at least three close on familiar ideas and imagination rather behaviours and atrocities are ignored or approximations of SETI detections. The than reliable knowledge. Once assigned downplayed; and the true cost of victory first two prototypes, from 1965 and 1967 identities are formed they are supported is hidden. Still, a skilled ethnographer respectively, were the discovery of quasars focusing on a and pulsars. In each case, unexpected geographically and findings led to speculation that they were temporally limited and intelligently controlled interstellar carefully defined first beacons. In the discovery of pulsars, four encounter could carry this similar highly perplexing objects were model forward. From a found and labeled LGM-1 to LGM-4, with risk analysis and disaster LGM standing for Little Green Men management perspective (Penny, 2013). These appellations turned it would be premature to from funny to worrisome as the discard this model (Neal, extraterrestrial hypotheses remained 2014), yet it is often standing while competing hypotheses fell. downplayed because One researcher considered burning the astronomers consider results; perhaps later, when people were physical contact unlikely. better prepared, another astronomer would rediscover these beacons and reveal their true nature to the public The Information (Penny, 2013). Both quasars and pulsars diffusion model are natural objects, but internal The information diffusion discussions on how to manage the model is based on the developing situation informed broader dispersal of ideas over discussions of how to manage the time and across cultures verification and news of an actual (Dick, 2013). Sample detection (Penny, 2013). prototypes include the In late 1998, on his Coast to Coast Copernican and Darwinian talk radio show, commentator Art Bell revolutions, the announced that an anonymous amateur exportation of the Arabic astronomer had intercepted an numerical system to extraterrestrial transmission. The story Europe (Dick, 2013), was picked up by the BBC and gained the ‘diffusion of African- international attention. Scientists, American musical including Seth Shostak, strongly influences and slang suspected that the detection was a hoax, I Albert A. Harrison was a Professor of Psychology at the language into dominant and attempts to confirm the discovery University of California, Davis, who explored the societal American culture’ failed (Shostak, 2009). The story ramifications of astrobiology and the Search for (Strange, 2007, p.239), persisted (dwindling in importance) for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). We were sad to hear that and the spread of literacy several days before it was refuted. he passed away shortly after submitting this article, which we and popular interest in Afterwards, Shostak expressed vexation publish here unedited in his honour. See www.seti.org/seti- science in late Tsarist and gratitude, the latter because it ‘added institute/al-harrison-1949-2015 for more information. Russia. History provides a modicum of real experience to the

Harrison, A.A. (1997). After contact: the 369, 656–668. Neal, M. (2014). Preparing for Sturveson, D. (1975). The Barseback human response to extraterrestrial life. Harrison, A.A. & Elms, A.C. (1990). extraterrestrial contact. Risk ‘panic’: A radio programme as a New York: Plenum. Psychology and the search for Management, 16(2), 63–87. negative summary event. Acta Harrison, A.A. (2007). Starstruck: Cosmic extraterrestrial intelligence. Penny, A.J. (2013). The SETI episode in Sociologica, 18, 303–321. visions in science, religion, and folklore. Behavioral Science, 35, 207–216. the 1967 discovery of pulsars. Sheehan, W. (1988). Planets and New York: Berghahn. Janoff-Bullman, R. (1992). Shattered European Physical Journal H, 38, perception: Telescopic views and Harrison, A.A. (2011). Fear, assumptions: Towards a new theory of 535–547. interpretations 1809– 1909. Tucson, AZ: pandemonium, equanimity and trauma. New York: Free Press. Restall, M. (2003). Seven myths of the University of Arizona Press. delight: Human responses to extra- Koltko-Rivera, M.E. (2004). The Spanish conquest. New York: Oxford Shostak S. (2009). Confessions of an alien terrestrial life. Philosophical psychology of worldviews. Review of University Press. hunter: A scientist’ s search for extra- Transactions of the Royal Society A, General Psychology, 8, 3–58. Rosengren, K.W., Arvidson, P. & terrestrial intelligence. Washington,

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 817 out of this world

endless theorizing about what would happen in the case of a “hit”’ (Shostak, 2009, pp.245–246). There are several reasons to expect that reactions to an orthodox SETI detection – that is, of a carrier wave or ‘dial tone’ – will be muted (Harrison, 2011). However, conditions could change rapidly if a specific message was ascribed to the transmission, and the media and interpretation industries gained momentum.

Culture and worldviews as organising concepts Historians and anthropologists have led the way in most discussions of the effects of the discovery of extraterrestrials on humans. There are many topics in psychology that could contribute to the overall endeavour: anthropomorphic, ethnocentric and egocentric thinking; attribution of motives and intentions; Psychologists’ interests need no longer be limited to purported alien encounters and person perception; paranoia and pronoia; abduction experiences, conspiracy thinking, and flying saucer religions defense mechanisms, intergroup relations; rumour transmission, and much more Anthropologists rally around ‘culture’ worldview defenses lead to a variety of (Baird 1987; Harrison, 1997, 2007; as an organising concept for their work. psychological and social pathologies, from Harrison & Elms, 1990; Neal, 2014). Human encounters with aliens can be simple denial to schizophrenia, from own The current lack of involvement on the construed as meetings of radically group favouritism to war. Real or ascribed part of a profession that once fought to different cultures, perhaps leading to alien worldviews could threaten our distinguish itself from religion and the ‘culture shock on steroids’. Psychologists foundational beliefs about physical, social, occult is understandable. Today, might consider worldviews as an and psychological realities. researchers separate organising concept, What might be the effects on human openness to the possibility not in the common worldviews if their technology seemed of extraterrestrial life, which “Human encounters with vaguely descriptive liked magic, if their science contradicted is not paranormal, from the aliens can be construed sense of the word but our science, if their philosophy belief that they are here, as meetings of radically as a psychological undermined our religious beliefs, if their which is paranormal in the construct with morality struck us as abhorrent, or if sense that it is intermingled different cultures” structural and everything they said or did seemed with other paranormal dynamic properties that nonsensical? What if, to borrow from beliefs (such as astrology are amenable to empirical science fiction and horror writer H.P. and reincarnation), magical thinking, research (Koltko-Rivera, 2004). In Lovecraft, we inferred that the universe is and deficient reality testing (Bainbridge, psychology, worldviews are cognitive not as nicely organised as we like to think 2011; Dagnall et al., 2011). Psychologists’ frameworks that structure our (Colavito, 2005)? The mind does not do interests need no longer be limited to understanding of reality and give us the well under prolonged conditions of purported alien encounters and abduction tools we need to navigate in an uncertain uncertainty and confusion. Of course, experiences, conspiracy thinking, and and potentially dangerous environment extraterrestrials and humans could have flying saucer religions. Today it is (Janoff-Bullman, 1992; Zimbardo, 1999). compatible or even synergistic ideas perfectly acceptable for psychologists to They set and enforce standards of truth (Dick, 2013). Still, psychological think about imaginary beings – or at least, and falsehood, frame questions and worldview theory and research, pegged how other people think about them and answers, and influence reality testing. to a few distinctive scenarios such as the possible consequences of this. Worldviews rest on self-serving prototypes described above, might ease assumptions that create the illusion us into a post-contact era. of living in a safe, understandable, and If and when the extraterrestrial manageable world where we can feel good intelligence is discovered there may be about ourselves (Janoff-Bullman, 1992). few details about what has been found: DC: National Geographic. Strange, J.F. (2007). Observations from Threats come from people who are not who they are, what they want, and what archaeology and religious studies ‘like us’, information that runs contrary the discovery means for us. To satisfy our on first contact and ETI evidence. In to our understanding about how things curiosity and control anxiety we are likely D.G. Tumminia (Ed.) Alien worlds work, and from traumatic and anomalous to draw on preconceptions, expectations, (pp.239–248). Syracuse NY: experiences (Zimbardo, 1999). attitudes and prejudices, and then seek Syracuse University Press. Discontinuity Theory (Zimbardo, 1999) validation from like-minded others. Zimbardo, P.G. (1999). Discontinuity and the Shattered Assumptions Theory of Looking to ‘inner space’ is likely to be as theory. Advances in Experimental Trauma (Janoff-Bullman, 1992) identify important as turning our gaze to outer Social Psychology, 32, 345–486. threats to worldviews and how the space, and problems that result will be activation and failure of ego and largely of our own making.

818 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Annual Conference 2016 East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham 26–28 April Themes: Faces Ageing Impact Wellbeing Submission deadline 21 October

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‘big picture’ pull-out www.thepsychologist.org.uk i Motion illusions

BIG PICTURE in static patterns

Image and words from research by Johannes Zanker (Royal Holloway University of London)

This picture demonstrates how motion illusions can be experienced when looking at static images that have no physical motion content (which we would perceive in movies or natural scenes). A range of such illusions has been demonstrated in many different synthetic, carefully constructed patterns, such as the seemingly interleaved ring patterns in the border of the image, which can be perceived as spinning (initially designed by Fraser (1908) as tilt illusion, and elaborated and put into motion in many versions by Kitaoka: tinyurl.com/oennyjm). The conundrum of static patterns can be resolved by taking into account small involuntary eye movements (Zanker & Walker, 2004), which is also the basis of perceiving motion in various examples of Op art, such as Bridget Riley’s painting 'Fall' (Tate Gallery, London), a radial variant of which is shown in the centre of the image. A unifying computation framework has been suggested as an attempt to understand commonalities and differences of static motion illusions in terms of well- established mechanisms of biological motion processing in combination with eye movements that affect the spatio-temporal properties of the images entering the visual system of the observer (Zanker, 2004).

Fraser, J. (1908). A new visual illusion of direction. British Journal of Psychology, 2(3), 307. Zanker, J.M. (2004). Looking at Op art from a computational viewpoint. Spatial Vision, 17(1–2), 75–94. Zanker, J.M. & Walker, R. (2004). A new look at Op art: Towards a simple explanation of illusory motion. Naturwissenschaften, 91, 149–156. www.thepsychologist.org.uk BPS Textbooks in Psychology No other series bears the BPS seal of approval

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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 819 image or film these ratings are similar to controls (Cohen et al., 2011). If you can experience as much pleasure as others why would you report that you don’t? The answer may lie in the temporal experience of pleasure (Kring & The flat landscape Caponigro, 2010). Questionnaires and NEW VOICES interviews tend to assess consummatory Clementine Edwards considers emotional deficits in schizophrenia, in the latest in pleasure (how much you enjoy something our series for budding writers (see www.bps.org.uk/newvoices) at the time), and films are better at measuring anticipatory pleasure (how much you look forward to something). The problem in schizophrenia seems to Indifference seems to be the be with anticipation, and this poses a new external sign of their state… The It has also been assumed in the past that question: If you enjoy activities as much will... disturbed in a number of ways, they are only present due to antipsychotic as others, why wouldn’t you look forward but above all by the breakdown of the medications or comorbid depression. to them and do them again? emotions. The patients appear lazy However, the evidence shows that My initial assumption was that and negligent because they no longer negative symptoms are independent the general population are good at have the urge to do anything either of side-effects, positive symptoms and anticipating how much they’re going to of their own initiative or at the bidding comorbid depression and that they appear enjoy something, and individuals with of another. (Bleuler, 1950/1908). early on in schizophrenia (e.g. Blanchard schizophrenia are not. However, multiple & Cohen, 2006; Loas et al., 2009). Once studies suggest we’re not very good at an individual with schizophrenia is less predicting our future emotions at all found this quote in the early days paranoid or their voices have faded they (e.g. Gilbert & Wilson, 2007). When of my PhD. I often return to it as a are considered to be on the road to anticipating a scenario we run a brief Ireminder of the little progress we’ve recovery. But this process is so often simulation of how it will go in our head made in treating schizophrenia, a disorder stalled, sometimes for decades, by and use our emotional reaction to this that affects 1 per cent of the population, negative symptoms. simulation to judge how we’ll feel during over the last 65 years. You might have People often ask why I chose negative the event itself: we are pleasantly excited expected to read something about hearing symptoms as the focus of my PhD. After about the party at the weekend because voices or paranoia – the unusual all, other research areas are more popular every time we run our simulation of it experiences known as positive symptoms. and communication difficulties coupled we feel excited. But these simulations are Negative symptoms are a loss of normal with the low motivation of those affected biased towards our best, worst and most experiences, something that is less can make them a challenging group to recent experiences. This means not only obvious but often the main cause of the work with. Perhaps it was because my that our predictions can over- or long-term consequences of the illness. initial reading had shocked me – the underestimate what we’ll actually feel, but This cluster of symptoms includes low papers repeatedly stated that negative that they change all the time as we have motivation, social withdrawal, low symptoms were linked to worse outcomes new experiences that influence these pleasure, slow speech and reduced facial and longer illness in people with simulations. There are many benefits that expressions and gestures. There are still schizophrenia (Foussias et al., 2011; Loas may arise from inaccurate predictions of no treatments targeting negative et al., 2009; Rocca et al., 2014), yet there emotions; for example, if we overestimate symptoms; in fact, the antipsychotics are no treatments available. I felt I had how happy we’ll feel after a run or once given to most people with a diagnosis identified an area in desperate need of we’ve done the laundry we are more of schizophrenia may make them worse. more research. likely to do that activity. Underestimating The majority of people I have met whilst Part of the delay in treatment pleasure might also be important for doing my research are socially isolated development has been due to a lack of motivation – as the saying goes, ‘a and engage in very few activities, and clarity surrounding the causes of negative pessimist is never disappointed’, and this many struggle to care for themselves. symptoms. People with schizophrenia may preserve motivation for the future. Negative symptoms are often report that they enjoy everyday activities Given that we’re not very good at considered less important than the less than controls, but if we ask them to predicting our emotions anyway, what positive symptoms of schizophrenia. rate their pleasure whilst viewing an makes this even more difficult for people

Blanchard, J.J. & Cohen, A.S. (2006). The 156(1), 60–62. Doll, B., Waltz, J., Cockburn, J., et al. 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.091 structure of negative symptoms Choi, S-H., Lee, H., Ku, J. et al. (2014). (2014). Reduced susceptibility to Farreny, A., Aguado, J., Ochoa, S. et al. within schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Neural basis of anhedonia as a failure confirmation bias in schizophrenia. (2013). The role of negative symptoms Bulletin, 32(2), 238–245. to predict pleasantness in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral in the context of cognitive remediation

references Bleuler, E. (1950). Dementia praecox or the schizophrenia. World Journal of Neuroscience, 14(2), 715–728. for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia group of schizophrenias. New York: Biological Psychiatry, 15(7), 525–533. Edwards, C.J., Cella, M., Tarrier, N. & Research, 150(1), 58–63. International Universities Press. Cohen, A.S., Najolia, G.M., Brown, L.A. & Wykes, T. (2015). Predicting the future Foussias, G., Mann, S., Zakzanis, K.K. et Cella, M., Reeder, C. & Wykes, T. (2014). It Minor, K.S. (2011). The state-trait in schizophrenia: The discrepancy al. (2011). Prediction of longitudinal is all in the factors: Effects of disjunction of anhedonia in between anticipatory and functional outcomes in schizophrenia. cognitive remediation on symptom schizophrenia. Clinical Psychology consummatory pleasure. Psychiatry Schizophrenia Research, 132(1), 24–27. dimensions. Schizophrenia Research, Review, 31(3), 440–448. Research. doi: Gard, D.E., Kring, A.M., Gard, M.G. et al.

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with schizophrenia? It has been either no difference or higher designed to improve neurocognitive consistently shown that individuals anticipatory pleasure in individuals with abilities such as attention, working with schizophrenia struggle to learn from schizophrenia compared with controls memory, cognitive flexibility and positive experiences or rewards (Strauss (Choi et al., 2014; Trémeau et al., 2010; executive functioning, has been shown et al., 2013). However, when given Trémeau et al., 2014). to be effective in tackling deficits, with negative feedback (in laboratory contexts Unfortunately, all of these studies some studies reporting secondary effects this often means losing some money) measure anticipatory and consummatory on negative symptoms (Cella et al., 2014; they learn similarly to controls. It seems pleasure using a variety of different Farreny et al., 2013). If this could be that individuals with schizophrenia methods including images, adapted to target simulations and struggle to update or change their future questionnaires, films and daily pleasure anticipation it may prove effective. Others expectations on the basis of positive ratings. As a result, it is difficult to draw have suggested that individuals with experiences. We know how sensitive specific conclusions and identify schizophrenia have ‘low-pleasure beliefs’, treatment targets. This problem believing that they do not enjoy things to has been the focus of my research, the extent where it affects their and I have tackled it using a task anticipation. This could be due to a that shows people images, asks history of experiencing few pleasurable them how they feel viewing each activities and may be targeted by one, and to anticipate how they’ll cognitive behavioural therapy (Grant et feel when they see it again. al., 2012). Preliminary findings suggest that One way of targeting anticipatory both controls and individuals with difficulties may be to use the individual’s schizophrenia show the same bias own real-time reports of their enjoyment, in anticipation: overanticipating recorded on an app, as a tool to motivate less pleasant images and them to repeat that activity again. This is underanticipating highly pleasant also potentially overcomes the problems images. This pattern was, however, associated with retrospective ratings of significantly more pronounced in pleasure. I encountered a lot of pessimism the schizophrenia group, who did about my chances of recruiting not seem to differentiate between individuals with high negative symptoms Negative symptoms are often considered less high- and low-pleasure experiences to take part in a study which involved important than the positive symptoms of (Edwards et al., 2015). carrying a device around for six days. schizophrenia I was struck by how these I was pleasantly surprised when many of findings of flat rather than reduced my participants were very happy to help anticipation is to the influence of recent anticipatory pleasure resounded with my and often reported a benefit from the or important events, so an inability to experience of talking to individuals prompts to think about their emotions. learn from these may cause problems. experiencing high negative symptoms. I have high hopes that such technology But individuals with schizophrenia could When asked about the future, these could help people struggling with also lack the usual biases influencing individuals are not pessimistic or negative negative symptoms out of the flat their simulations, so they are more in their reply. They discuss an upcoming landscape they see around them, and into accurate when predicting and therefore holiday or family occasion with the same the world of deep ravines and glorious less motivated. Indeed, using a gambling enthusiasm as their next blood test or summits that the rest of us try our best task, individuals with schizophrenia were doing the washing-up. Life seems to have to navigate. Helping them anticipate the less susceptible to the biases that caused lost its extremes, and the landscape looks highs and even the lows is a good place controls to behave irrationally (Doll et al., very flat all around them; no dark ravines to start. 2014). for them to fall down but also no Alternatively there could be mountains to climb and admire the view Clementine Edwards is a different biases operating in people with from the top. It is easy to see, given these PhD student at the Institute schizophrenia that result in consistently circumstances, how they often end up of Psychiatry, Psychology reduced anticipatory pleasure, as reported isolated and struggle to motivate & Neuroscience, King’s in a study asking participants to rate their themselves. How could we intervene to College London anticipated enjoyment of activities (Gard change this pattern? [email protected] et al., 2007). However, studies report Cognitive remediation therapy,

(2007). Anhedonia in schizophrenia: with schizophrenia. Archives of to other causes of death. Trémeau, F., Antonius, D., Cacioppo, J.T., distinctions between anticipatory and General Psychiatry, 69(2), 121–127. Psychopathology 42(3), 185–189. et al. (2010). Anticipated, on-line and consummatory pleasure. Schizophrenia Kring, A.M. & Caponigro, J.M. (2010). Rocca, P., Montemagni, C., Zappia, S., et remembered positive experience in Research, 93(1–3), 253–260. Emotion in schizophrenia. Current al. (2014). Negative symptoms and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Gilbert, D.T. & Wilson, T.D. (2007). Directions in Psychological Science everyday functioning in schizophrenia. Research, 122(1–3), 199–205. Prospection: Experiencing the future. 19(4), 255–259. Psychiatry Research 218(3), 284–289. Trémeau, F., Antonius, D., Nolan, K., et al. Science, 317(5843), 1351–1354. Loas, G., Azi, A., Noisette, C. et al. (2009). Strauss, G.P., Waltz, J.A. & Gold, J.M. (2014). Immediate affective motivation Grant, P.M., Huh, G.A., Perivoliotis, D. et Fourteen-year prospective follow-up (2014). A review of reward processing is not impaired in schizophrenia. al. (2012). Randomized trial to study of positive and negative and motivational impairment in Schizophrenia Research, 159(1), evaluate the efficacy of cognitive symptoms in chronic schizophrenic schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 157–163. therapy for low-functioning patients patients dying from suicide compared 40(Suppl 2), S107–S116.

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 821 Research. Digested. Free.

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SGCP 5th European Coaching Psychology Conference 2015 Breaking New Ground Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December 2015 at the Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury This Conference will inspire collaborations in research evidence, professional accreditation and training routes. It will provide a platform for setting the aspirations and agenda for both coaching and coaching psychology for the coming years. Keynote speakers Dr Tatiana Bachkirova; Dr Dasha Grajfoner; Dr Suzy Green; Prof Roger Steare; Donna Willis; Dr Helen Turnbull There will be two days of impressive speakers, exciting and new topics and a broad range of master classes, skills workshops and scientific papers covering the following themes: Leadership, Executive and Business Coaching Positive Psychology Coaching (including resilience) Tools & Techniques in Coaching Psychology including CPD & Peer Practice Coaching Psychology Research Network, including international collaborations, international developments, new research, new researchers and new developments This event is organised by the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology and administered by KC Jones conference&events Ltd, 01332 224501 Please visit www.sgcp.eu for further information

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 823 President’s column SOCIETY President Jamie Hacker Hughes Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes Contact Jamie Hacker Hughes President Elect [email protected] Twitter: @profjamiehh Professor Peter Kinderman

Vice President Professor Dorothy Miell very year, the Society’s Board of Trustees international levels for research and other (www.bps.org.uk/what-we-do/bps/ activities. This year’s Annual Conference in Honorary General Secretary Egovernance/trustees/trustees), with the Liverpool was particularly successful in this Dr Carole Allan Society’s officers in attendance, decide on which respect, as were the Scottish and Northern aspects of the Society’s Strategic Plan are to be Ireland Branch conferences in Stirling and Honorary Treasurer prioritised over the coming year. You can read Armagh. I have no doubt that the Welsh Branch Professor Ray Miller the Plan in full at www.bps.org.uk/strategicplan conference in Wrexham will have been equally but the six main pillars are: (1) promoting successful, along with all the other Branch, and Chair, advancements in psychological knowledge and Division and Section conferences that we hold. practice; (2) developing the psychological All really good opportunities for waving the flag Membership Standards Board knowledge and skills of our members; (3) and telling people what psychology is all about Dr Mark Forshaw maximising the impact of and what we are up to. psychology on public policy; Later this year, Chair, (4) increasing the visibility of I shall be going to the Education and Public psychology and raising public Psychology4Students and Engagement Board awareness of its contribution Psychology4Graduates Professor Catriona Morrison to society; (5) attracting new events in London, members and broadening our PsyPAG’s conference in Chair, membership; and (6) Glasgow was amazingly developing our organisation successful, and university Research Board to support change. All of these and school PsychSocs can Professor Daryl O’Connor are vitally important aspects do their bit too. I’m of the Society’s business, but grateful to everyone who Chair, I have a particular affinity for supports these activities – Professional Practice Board the third and the fourth, and through the EPEB, our Dr Ian Gargan a role to play in helping our hardworking conference Society achieve them. and events team in The Society has offices in Belfast, As you know, I’ve Leicester and all who work Cardiff, Glasgow and London, as represented the Society on the I’ve been heartened by the so hard on conference NHS England Mental Health increasing number of committees. If you’re not well as the main office in Taskforce over the past few psychologists being broadcast already a part of all this, Leicester. All enquiries should months and Division of on local and national media please have a serious think be addressed to the Leicester Clinical Psychology Chair, about how you can get office (see inside front cover for Richard Pemberton, and DCP involved. address). Children and Young People’s Faculty Chair, It’s right and proper that impact is one of the Julia Faulconbridge, have both deputised for several factors on which our research work is me when I have been unable to attend. The assessed and these days, with a couple of clicks The British Psychological Taskforce’s report is to be published soon, and of a button, it’s possible to measure the reach, Society we psychologists have certainly been able to not just of formal academic publications but of was founded in 1901, and make an impact on its content. social media posts. Our Research Board, chaired incorporated by Royal Charter in There are so many ways of increasing the by Daryl O’Connor, works hard to promote the 1965. Its object is ‘to promote the visibility of psychology and raising awareness scientific reach of our research publications and advancement and diffusion of of our contribution to society, and the Education our journals have a well-deserved international and Public Engagement Board (EPEB), chaired reputation, with high impact factors too. a knowledge of psychology pure by Catriona Morrison and supported by Kelly Another way in which psychologists can and applied and especially to Auty, put a lot of effort into developing this increase our visibility and promote awareness promote the efficiency and aspect of our business through activities such as of our contribution is, of course, through the usefulness of Members of the the Cheltenham Science Festival and the BPS/ media. I’ve been heartened by the increasing Society by setting up a high British Academy Public Lecture. We’ve also got number of psychologists being broadcast on another public lecture coming up in November local and national media, not only on specialist standard of professional as part of the Society’s First World War programmes such as BBC Radio 4’s All in the education and knowledge’. commemorations. And of course every time that Mind, with Claudia Hammond, but on news and Extract from The Charter we hold a conference, there’s a huge opportunity current affairs programmes too, such as to get publicity at local, national and Panorama and the Today programme. Attracting

824 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 society

What ‘good’ looks like for children

The DCP Faculty for Children, Young People and their Families services should make a major contribution; for example, it (CYPF) is set to launch comprehensive guidance on includes work on delivering services to those in inpatient care, psychological services for children and young people in the children and young people. criminal justice system, and those with This work comes in response learning disabilities. to the Department of Health’s Chair of the CYPF, Julia Future in Mind report, Faulconbridge, said the contents of the published earlier in the year, review would be of interest to anyone which heralded a new direction who has a professional or personal in the provision of services to interest in the psychological wellbeing support the psychological well- of children and young people and the being and mental health of families and organisations that support children, young people and them. She added: ‘In particular, it will be their families. It was also of value to policymakers, commissioners prompted by Department for and providers who wish to better Education plans, announced at understand what a good psychological the same time, to promote and service can look like and to implement support mental health in that knowledge to improve the lives of schools. our children and young people. It is also The Division’s report, What intended to provide a blueprint to help Good Looks Like in Psychological regulators like the Care Quality Services for Children, Young Commission and Ofsted to make People and their Families, is judgements about the quality of services featured in The Child & Family and organisations that they are Clinical Psychology Review No inspecting.’ 3, and gives guidance on the Sarah Brennan, Chief Executive, provision of good quality YoungMinds, wrote in the review foreword: psychological services and the This work comes in response to the Department of ‘This should be essential reading for everyone roles that clinical psychologists Health’s Future in Mind report remotely connected to funding, providing or can play in those services. advising children and young people’s mental The review begins with an health services.’ ER overview of issues in all psychological service provision along I The publication will be available from the BPS Shop and on the with a paper on the role of clinical psychologists and workforce Faculty website. The CYPF’s annual conference will be held on 6–7 issues. The second part comprises a set of papers that outline October at the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Birmingham’s NEC. For specific issues within a range of settings where psychological further information see tinyurl.com/ppjdcfh

the attention of the media, and through Parliamentary Office of Science and members of both Houses of Parliament in them, the public, is so important in Technology. We have a Policy and the diary, I’m due to attend and speak at informing them what we do, what we Communications team in Leicester, who a number of events in the Commons and work on, what we have expertise about do an excellent job of horizon scanning the Lords and the Presidential and Policy and what we have to offer. There really and supporting our communications, but Teams will also be busy attending the shouldn’t be a need for people to say, ‘Tell public policy is an ever-more complex area three main Westminster party conferences. me. What is the nowadays, with Europe, And we can impact policy in other difference between Westminster, and the ways too. I was proud, as a clinical a psychologist and devolved parliaments psychologist, to join several colleagues a psychiatrist?’, they “our research publications and assemblies. Our ‘Walking the Talk’ from Leicester to should just know. and our journals have a well- national Branches, London, and the event, even though it (Besides, if I’m ever deserved international together with our was not an official BPS event, attracted asked the question, reputation” retained PR and policy significant media attention in the airwaves I always just say, consultants all play a and in the broadsheet and tabloid press mischievously, ‘Several very considerable role in alike. thousand pounds a linking in with, and informing Psychology, and our Society, has a lot year, actually and we have to buy all our and influencing decisions made in, the to say so thank you for playing your part own mugs, pens and post-its too.’ – The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and by organising or speaking at conferences latter not being true for all of us who go Northern Ireland Assemblies and we shall or other events, by publishing, by speaking to BPS conferences!) almost certainly need to consider a similar to or on the media, by engaging with Lastly, maximising the impact of function for England at some stage in the policymakers. And, if you’re not involved psychology on public policy. We do this future. yet, please think about how you can be. through our publications, of course, and As far as the Westminster government There’s lots to do. through organisations such as the is concerned, I already have meetings with Together we can!

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 825 society Calling all psychology postgraduates – PsyPAG is here to support you!

The Psychology Postgraduate on research skills, as well as £100) and study visits (up to issue of The Psychologist. Affairs Group (PsyPAG) is social and practical support. £200). We also offer Research Workshops: We offer funds a non-profit organisation It contains both newly Grant Bursaries of up to £300 for students to organise dedicated to providing commissioned articles and that can help support workshop events suitable for opportunities, representation recent Quarterly articles from postgraduates with their postgraduate students. Past and support to all psychology current postgraduates and research. We have three rounds funded workshops include postgraduates based in the distinguished alumni. of bursaries each year, with MatLab, Motivational Speaking UK. Funded by the Research PsyPAG Quarterly: Our deadlines in February, June and Teaching Skills amongst Board of the British peer-reviewed journal is and October. All bursaries many others. We have three Psychological Society, PsyPAG circulated free to psychology involve a full application rounds each year, with is run on a voluntary basis departments in the UK, as well process and assessment by an deadlines in February, June by postgraduates for as via our website. Articles awarding team. and October. postgraduates. All range from original research Awards: We offer three JISC mailing list: This postgraduate psychology and expert interviews to top annual awards offering cash e-mail list is a great resource students assume automatic tips and reviews. We always prizes and other benefits. Our to recruit participants, ask for membership if they are welcome new submissions! We Rising Researcher Award is for statistical advice, find out enrolled on a relevant course. have recently completed an outstanding PhD research, our about training opportunities This year marks our 30th archive of our past issues over Masters Awards for an plus job and studentship anniversary and we are keen the last 30 years which will be outstanding master’s project advertisements. The list offers to continue supporting released shortly. If you would and our DART-P Teaching a supportive platform for postgraduates through a like to submit an article or find Award. These are all highly postgraduates across the UK. variety of ways. Here we have out more information, please competitive and would make Subscribe at: provided a brief outline of contact the PsyPAG Quarterly a great addition to your CV. www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi- how PsyPAG can benefit you team at PsyPAG Annual Conference: bin/webadmin?A0=psych- during your studies, and how [email protected] or We hold an annual conference postgrads you can get involved. @PsyPAGQuarterly (Twitter). each July, hosted by an Please spread the word PsyPAG Representatives: Bursaries: PsyPAG awards institution of a committee about PsyPAG and the support Our representatives sit across a number of bursaries to help member. Our 2015 conference we offer. If you have any all BPS Divisions, Sections psychology postgraduates at University of Glasgow, questions about PsyPAG, and Branches to ensure the attend conferences and other celebrating our 30th please contact Chair Emma postgraduate voice is events, both at home and anniversary, was our biggest Norris at [email protected], heard across the Society. abroad. These can help fund yet with over 200 delegates. visit our website at We regularly host stands domestic (up to £100) and We run a yearly bursary www.psypag.co.uk or our at BPS Conferences, international conferences (up scheme for this event. You social media channels including December’s to £300), travel (up to £50), can read about this year’s @PsyPAG (Twitter) and Psychology4Graduates event workshop and training (up to conference in last month’s PsyPAG (Facebook). in London (2 December). Our Core Committee manages the work of PsyPAG, comprising of our Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Communications Officer and Information SOCIETY NOTICES Officer. Please check our ‘Psychology Heaven and Hell’ Research Digest blog 10th anniversary event, London, 9 December website for current vacancies 2015 See p.799 and contact details for all of BPS Annual Conference, Nottingham, April 2016 See p.i our reps www.psypag.co.uk. 5th European Coaching Psychology Conference, London, December See p.823 New for 2015: PsyPAG BPS conferences and events See p.827 book – A Guide for Psychology CPD workshops 2015 See p.828 Postgraduates: Surviving Postgraduate Study. This ‘Childhood sexual abuse – Impact and interventions’ event, Edinburgh, October 2015 See p.829 month we release our first Psychology in the Pub (South West of England Branch) See p.830 book to celebrate our 30th History of Psychology Centre ‘Stories of Psychology’ symposium, London, 14 October 2015 See anniversary year. This is p.832 available free of charge via Division of Educational & Child Psychology Annual Conference and TEP Day, London, January hard copies sent to UK 2016 See p.834 postgraduate psychology Division of Clinical Psychology Faculty of Psychosis & Comnplex Mental Health, ‘Understanding departments and via our psychosis’ conference, London, 11 November See p.837 website. It provides guidance

826 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Organised by BPS Conferences BPS conferences are committed to ensuring value for money, careful budgeting and sustainability

Division of Health Psychology 16–18 September Radisson Blu Portman, London www.bps.org.uk/dhp2015 2015 Children and Young People 6–7 October Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC www.bps.org.uk/cyp2015 Psychology4Students 19 November Mercure, Sheffield www.bps.org.uk/p4s2015 Psychology4Students 1 December Friends Meeting House, Euston, London www.bps.org.uk/p4s2015 Psychology4Graduates 2 December Friends Meeting House, Euston, London www.bps.org.uk/p4g2015 Division of Clinical Psychology 2–4 December Radisson Blu Portman, London www.bps.org.uk/dcp2015 Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology 14–15 December The Queens Hotel, Leeds www.bps.org.uk/dsep2015

Division of Occupational Psychology 6–8 January East Midlands Conference Centre, Notts www.bps.org.uk/dop2016 2016

Annual Conference 26–28 April East Midlands Conference Centre, Notts www.bps.org.uk/ac2016

Piaget, Rawlings, Spearman, and Myers all left something to Psychology … What will you leave? A lasting contribution The British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK. Formed in 1901, it now has approximately 45,000 members. By its Royal Charter, the Society is charged with national responsibility for the development, promotion and application of pure and applied psychology for the public good, and with promoting the efficiency and usefulness of Society members by maintaining a high standard of professional education and knowledge. With your help the Society works to: ■ To encourage the development of psychology as a scientific discipline and an applied profession; ■ To raise standards of training and practice in the application of psychology; ■ To raise public awareness of psychology and increase the influence of psychological practice in society. By including us in your will you can help ensure the future of your discipline in the years to come by continuing to support the Society. For more information on how to leave a legacy please contact Russell Hobbs, Finance Director at [email protected] or call him on 0116 252 9540.

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 827 2015 CPD Workshops Professional development opportunities from your learned Society

Engaging effectively with the supervision and reflective practice process (Cross network) 23 September

Working with refugees and asylum seekers (Cross network) 28 September

Pluralism in qualitative research (Cross network) 6 October

Person-centred planning: A practical introduction for psychologists (Cross network) 6 October

Working successfully in private practice 8 October

A somatic approach to Integral Life Theory Practice (ILP) – Taking theory into practice (Cross network) 19 October

Introduction to ethics and professional practice: Ethical decision-making (DFP) 20 October

Psychological interventions for a variety of contexts: Issues of design and implementation (SGCP) 22 October

Fundamentals of neuropsychological assessment in older adults: The art of making skilled judgements BRISTOL 23 October

Cognitive assessment of children and young people (Day 2) (Cross network) (DCP) GLASGOW 29 October

CYP-IAPT and clinical psychology (DCP) MANCHESTER 30 October

Counselling skills for sport and physical exercise (DSEP) 5 November

Expert witness: Court room evidence (Workshop 3) 5 November

Expert witness: Using psychometrics (Workshop 4) 6 November

Don’t get caught out: Ethical and professional dilemmas for psychologists and psychotherapists in 2015 (Cross network) 9 November

Instilling hope in therapy and practice (DCP) 12 November

Making the transition – Addressing the lifespan needs of young people with learning disabilities (DCP) 12 November

Devising an effective performance appraisal system (DOP) 13 November

Sexualised behaviour: An integrated approach to supporting families and schools (DECP) 16 November

Working successfully in private practice 19 November

ACT in palliative care (DCP) 20 November

Mixed methods research for the quantitative researcher (Cross network) 27 November

Positive Psychology Coaching – Masterclass with Dr Suzy Green (SGCP) 9 December

For more information on these CPD events and many more visit www.bps.org.uk/findcpd.

Follow us on Twitter: @BPSLearning #BPScpd

www.bps.org.uk/learningcentre

828 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 International Academy for Professional Development Centre for Stress Management Centre for Coaching promoting the cognitive behavioural approach for over 25 years promoting the cognitive behavioural approach Two-day & Three-day Courses Diplomas† Advanced Certifi cates Stress Management 17-18 Nov Coaching (40 Credits, Level 6) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy & Training 20-21 Oct; 30 Nov - 1 Dec Psychological Coaching/Coaching Psychology (50 Credits, Level 7) Problem Focused Counselling, Coaching & Training 8-9 Dec Certifi cate Courses Advanced Cognitive Behavioural Skills 3-5 November Coaching (15 Credits, Level 5)† 23-27 Nov; 22-26 Feb Assertion and Communication Skills Training 11-12 Nov Psychological Coaching (15 Credits, Level 6)† 12-16 Oct; 8-12 Feb Other Courses (modular) Coaching Psychology (20 Credits, Level 7)† 12-16 Oct; 8-12 Feb Stress Management and Performance Coaching (Level 5, 30 Credits) (6-days)† modular Foundation Certifi cate in CBT and REBT (4 days) Stress Management, Health and Wellbeing Coaching 4 days) Foundation Certifi cate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (4 days) Two-day Courses Certifi cate in REBT (5-days)|Certifi cate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (5-days) Stress Management 17-18 Nov Certifi cate in Stress Management (6 days) Health and Wellbeing Coaching 26-27 Oct Advanced Certifi cate in CBT & Stress Management (11-days) modular Performance Coaching 3-4 Nov; 14-15 Dec Distance Learning Courses Problem Focused Counselling, Coaching & Training 8-9 Dec Coaching/ Coaching Psychology Supervision 28-29 Apr 2016 Life Coaching: A cognitive behavioural approach Assertion and Communication Skills Training 11-12 Nov Stress Management † Courses accredited by Middlesex University. All courses approved by the International Society for All courses approved by the International Society for Coaching Psychology Coaching Psychology. The Centre for Coaching is an ILM Recognised Provider. Email: [email protected] Website: www.managingstress.com Email: [email protected] Website: www.centreforcoaching.com

Our courses are British Psychological Society Learning Centre Approved and are held at the BPS London, Borehamwood and Edinburgh or in-house. We have trained 1000s of practitioners on our recognised modular courses since the 1980s. The Founder Director of the Centres and Academy is Prof Stephen Palmer PhD. Our experienced trainers have authored books and/or articles in their particular fi elds. They include Chartered Psychologists: Prof Stephen Palmer, Dr Siobhain O’Riordan, Nick Edgerton & Kasia Szymanska. 156 Westcombe Hill, London SE3 7DH. Tel: +44 (0) 208 853 4171. Part of the International Academy for Professional Development Ltd. Website: www.iafpd.com

Childhood sexual abuse – Impact and interventions Connect… Friday 30 October 2015 Edinburgh Napier University

…with The Psychologist and the Society’s free Research Digest service for more psychological news and analysis For further information Follow us at tinyurl.com/thepsychomag and or to book go to: www.facebook.com/researchdigest www.kc-jones.co.uk/cdtoct2015 www.twitter.com/psychmag and www.twitter.com/researchdigest

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 829 Psychology in the Pub FOR SALE Clinical Psychology Practice Sole trader Well -established Turnover in excess of 100K Bristol Town based Don’t tell me you’re hungry TEL : 01 624 617740 Wednesday 7 October 2015 Prof Peter Rogers Plymouth Cross-cultural counselling psychology Thursday 15 October 2015 Dr Christina Montaiuti Exeter Bullying at work Wednesday 28 October 2015 PWP Clinical Skills Anne Marchant Training Day Tuesday 17th November 2015, York

In collaboration with UEA Department of Clinical Psychology, Norwich Medical School For more information or to notify us that you will be attending visit www.bps.org.uk/southwest-events Email: [email protected] | Tel: 01732 89 77 88 | Visit: www.nnf-events.co.uk

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830 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 We Need Qualifi ed Forensic Psychologists!

Expert Assessment and Consultancy Ltd. has been awarded a framework agreement to provide reporting services for NOMS at prisons across the UK. We Need You!

• Are you Registered/ Chartered with 2 yrs post qualifi cation experience?

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• Are you interested in private work while being supported through the whole process?

• We are especially (but not exclusively!) interested in those who are SARN trained

• Are you interested in being mentored and becoming part of a supportive community?

Email CV to: offi [email protected] / [email protected] Call Wendy/ Laura on 0203-427-5044

WE ARE ACTIVELY RECRUITING ASSOCIATES NATIONWIDE NOW

Also wanted for other work, nationally:

Therapists with expertise in family work, Dyadic Developmental Therapy/ Systemic Therapy

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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 831 A BPS Flagship Event Stories of Psychology Clinically Applied: Origins of a Profession Wednesday 14 October 2015, 10.30am–4pm Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House, University of London Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Emeritus Professor Bill Yule (Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience) Clinical Psychology: The Early Days, 1939–1963 Dr Jennifer Clegg (University of Nottingham) Four Lensmakers: Jack Tizard, Ann and Alan Clark, Peter Mittler Dr Anne Richardson (formerly of University College London and Department of Health) Growing Pains and Pleasures: Psychology, Government and the Profession’s Health Professor Bob Woods (Bangor University) Dementia in the 20th Century: Discovering the Person Behind the Label plus a short presentation by Dr Saima Lofgren (Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust) on the emergence of cultural concerns in clinical psychology CONVENOR: Professor John Hall (Oxford Brookes University)

Cost: £16 (BPS members) £18 (non-members): including buffet lunch Registration is essential

For more information and to register, go to www.bps.org.uk/stories History of Psychology Centre (t) 0116 252 9528 (e) [email protected] This event is supported by Senate House Library, home of the British Psychological Society’s library collection. Look out for Clinical Psychology in Britain: Historical Perspectives edited by John Hall, David Pilgrim and Graham Turpin, to be published by the History of Psychology Centre in December 2015 (see www.bps.org.uk/cpib)

832 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Your psychologist Your choice

Are you a Society member looking to read The Psychologist on tablet, smartphone or e-reader? Log in via tinyurl.com/yourpsych to access your options or scan

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 833 Annual Conference 6-8 January 2016 TEP Day 5 January 2016 Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury

Towards an inclusive psychology – do labels and diagnoses help or hinder? The issue of labelling behaviour in the profession of Educational Psychology is controversial and contentious. During the development of the practice of Educational Psychology, the provision of education for children with additional needs was based on a medical model of deficit, focusing on differences, and within child explanations. One hundred years on the conference aims to explore how 21st century Educational Psychology has shifted the agenda from an emphasis on illness to well-being, from problems to solutions, from deficit to potential and from within child explanations to careful consideration of the influence of context.

This event is organised by the BPS Division of Educational and Child Psychology and administered by KC Jones conference&events Ltd, 01332 227774 For further information, please visit the website: www.bps.org.uk/decp2016

EMDR Training Schedule Fully accredited EMDR trainings for Psychologists EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) and EMDR-Europe Association (EMDR-E) accredited trainings conducted by Alexandra (Sandi) Richman, Chartered Psychologist. Learn how to integrate this evidence-based therapy into your existing clinical skills. RICHMAN EMDR TRAINING offers the complete 7-day Training in 3 parts: Part 1 (3 days), Part 2 (one day) and Part 3 (3 days). Attendee numbers are limited for each training.

EMDR Part 1 Trainings: London 2015: 2-4 December 2016: 27-29 January, 9-11 March, 20-22 April, 1-3 June, 21-23 September, 16-18 November Glasgow 2016: 17-19 February Leicester 2015: 21-23 October Other training levels throughout the year For more information contact: Mary Cullinane, Training Co-ordinator or Michelle Dyer (t) 020 7372 3572 email: [email protected] www.emdr-training.com

834 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Progress your career... engage with your passion. The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience is Europe’s largest centre \ehh[i[WhY^WdZ[ZkYWj_ed_dj^_iÓ[bZ$

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Successful candidates will receive training in a wide range of research methodologies and will conduct research leading to the award of a DPhil in Want to learn more? their chosen area. Fellowships are for three years; funding covers university Visit us at the BPS Psychology4Graduates event in fees and a full clinical salary at the appropriate level. The programme places London on 2 December and join us at the IoPPN open strong emphasis on translational research. To facilitate this, fellows will evening www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/study/prospective- have the opportunity to spend one day-a-week working in a clinical unit that students/opendays.aspx specialises in translating research fi ndings into routine clinical care.

Interested applicants are encouraged to approach potential supervisors (see website) as soon as possible to discuss and develop a suitable project. kcl.ac.uk/ioppn @KingsIoPPN facebook.com/ ioppn

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 835 the the psychologist psychologist vol 28 no 1 january 2015 vol 28 no 3 march 2015 www.thepsychologist.org.uk www.thepsychologist.org.uk

vol 28 no 2 psychologistthe fe brua ww ry 20 w.the psyc 15 holog ist.o rg.uk

The ‘street children’ of Latin Words and America sorcery Simon Oxenham and Jon Sutton Graham Pluck with a story of consider the causes of bad writing challenge and survival for millions in psychology, and its impact

letters 2 radical behaviourism 24 letters 172 eldercare: the new frontier 202 news 8 mindfulness in psychology 28 news 184 sweet memories 206 interview 40 mental illness – head to head debate 34 careers 236 sexual identity at work 212 reviews 66 looking back: Asch’s line studies 72 reviews 244 masculinity, trauma and ‘shell shock’ 250

The wo surprisin rld of synaesthes g Ja ck Dutton investi ia ga letters tes 7 ne 8 car ws lo e 90 h ok ers ow ing 148 relation back doe 16 s ou sh 6 in r u ips terv nco hel iew ns p us view : Rob cious to poi i ru age nts n Dun le? we : ‘le b 11 ll 11 t d ar 1 4 0 own by 26 psy cholog y’ the 128 psychologist

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836 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Understanding Psychosis Developments a year on from the release of the document and strategies for dissemination Wednesday 11 November 2015 9am till 4pm BPS London Office, 30 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4UE

By the time of the conference it will be nearly a year since the launch of the ‘Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia’ HIGHGATE CONSULTING ROOMS document, a report published by the DCP and edited by Anne * Purpose-built for psychotherapy Cooke. The day will focus on an overview of the document, * Architect designed and elegantly furnished developments a year on from publication, how it has been used in * Sound-proofed practice, and strategies for dissemination of the information * Air-conditioned group room contained in the report. * Entryphone system to all rooms * Waiting areas Speakers will include: * Support staff Anne Cooke, Editor of ‘Understanding Psychosis and * Sessions to suit individual requirements Schizophrenia’ Contact Sally for further details: Peter Kinderman, President Elect of the BPS West Hill House, 6 Swains Lane, London N6 6QS Alison Brabban, SMI IAPT National Advisor Tel no: 020 7482 4212 Caroline Cupitt, Contributor to ‘Understanding Psychosis E-mail: [email protected] and Schizophrenia’ Web: www.consulting-rooms.co.uk Laura Lea, Service User and Contributor to ‘Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia’ And a variety of speakers with lived experience who have used the report. Mindfulness Training Ltd. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Training(ACT) - Mindfulness for the courage to live the life you want Registration Details All our ACT trainers are ACBS peer reviewed Attendance at this event is free for PCMH Faculty members, Including assessment of your learning through regular supervision service users and carers only. 1. ACT Experiential Introduction with Martin Wilks & Henry Whitfield 23-24 Jan + 20-21 Feb 2016. To book please visit: www.bps.org.uk/PCMH-Psychosis-Nov15 2. ACT Intermediate level skills training with Martin Wilks & Henry If you have any queries regarding attending the event Whitfield 21-22 Nov + 5-6 Dec 2015. please e-mail [email protected] 3. Relational Frame Theory (RFT), The Self and Perspective Taking quoting ‘PCMH-Psychosis-Nov15’ in the subject header. with Louise McHugh 12-13 March 2016. 4.Fortnightly supervision including feedback on recordings, with Martin Wilks. For further information, please visit the website: MBCT Experiential Intro with Martin Wilks Feb-Mar 2016. www.bps.org.uk/decp2016 Location: 5mins walk from Kings Cross, London NW1. Tel: 020 7183 2485, email: [email protected]

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 837 The only series of books to be approved by the British CPD Workshops Psychological Society. Visit our website to find books for the practitioner, the academic, the instructor and Prolonged Exposure Therapy the student, including: Professor Edna Foa 12th - 15th Oct 2015 - BPS London U BPS Textbooks in Psychology, with supporting Online Resources CBT for Eating Disorders Professor Glenn Waller U BPS Student Guides 6th Nov 2015 - London University Group Supervision in the What’s more, as a member you will qualify for a discount: Helping Professions/

20% BPS member discount on all titles The Supervisory Relationship Robin Shohet 30% BPS student member discount 18th / 19th Nov 2015 - St Patrick’s Dublin on all titles Compassionate Mind: Shame Based Trauma Go to: www.psychsource.bps.org.uk Dr Deborah Lee rd now to find out more. 23 Nov 2015 - BPS London For details and for our full range of workshops :- stantonltd.co.uk or grayrock.co.uk

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“An excellent, Workshops with Dr Assen Alladin, PhD well-informed and Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor in the Department of broad basis for Learn the theory and clinical skills to Psychiatry at the University of Calgary Medical School. His study either integrate hypnosis into your on Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Depression won Best Research practising cognitive- existing clinical practice or start a Paper from The American Psychological Association in 2005. behavioural practice focused on cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) Psychotherapy for Psychosexual Disorders hypnotherapy in a • 13th - 14th November 2015, Islington, London professional and • Fully accredited, externally verifi ed diploma Psychotherapy, Hypnosis & Neuroplasticity effective manner. • Fast track training – three 7-day stages • 15th November 2015, Islington, London I highly recommend it.” • Modern evidence-based approach Psychological Management of IBS • Integrating CBT, Mindfulness and Hypnosis • 16th November 2015, Islington, London – Professor Karen Carr PhD, Professor of Psychology at Cranfi eld University. Next diploma starts: November 2015, February 2016 or April 2016 0207 112 9040 * BPS Learning Centre approved Discount for BPS Members www.ukhypnosis.com

838 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 what can the psychologist do for you? Connect with The Psychologist:

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read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 839 as an opportunity to set up a peer network which can be useful throughout their careers.’ Did you want to be an applied or an

CAREERS ‘I’m lucky that I’ve always academic psychologist? ‘It sounds funny now but I didn’t really see academics as true occupational psychologists. In my known what I wanted to do’ eyes, occupational psychologists were people who worked for consultancies and Ian Florance interviews Doyin Atewologun testing companies. But we were warned that the job market was going to be difficult – 9/11 happened a couple of weeks before we started the course. Once r Doyin Atewologun originally ‘I’ve always known what I wanted to I’d finished the MSc I set about finding Dsuggested an article on the Division do – work with and understand people. a job in a fairly organised, energetic way.’ of Occupational Psychology’s When I was 11 or 12 my aunt told me She searched for jobs in the West (DOP) Leadership Development that that was exactly what she did – she Midlands, using BPS resources to find Programme, but her work with the British was a child psychologist working at a addresses and firing off letters to everyone Psychological Society also involves the school. It made me very proud to be she could think of. ‘I came to appreciate Diversity and Inclusion at Work Working affiliated with such an encouraging and the value and skills of cold calling. Group. We settled down to talk about thoughtful profession.’ Looking back I’m really touched by the these and other topics in a pleasant coffee Like a lot of Nigerian children with number of people who sent me shop on the Mile End Road. her background, Doyin was sent to the encouraging replies, telling me not to get UK to do her A-levels. ‘The aim was to put off but to persevere. I’ve kept those be an international student dividing letters, and it made me very proud to be time between the UK and Nigeria. My affiliated with such an encouraging and cousins were returning to the UK at the thoughtful profession.’ same time, and I ended up living with Doyin was finally made an informal them and my aunt in Northampton.’ offer of a job by a very major company Doyin made an early decision to be she really wanted to work for. ‘They told an occupational psychologist. ‘At the me to hang on as there were “some things time I would have said I wanted to going on”. I’m afraid I’m still waiting. work with “normal” people rather than Then I was offered a job by OPP, the test the ill or with children. Anyway, after publisher and consultancy who, among A-levels I took a year out and worked other things, are Europe’s distributors of in HR in Benin. I had done some the most widely used personality test in research, so my psychology degree at the world. I loved that job. Nowadays Birmingham didn’t surprise me as it different individuals tend to specialise does some students – it certainly in either training or consultancy – I did interested me as I discovered the reality both, which had positive implications for of areas such as neuropsychology.’ chartership and for my credibility. For Doyin then took another gap year instance, it meant that during training working for what is now Connexions. I could talk about my own experiences.’ ‘I deferred a place at Nottingham on Reflecting on her move into work, an Occupational Psychology MSc to get Doyin thinks ‘I could have been more the ESRC funding I’d qualified for with commercially astute. I sometimes think a first class degree. Nottingham had a hybrid MBA and Occupational a good reputation but the classes felt Psychology course would help newly too big for me. This made it difficult qualified psychologists become effective to connect with a wider group although quickly in the real world of work.’ I made friends there. Students should Doyin’s interest in diversity and her see their degree and postgraduate years PhD in the area started in her early years

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840 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 careers in work. ‘For a long time I worked with received a lot of positive feedback about attributes needed to become effective very few black or Asian colleagues, and some of my academic skills like writing leaders. ‘I was on the first programme and there was very little talk about diversity. and presenting abstract information in volunteered to evaluate it, working with I became aware that the same behaviours an accessible way, so I was warming to a team of volunteers. It’s taught me a lot from different people would be rated it. And, soon after completing my PhD, about logistics, project management and differently by different bosses as well I was offered a maternity cover job at motivating others. I think the course has as by raters in assessment centres. I got City University, then another, and then helped participants to be more realistic fascinated with diversity as an issue and I moved on to Queen Mary, University through understanding the structure of this tied in with authentic leadership, of London where I am now. I still do the Society. The Society is run, to a great which was of huge interest at the time. a little consultancy – as an associate for extent, by volunteers, and members’ fees It struck me that asking people to be companies and some off my own bat.’ are not thrown about. It takes longer to themselves, to be authentic, was tenable The diversity group has grown ‘with get things done than one might want but if their identities aligned with society’s the support of the Society. But I’m that’s understandable – everyone has their expectations. But what if the “authentic surprised that this sort of work is only day job.’ you” isn’t actually what people expect to just beginning. At the moment our You seem to get involved a lot with see in leadership roles?’ mission is very much to link diversity the Society. Would you like to do more? Doyin’s PhD looked at the effect practitioners with academic research but, ‘The thought fills me with foreboding of micro-behaviours on minority ethnic as well as this external communications since I have enough to do! But I suppose leaders’ work identities. ‘OPP gave me role, we have an internal marketing if you complain you need to step up to huge support, and because I was working mission – to make the Society itself more the mark.’ in training and consultancy I was able aware of and more responsive to diversity Have you got any advice for someone to work very flexibly alongside studying. issues, like coaching minority clients, starting in psychology now? ‘Make good I suppose I had early experience of a gathering evidence for interventions that friends on your course. Volunteer for the portfolio career. I finished the PhD in work for heterogeneous groups, and DOP. Do your research and really try to January 2012 and entered a whole new training occupational psychologists.’ understand what sort of roles there are world of researching leadership and Doyin is also involved in the DOP out there. And be careful about going into diversity.’ Leadership Development Programme, HR. It’s a different identity and you’d do Surprisingly, given her earlier views, which for the last three years has aimed better to get experience as a locum, Doyin’s more recent career has been as at providing potential DOP committee associate or volunteer within our an academic. ‘Not deliberately – I had members with the knowledge, skills and profession.’

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seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 841 careers

‘As with fairy tales, you used to ask me to tell you the famous studies over and over’ Psychology graduate Melanthe Grand interviews her mother, Chartered Psychologist and novelist Voula Grand

y mother, Voula Grand, is a Here, I interview my mother about happy and loved. I will be grateful to her MChartered Psychologist and the impact that the study and practice for her contribution to your upbringing novelist. Her professional practice of psychology has had on her life, in for ever. focuses on the development of leaders in mothering, business and writing. global corporations. She has 30 years’ And in the years that we were growing experience working with teams and When you look back on being a mother, up, how do you think you differed to individuals using a range of psychological how do you think your knowledge of mothers who weren’t also techniques to enhance performance. psychology had an effect on your psychologists? Voula has been a member of the British parenting? My mother was a reading addict, and Psychological Society since her student I studied social psychology at LSE, back reading stories was a lovely part of my days and is now an Associate Fellow. in the early eighties. I was fascinated by relationship with her. Instinctively, I read Her first novel, Honor’s Shadow, about Ainsworth’s work on attachment and the to you and Thibault from the very the psychology of betrayal and revenge, Strange Situation studies. At the time, beginning, all the traditional fairy tales was published by Karnac in 2011. Voula that was very new material; now, it’s being as well as the modern stories. The Hungry is one of the authors of the BPS Book of applied in all sorts of interesting ways. Caterpillar was a favourite. As you got the Year The Psychology Book published by When I went back to work after Thibault older, and during long drives to our DK in 2013. She writes a blog discussing was born in 1986, I had to arrange holiday home in France, I started to tell aspects of writing and psychology. She is childcare. Because of the attachment you about Zimbardo’s prison, Harlow’s also mother to my 28-year-old brother studies, I was keen that my brand new monkeys, Milgram’s shock experiment. Thibault, and three adult stepchildren, baby should have a third attachment As you had done with the fairy tales, I studied psychology at the University figure in his life, especially as he didn’t you both used to ask me to tell you of York and am now studying for an MA have a grandmother. So I chose a the famous psychological studies over in integrative child psychotherapy at the childminder; then, when you came along, and over again, you were fascinated. Institute of Arts in Therapy and we had a nanny. I believed then, and still So I think you both grew up very Education. I have an interest in the believe now, that this is the best option psychologically minded. application of the arts for children with for secure attachment. Though you told Every birthday, I would give you a special needs, and I write a blog about me recently, from your studies, that a development theme for the year. When my relationship with one boy with child only needs a ‘good enough mother’ you were six, I suggested you develop autism. I work part-time for my mother’s a third of the time, so maybe I was overly your ‘ignoring skills’ when you were company as an assistant psychologist. cautious back then. But we had an going through a hard time with your amazing nanny, Alice who stayed with brother. I know you think that was a us for 15 years, having two children of mistake. Maybe that was me applying Our editor is working on a feature her own along the way. Alice was very some business psychology to my ‘growing up with a psychologist’. If you talented, and loved you two as though mothering – they were almost like yearly are the child of a psychologist, with you were her own. She still does. I also appraisals. a view on how this may have affected appreciated how skilled she was with your upbringing, he would like to hear me. Some mothers may feel some envy I remember you used to talk to us from you. Or perhaps as a psychologist towards their nanny, but Alice was about Greek mythology and philosophy you are aware of how that knowledge exceptionally sensitive to this, and as well as psychology. There was a is affecting your own parenting? deferred to me as your mother. She and strong emphasis on talking openly in E-mail [email protected] I became like sisters. For you two, as long our family. How did you go about as I, Dad or Alice were there, you were cultivating this?

842 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 careers

I was raised in a Greek community in I was so inspired after that talk, thinking skills, all these form a solid Wales, and my dad used to tell me stories and being so excited for a career foundation for optimal performance of about the Greek gods. As a small child in it. How did you start your career corporate executives. I believed his story that we were directly in psychology? I am fascinated by the new findings descended from the gods of Olympus, My career in psychology had very coming out of neuroscience, and how and that was why we had blue eyes and unconventional beginnings. I left home such insights can be applied to fair hair. I still treasure a book of Greek after O-levels at 17 and worked for 10 leadership. I also draw on myths that my father won as a school years in a variety of business psychodynamics – in particular how we prize. I was very keen that we environments. I decided to go to unconsciously project family dynamics communicated very openly as a family, university when I was 27. As I hadn’t on to the work ‘family’ to re-create though I’m not sure where that desire done A-levels, I did the very first access familiar patterns of relating in our came from. I remember when you were course in the UK – the Fresh Horizons working relationships. little Thibault giving you some world- course at the City Lit in London. I wanted I have never been wedded to one weary advice: ‘Don’t ask Mum any to study English literature, so that I could theoretical perspective. I like to choose questions about sex, because she will become a novelist. But a fellow student what is appropriate for each individual or answer them.’ brought back the syllabus for social team. Change is generally hard and slow, I wanted us to be able to speak freely psychology at LSE and I changed my so it’s important to seek out ways that about anything that we would want to, mind, applied and got a place to study might be faster and easier for any given especially the most difficult things. When there. Standing on the steps of LSE at the individual. The answer will differ widely Thibault went into the army in 2003 and start of my degree programme was one of from one person to another, so it is served three tours of duty, I was very keen the most proud and thrilling moments of important to have an extensive tool kit. to be able to listen to him in a way that my life. As the saying goes: ‘if all you have is a would be helpful. So I learned about hammer, everything looks like a nail’. PTSD and how to help veterans after And after your degree? Having said all that, I am a Jungian experiences in war zones. He had a Because of my work experience, and at heart. I love his work, particularly on very difficult tour in Afghanistan in the having grown up in a business family, dreams. Jung is very poetic in the way summer of 2009. When he came back, I never doubted that I would work in that he expresses things, and I find his I hope it helped that he could talk to me business. I started work as an assessment writings profoundly moving. My first about his experiences, and I didn’t react psychologist in the early 1990s. Back then, novel, Honor’s Shadow, drew upon his with shock or horror, that I could listen executive coaching was just beginning as theories of the shadow personality. I love and accept such very extreme events a mechanism for executive education, and his comment on the task of mid-life – to I knew I wanted to raise you both to I was fascinated. I started my own turn the self inside out, and show the be hopeful, optimistic and resilient – what practice, Grand Shearman Consulting, in shadow to the light. parent wouldn’t – and you are, but maybe 1991, to coach individuals and teams. you were just born that way. Through that work I became intrigued by And how have you applied this the power of human emotions to help or psychology background to your novel I also remember you encouraging us hinder people’s development, so I became writing? to follow whatever path it was that we deeply interested in the explosion of I always had the ambition to write novels, wanted, and I suppose looking up to research on emotional intelligence work from a very early age. On my 50th you when I was younger, you were a that started around that time. birthday, I decided I should shut up about very good example of doing this – it or get on with it. So I got on with it and writing a novel, for example. Do you How do you apply psychology to enrolled on an MA in creative writing at think your knowledge of psychology businesses now? Birkbeck. As a result of my life and work has an influence on this? Now I describe myself as a leadership experience, I will never run out of My mother wasn’t a psychologist, she was expert. One of the projects I am involved material for fiction. I like to write about an artist. She was great at encouraging me with at the moment, with one of my psychological topics: in the end, all and my siblings to pursue our hobbies colleagues, is a comprehensive, in-depth writers are trying to be psychologists. and interests. That seems to me to be a leadership programme, REAL: Resilient, A book of fiction is psychology in action. core parental responsibility, and looking Energised and Authentic Leadership. I like to write about dilemmas rather back I can see that I was always alert to Resilient leadership is a hot topic at than problems. A dilemma has two (or what you both enjoyed and were drawn the moment, as corporate life is now more) choices and neither is perfect; so to. I suppose it is a psychological thing, tougher than I’ve ever known it, mainly choosing the least bad is the challenge, but for me it was a mother thing. because of the challenges of global and this is where my interest lies. Thibault was focused on an Army career economics. I work with individuals and from a very young age, and I didn’t teams still, focusing on the deeper Finally what is your favourite book? discourage him (even though I wanted dynamics that underlie work performance The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, because to). Your early ambition was to be an art and success. it explains one of the worst dilemmas teacher, but when I went to Thibault’s I can think of – what to do when a family school to do a careers talk on psychology, What theories do you draw on for is disturbed by the birth of a child with you came with me. It was after that you your work? extreme special needs. said that you wanted to go into The corporate world is very interested psychology. Now here you are combining in the new field of positive psychology I Voula’s professional website: psychology and art in psychotherapy developed by Martin Seligman, and www.grandshearman.com; writer’s site using the arts. Psychology has been a I have trained in some of his methods. and blog: www.voulagrand.com passion in my life and it has been a great Identifying strengths, focusing on what Melanthe’s blog can be found at joy to share that with you. you are good at, developing resilient https://mysonnydays.wordpress.com

seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 843 Advertising with The British Psychological Society

Reach 48,000 readers as part of the publication for psychologists - a large, prime, well-qualified audience. Advertising is also now available on the Society’s award-winning Research Digest blog DISPLAY ADVERT APPOINTMENT PUBLISHING DATE DEADLINE SECTION DEADLINE at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog. There are also other online options, including the ‘featured job’ at www.psychapp.co.uk. Nov 7 Oct 14 Oct 29 Oct Dec 4 Nov 11 Nov 26 Nov All recruiters in the print edition of The Psychologist get their vacancy 25 Nov 2 Dec 17 Dec posted online at www.psychapp.co.uk at no extra cost. Members can Jan then search by job type and geographical area, and then view full APPOINTMENT SECTION details online or via RSS feeds and e-mail alerts. DISPLAY RATE (WITH FREE ONLINE AD)

Job advertising is also available online-only at any time, Full page £1645 £3000 from just £750 Half (horizontal/vertical) £875 £1800 Advertising contact: Quarter (h/v) £545 £1200 Giorgio Romano Senior Sales Executive Eighth (h/v) £325 £650 +44 20 7880 7556 [email protected] 40% extra: 25% extra. Please contact us for ad sizes, and then send your Outside back cover Inside back cover ad by email to [email protected]

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Jigsaw Trust is an advocate of lifelong Psychologist learning. This encompasses not only the pupils at Jigsaw CABAS® School and the young adults at Fixed Term Contract, 18 hours per week. Jigsaw +, but also our most important asset – You! Competitive Salary - scale dependent on experience We are committed to the continuous development of all individuals, and we believe that to be the best educator, you need to have access to the best training Location: Dublin and the surrounding area. yourself. To facilitate this, we support a range of individually tailored personal and professional training and development programmes. In return, you will be given the The Learning & Assessment Service strives to promote students’ opportunity to work towards accredited CABAS® qualifications, and provided with independence and encourage them to develop the skills to see them ongoing personal development training. through their time in college. These skills range from general study skills to anxiety management, social skills and confi dence building. The NLN CABAS® Teacher (Assistant or non-qualified) Learning & Assessment Service team includes an Educational Psychologist (JIGSAW CABAS® SCHOOL) and Assistant Psychologists working with a number of third level institutes. The service aims to assist students to develop personally (through £15,658 pa FTE (may vary subject to relevant ABA experience) maintaining well-being, developing social skills and managing daily living) The Jigsaw CABAS® School is an independent day school for children and young and academically. Another element of the service involves work with children people with an autism spectrum disorder. Ideal candidates will have a degree and should be able to demonstrate experience of or an interest in working with children and young people to assess and support their educational, behavioural and with special needs. psychological development. Bonuses & pay increases related to ongoing study at Jigsaw. The role: (Jigsaw +) This role will be reporting directly to the full-time Educational Psychologist. Learning Support Workers The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the Educational £14,329 pa FTE (may vary accordingly to previous experience) Psychologist in the day to day running of the National Learning Network’s We are seeking enthusiastic individuals to expand our team of dedicated support Learning & Assessment Service. They will be required to carry out staff to provide care and support services to adults with autism and related educational psychological assessments. They will also be involved in disabilities and their families, and to facilitate positive, personal choices that enhance well-being, independence and social inclusion. supporting and supervising a number of Assistant Psychologists on the different Higher Education Institutions in providing academic support and Opportunity to obtain Care Certificate and further ongoing study, training and development. evidence-based interventions for third level students. We offer a range of fantastic benefits and provide the opportunity to work locally with on-site free parking. For further information and how to apply for the post, please search the careers section on www.nln.ie or e-mail [email protected] To apply please visit: www.careersatjigsaw.co.uk or call 00353 1 8851386 [email protected]

844 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Trainee ABA Tutors Rainbow School, part of BeyondAutism

Wandsworth, London Salary: First year training salary 15,500 during probationary period, £16,600 once confi rmed in post, £17,000 after twelve months service, rising to £18,500 depending on performance Director of We also welcome applications from experienced ABA Tutors Psychological Services who have completed training. BeyondAutism is a registered charity dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable Band 9 Ref: 310-MAC24-1398 children living with severe autism. In addition to running Rainbow School, BeyondAutism also offers outreach, training and consultancy services. Rainbow School is an independent special school for children and young people aged Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust 4-19 with autism. We offer a structured programme of intensive intervention, applying (CPFT) provides integrated community and mental health, the scientifi c principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Verbal Behaviour (VB) learning disability and social care services of the highest to deliver the National Curriculum and teach functional communication and life skills. standard due to our continued commitment to quality Job Purpose and service improvement. We aim to support people of all As a member of a class team, to provide excellent ABA/VB teaching to children and ages to achieve the very best they can for their health and young people with autism and associated learning diffi culties. To support the ABA well being. To ensure that we achieve this goal we look Supervisors and qualifi ed teachers in ensuring the daily needs of our pupils are met in a professional, competent, safe and fun school environment. to recruit candidates of a high calibre that share our Candidates must have experience of working with children and/or adults with special passion for delivering excellent service user care, needs, and must be educated to A Level or recognised child care qualifi cation. research and education. Closing date: 30th October 2015 We are currently looking to recruit an enthusiastic and Due to planned expansion, further vacancies will be available throughout the year – please check our website for details. motivated Director of Psychological Services to join the senior management team, who is registered as a For an application pack please visit our website www.beyondautism.org.uk or Practitioner Psychologist with formal training in supervision email [email protected]. of psychology colleagues and extensive experience of working in this field.

The post will take the strategic lead on promoting and developing psychological thinking and psychological methods in the treatment of our patients served by the trust. In particular the post holder will have responsibility for the development, governance and professional leadership of psychologists and psychological services throughout the Trust.

The ideal candidate will have a strong team work ethic, sense of accountability, accompanied by an ability to work under considerable pressure at times.

We are keen to support and develop our staff through a clear career pathway and encourage promotional opportunities within the Trust.

If you are looking for a new challenge, enjoy variety in your work and wish to be part of a team striving to make a difference for our community by supporting people with both mental health, learning disability or physical health needs then we want to hear from you.

For further information relating to this role, please contact Aidan Thomas, Chief Executive Officer on 01223 726758.

As part of the selection process you may be required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

To apply or find out more information about CPFT such as staff benefits and the services provided please visit – http://www.cpft.nhs.uk/about-us/latest-vacancies.htm To check the latest jobs please go to www.psychapp.co.uk Closing date: 8th October 2015.

We are an equal opportunities employer. to advertise please contact: Giorgio Romano, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, learning disability, social care, and community 020 7880 7556, services for adults and older people. We also provide children’s giorgio.romano@ community services in Peterborough. CPFT supports people to achieve the very best they can for their health and well being redactive.co.uk

seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 845 Job Title: Clinical Psychologist Employer: The Caldecott Foundation

The Caldecott Foundation has been caring for children since the 19th THE THERAPY SERVICES century. It now offers a full spectrum mix of 52 and 38 week residential The Caldecott Foundation provides care and education care: six comfortable homes, an assessment centre and on-site school as for children with social, emotional and behavioural diffi culties who may have experienced considerable well as linked services covering vocational learning and therapy. It also emotional / physical damage in their early years. offers a fostering service. The Foundation is now based in Ashford, Kent. Its work focuses on five- to 18-year-olds with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties stemming from early neglect and trauma. Their CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST residential service specialises in children with attachment issues, poor 1 day per week (minimum) self-esteem and sense of identity, sexualised behaviour, self-harm and Consultancy Bases – Rate of pay will be dependent on experience oppositional defiant disorder to name a few. The clinical psychology role advertised here sits within the We have an exciting new opportunity for a qualifi ed Clinical Psychologist to join our Therapy Team at the Caldecott Foundation. The new post is therapeutic stream of the Foundation’s work. ‘We started as a therapeutic based at our Assessment Centre in Ashford, Kent. community and therapy plays a huge role in our work,’ says Helen Jones, Your role would involve providing highly specialised psychological Head of Care at the foundation. ‘Our team includes a range of assessment and intervention for children and young people. As a Clinical psychotherapists and trainers and they, together with the clinical Psychologist you will work directly with the residential staff, teachers and psychologist, work closely with other staff and children. The psychologist children. The role will include giving support and training to all staff who work directly with the children. should also work with other agencies such as primary care settings, to improve therapeutic intervention. The psychologist’s role will include You will receive regular support and consultation from the Multidisciplinary team based at Ashford. training other staff. He or she will assess children during the initial placement and throughout their time in the community.’ You will be a qualifi ed Clinical Psychologist with at least 2 year experience and will be registered with the relevant professional bodies (BPS and HPC). The Foundation works with a very specific therapeutic model: ‘MBT- Mentalisation Based Therapy – concentrates on the ability to understand Further information and an application form are available at: http://www.thecaldecottfoundation.co.uk behaviour and feelings associated with mental states in ourselves and or alternatively contact Mrs Christine Abbott, HR Administrator on others. We’re dealing with very vulnerable children so we have a number 01303 815635 or [email protected] of courses and programmes in house as well as weekly case An Enhanced Criminal Record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service management meetings, group supervision and monthly key worker will be required for this post reports on each young person. Our constant goal is to improve practice Closing date for applications is: Friday, 9th October 2015 Interviews will be held on: TBC and ensure that each child is at the centre of appropriate, individualised Registered Charity No. 307889 services.’ ‘This role would be ideal for a qualified clinical psychologist with some experience of working in child services, who wants to support very multidisciplinary team. Adaptability, resilience, energy and a real challenging young people but is looking for a varied work load. It requires commitment to the young people they meet are critical. Reflective around seven hours a week but these may vary according to the needs of practice is important for all our staff. We’re looking for someone who the service.’ comes up with new creative ideas as well – our work involves constant ‘This person must work well – and enjoy working – in a new challenges.’

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST Band 8A – 8C An exciting new post is being created at this long established busy, independent residential hospital in Norwich dedicated solely to the treatment of eating disorders. to advertise We are looking for a senior psychologist with experience in this fi eld and excellent interpersonal skills to become a key member of the please contact: friendly, supportive multi-disciplinary team.

For a job description please contact Andrea Ramsden, General Giorgio Romano, Manager, on 01603 452226 or by e-mail [email protected] 020 7880 7556, www.newmarket-house.co.uk [email protected]

846 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 Clinical Psychologist 40 hours per week | Hertfordshire Salary will be dependent on your current level of experience

Vision Mental Healthcare (VMH) is an that are currently in place. You will be independent healthcare provider to based at Cornerstone House in Elstree, the NHS founded in 2008. The service Hertfordshire. is operated from Cornerstone House, an inpatient service with 26 beds. VMH We are looking for someone with a provides on-going treatment to patients high level of emotional intelligence who that have been discharged from the either already has the relevant current service; either in their own home or in experience or can be successfully supported living services. developed into the role.

The service specialises in MBT and To apply for the position please send a provides a complete inpatient program copy of your CV to the following email to patients with personality disorder. The address with a covering letter: program has been running for four years. [email protected]. In addition to the MBT service, structured Short-listed applicants will be contacted rehabilitation is provided to people with by email. Please check your emails other forms of mental disorder. regularly, including your junk/spam folder.

We are looking for a clinical psychologist Please note that Vision Mental Healthcare who has some clinical experience of is an equal opportunities employer. using behavioural chain analysis. The All successful candidates with be required successful candidate would also require to provide two references and have DBS an interest in MBT although clinical clearance. experience of the model is not essential as training will be provided both in- Closing date for receipt of completed house and via the Anna Freud Centre. application forms: Wednesday 14 October 2015. As part of your role you will be a pivotal member of the MDT and will work alongside other mental health professionals overseeing the programs

seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 847 HMP DOVEGATE Psychology Department Our consultants at Sugarman Mind are leading recruiters within both the NHS and private sector OPEN DAY – Saturday 10th October and will be there with you every step of the journey. 10.00am – 4.00pm WE CURRENTLY HAVE VACANCIES FOR: Are you passionate about making a positive di
erence to the lives of others? Mental If yes! Then please come along to our Open Day where you can meet some of IAPT Health the dedicated team from the Psychological Services department to fi nd out more about the work undertaken, the fantastic environment and the current Psychologists Therapists Practitioners opportunities we have. CONTACT US TODAY TO FIND OUT We are in the unique position of not only having a large Category B population ABOUT OUR REWARDING & but also a separate Therapeutic Communities prison. This is the only privately-run prison TC in the UK; a purpose-built therapeutic facility, o
ering its residents daily EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN group therapy and has psychological sta
on the clinical teams. YOUR PROFESSION: The work of the Psychological Services department includes assessment and intervention delivered individually and o
ers a range of accredited O
ending 0207 614 4250 Behaviour Programmes and non-accredited group interventions. We are actively involved in research, training sta
and consultancy where psychology work can [email protected] assist in projects and decision-making throughout the prison. @

We currently have vacancies for Qualifi ed Forensic Psychologists and encourage www.sugarman.co.uk anyone interested to come to our Open Day on 10th October to fi nd out more. If you are not yet qualifi ed but will be soon, please also come along to see the sugarman mind opportunities that we have at HMP Dovegate. Talking Therapies Community Mental Health Psychology Mental Health Nurses To register your interest in attending please contact Natalie Leech, Head of Psychological Services: [email protected]

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Following the recent acquisition of Kaisen Consulting Limited by Deloitte on 1st September 2015, we have bought together Kaisen’s expertise, with Deloitte’s global footprint and business knowledge to scale a new leadership practice globally. Deloitte’s Leadership practice, powered by Kaisen, advises companies on three main areas: defining leadership strategies, assessing individuals for their leadership potential and helping develop those individuals. Initially we are recruiting psychologists across Consultant through to Director level based in the UK to be part of our ambitious growth plans. We are looking for psychologists who have good commercial knowledge and experience. You will be professionally credible with senior management and have a good understanding of business, well-developed relationship management and project management skills, an open and challenging mind and a passion to meet client needs. Fluency in a second language would be very useful. If you are interested in working with us, please send your CV and covering letter to Alex Williams, [email protected] To read more about Deloitte Leadership powered by Kaisen, visit www.deloitte.co.uk/kaisen

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848 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 To check the latest jobs please go to www.psychapp.co.uk

to advertise please contact: Giorgio Romano, 020 7880 7556, [email protected]

seek and advertise at www.psychapp.co.uk 849 Everyday genius REVIEWS Genius implies someone with a mystical quality who can change the world, inducing awe. Kell and Lubinsky suggest fewer than 400 could be recognised over 2800 years, while Murray in his lively run through the history of ideas points out their Eurocentrism and early input by gods. They make a tricky psychological sample. Studies are retrospective and subjective whether by biographers or the genius’ own reports (e.g. Crick & Watson on Franklin), and of course no matched controls. Any study of genius is N = 1. Simonton’s 29 finely edited scholarly collection works around ideas of genius. Some chapters explain specific domains, such a music and literature. Belief is part of the job Worth remembering description. But the more one knows of these humans, the more fallible and less mystical they seem. Problem is, if you How to Have a Better Brain cannot convince the right people you’ve changed the world, BBC Radio 4 your rose will blush unseen. With the recent communications explosion your chances appear to be In this short series on BBC Radio 4, improved but they are also as cynically diminished. journalist, broadcaster and psychology Much of this collection is concerned with creativity. graduate Sian Williams considers different Weinstein agrees with Einstein that ordinary creative ways in which memory can be improved, or thinking, little-c, is the basis of all big-C. For Winner the how to have a ‘better brain’. Each of the gifted child never gets to big-C, because practised expertise programmes focuses on one particular gets in the way, and, for sure, savants don’t either. Where aspect of lifestyle that can affect memory: Galton concluded that only white men could reach genius, exercise, relaxation, stimulation, sleep and evidence of interacting genetic and environmental influences diet. Under each of these heading, Williams The Wiley is scientifically provided by Johnson and Bouchard. looks at the evidence for different Handbook of Intelligence, they write, has to be correlated with creative techniques that might improve, or at least Genius genius to acquire and use essential domain specific maintain, memory function. For example, in Dean Keith knowledge. the programme on exercise, Williams Simonton (Ed.) Wild emotions are popularly associated with genius, attempts to memorise a list of unconnected whether depressed Plath, obsessional Mondrian, words sitting down, and another list when psychopathic Picasso, alcoholic Dylan Thomas or buttoned-up walking around. Her later recall of the Emily Dickinson. A touch of megalomania helps. Andreason reluctantly concludes that second list is more successful. the jury on bipolar disorder and genius is still out. Genius is not the sum of its In each episode, Williams visits interacting parts, but its product. neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday Cognitive disinhibition and neuronal development are discussed, while Sternberg [University of Westminster and Chair of the proposes that geniuses learn their skills incrementally, and themselves appear in Psychologist and Digest Editorial Advisory clumps. Damian and Simonton describe hardship and diverse childhood experiences Committee] and her mother Scilla [pictured as common denominators, high in ‘latent inhibition, blind variation and selective above], a former consultant psychiatrist, retention’. Yet practical materials are as essential for production as the personal who has accelerated memory loss. These qualities of an efficient working memory. I presume there are limits to a genius’s early discussions are especially illuminating, and suffering. touching. Loveday applies her knowledge to Can anything more be said on genius after this cornucopia of psychological science create a lifestyle for Scilla that will help and anecdote? Yes. The rising Tiger Economies and other areas of the world are support and maintain her memory. For scarcely mentioned. There is also relatively little concern with psychological barriers, example one of the most successful such as gender and religion. What about the long-term effects of hot-housing? It would techniques is Scilla’s nightly habit of writing be helpful to have drawn guidelines on how to enable genius. Geniuses are assumed to down the day’s activities, and re-reading the be beneficial, whereas the brilliant rise of a dictator or a Machiavelli can similarly previous day’s entry, as a way of affect the world. Sheer luck is barely mentioned, such as Chain and Florey dusting off consolidating her memory. Fleming’s neglected paper on penicillin. At only 15 minutes long, each The mystery still remains why few can light up inspiration to genius while others programme can only be a whistle-stop tour of apparently equal potential and opportunity cannot. For example, not one of Terman’s of the latest research in that area. But as Californian 1500 child ‘geniuses’ gained a Nobel prize or equivalent. No thousands of a resource for anyone who is looking for hours of diligent practice can turn the humdrum novelist into an untutored Dickens some practical advice to give a friend or who makes the reader’s heart leap. As a reference on genius in the Western world, this relative who is worried about their memory handbook is excellent. But it may provide an epitaph to current thinking on the subject, – or if you are worried about your own – this implicit in Simonton’s end piece ‘Does scientific genius have a future?’. Popular is a great listen. interest in how the world can be changed is already fading from focus on magical individuals to teamwork and massive budgets. Less Einstein and more Silicon Valley. I All five episodes of How to Have a Better Brain are available on demand at I Wiley Blackwell; 2014; Hardback £120.00 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b067gcj6 Reviewed by Professor Joan Freeman who is at Middlesex University Reviewed by Kate Johnstone who is Associate Editor (Reviews)

850 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 reviews

Challenging current ideas Tales from the Madhouse: An Insider Critique of Psychiatric Services Gary Sidley

This book gives an informative implications this has for service insight into psychiatric services, users, particularly in terms of providing a brief overview and the recovery model and enabling critique of the history of people to feel empowered and psychiatric practices, helpfully motivated to make changes. It supported by more recent outlines the benefits of allowing clinical vignettes and anecdotes people to feel in control of their from the author to illustrate recovery rather than adopting some of the pitfalls in how an expert/patient approach – an mental illness was, and is still, area that is starting to change viewed. It raises some in current practice but still has interesting points regarding the a way to go. treatment of psychiatric patients Overall, I would recommend by staff and how this may be this book to anyone working in interpreted as discrimination, mental health as a way to feeding into the ‘them and us’ challenge some of the current stereotype and increasing ideas and assumptions in stigma in mental health. The working with those experiencing An extraordinary life author incorporates up-to-date emotional distress, and to work evidence and research to back towards an alternative approach On the Move – A Life up points made, and opens up that moves away from biological Oliver Sacks the debate between nature and psychiatry and towards a more nurture in looking at biogenetic compassionate response in vs. psychosocial explanations for order to instil hope and On the Move, published a few months before his death in August, the development of mental motivation with the aim of describes Oliver Sacks’s life in a beautifully engaging, lively and disorders. promoting recovery. sincere style enabling the reader to understand the real author This thought-provoking book behind celebrated works such as Hallucinations, Awakenings and also highlights issues I PCCS Books; 2015; Pb £18.00 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Although this might not be surrounding the use of Reviewed by Helen Crocker considered a psychology-related book, it is a revealing work that medication as a way to manage who is a psychological wellbeing expresses Sacks’s curiosity for understanding the fragile and mental illness, and the practitioner enigmatic human mind, the passion for his job and the numerous challenges he has faced throughout his private life and career. Within this collection of memories together with illustrative For more reviews, photos, Oliver Sacks can be perceived as a multidimensional and including evolving character: He is not simply a neurologist who wrote books The Autistic Gardner, but a trustworthy doctor who not only does his best to treat his patients but also creates an emotional attachment with them. 45 Years, and Through a clear, touching and uplifting style, the reader can Tom Farsides on the new empathise with him, with his feelings, dreams and ambitions. His Peter Singer book hobbies and passions, such as the love for motorcycles, snorkelling and travelling, are revealed alongside episodes from his private life, The most good you can do: including family issues, friendships and relationships. How effective altruism is The puzzling ways in which the human mind operates are also changing ideas about living ethically, visit a recurring theme. Letters from patients, students and colleagues, meetings and conferences, the making of documentaries and http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/reviews movies are included in these pages and a feeling of hugeness pervades the readers when they realise how much Sacks’s Sample titles just in: contribution in the field of neurology and also neuropsychology Offenders, Deviants or Patients? An Introduction to Clinical has helped in the improvement of diagnoses of several relatively Criminology Herschel Prins unknown disorders and conditions that would become the main in just Sexuality in Adolescence: The Digital Generation Meredith thread of his work. Temple-Smith, Susan Moore & Doreen Rosenthal This is a remarkable autobiography about one extraordinary life. Reflections on the Aesthetic Experience John D. Greenwood I Picador; 2015; Hb £20.00 For a full list of books available for review and information on Reviewed by Sara Pisani who is an undergraduate at City University reviewing for The Psychologist, see www.bps.org.uk/books

For our September 2013 interview, plus links to Oliver Sacks’s work Send books for potential review to The Psychologist, and other tributes, see http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/ten-best- 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR oliver-sacks-1933-2015

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An unflinching and addictive Enduring fascination performance The Amazing World of M.C. Escher People, Places and Things Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh The National Theatre As a graduate student in the work of Escher hanging a in People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan opens with a period 1960s I found Escher prints on a British gallery, and this scene of a woman’s disintegration, which feels familiar. It soon the walls of many of my exhibition of over 100 prints is becomes apparent that it is Chekhov’s The Seagull, and we are contemporaries, and indeed in the largest ever display of his watching Nina, but along with the familiarity is a sense that chemistry, physics, mathematics works in the UK. something is out of kilter. We realise that we are watching a play and other science labs. This was Escher has a rather unique within a play, and it is not Nina’s disintegration we are witnessing, in contrast to the Brueghels, the connection with the British but the actress who plays Nina. Leonardos and the Psychological Society in that Cut to a white medical setting where Nina, as she refers to Impressionists which adorned a paper published in the British herself, is checking in to a rehab facility. Dark humour masks the the walls of my friends in the Journal of Psychology in 1958 desperation of her situation as she instructs her mother over the arts and humanities. This quiet (see tinyurl.com/pvvq8z6) so telephone to get rid of all the drink and drugs at her flat. She is and unassuming Dutchman, excited his interest that it led assessed by a doctor, and refuses to give her real name – in fact whose work is regarded as little to correspondence with the we never really know who she is right until the end of the play. more than a sideshow by art authors (the mathematicians Stunning stage direction follows in which Nina (Denise Gough, historians, continues to have Lionel and Roger Penrose) and who gives a stand-out and exhausting performance of anger, energy enormous cultural impact was the direct inspiration for and emotion throughout the play) goes through detox from drugs through films, advertising, several of his works. Roger and alcohol. First the walls begin to break down, and then Nina after computer games and even Lego. Penrose had encountered the Nina appear from the same bed, tortured and writhing, one soiling Apparently there is only a single art of Escher while attending herself, one ripping pages out of a book, in scenes reminiscent of descriptions detox patients give of delirium tremens. We move to group therapy, the therapy of choice in Addiction, where Nina is now Emma. Various stages of therapy are played out Identity, race and belonging in a kaleidoscope of switching characters and timeframes around Emma like piggy in the middle. It culminates in a furious scene Labels where Emma refuses to accept that it is she who is broken, rather Edinburgh Fringe Festival it is the world which needs fixing. Gough is extraordinary here. An angry, cynical polemic is delivered by a woman who has no idea who ‘Where are you from?’ To she is or what she feels, her emptiness highlighted by her some, these four words are profession – she acts because she has no identity, no personality, rife with baggage, hidden and can feel no truth unless she speaks the fictional words of meanings, judgement, and others. When that fails, drugs and alcohol are her truth. a sense of questioning of In the second half Emma is now Sarah, and checking back into one’s authentic sense of rehab after a major relapse. Sarah is ready to do the work Nina and self. Joe Sellman-Leava Emma could not do, and she moves towards some sort of resolution. and the Worklight Group therapy provides a safe space for her to rehearse how she will Theatre’s production of make amends to her family, and she is able to graduate from the Labels, performed at the treatment programme and return home. Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Some details in the play did not ring true, mainly in the portrayal seeks to tackle and of the therapist. Few therapists would use the word ‘addict’, with all deconstruct this seemingly its pejorative undertones. Even fewer would break good practice and innocuous question and safeguarding protocols at the insistence of a client. It may make the meaning it presents to good theatre to allow things to kick off in group therapy, but it’s those from immigrant, and rarely what would happen. particularly ethnic It would be too easy for me as an addiction researcher to get minority, backgrounds. hung up on things which weren’t quite right, rather than focusing Mr Sellman-Leava’s on the play as a whole, and the performances within it. I applaud play is a one-man show in the play for not flinching from the ambiguity of addiction, and for not which he, quite serving up feel-good clichés, nor the simplistic alternative of despair realistically, embodies and despondency. In the final scene we witness just how much various personalities to damage Nina/Emma/Sarah/whoever has done to her family, and her showcase the current mother’s need to sabotage her daughter in return is one of the most political discourse surrounding walked by ethnic minorities in powerful scenes I can recall in any play. The treatment programme immigration, interwoven with his Britain, from the construction of in the play is based on the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step model with own personal experience of being a surname, to systemic its central tenet of spirituality, but there is no spiritual awakening for an individual of bi-racial descent, discrimination as experienced in our protagonist. People, Places and Things is a very good play indeed. born to a white British mother the labour market, to even facing and a Ugandan Asian father. His racist comments on dating I Reviewed by Dr Sally Marlow who is at the National Addiction personal narrative is often applications such as Tinder! Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience King’s striking and realistically depicts Interacting with the audience, College London the nuances and tightropes Sellman-Leava gets them to ‘step See www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/people-places-and-things

852 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 A G D LRGT RESERVED RIGHTS LL EMEENTEMUSEUM RAWING reviews H ANDS , 1948 D EN . WWW BY H AAG M.C. E . MCESCHER © 2015 T SCHER . COM . C a conference in HE with a continuously personality. He cut a rather OLLECTION Amsterdam, and was M.C. E flowing stream of lone furrow in his time, with particularly excited by water. no connection whatsoever with the prints ‘House of SCHER This terrific the flourishing contemporary

Stairs’ and ‘Relativity’. C exhibition will surrealist movement in art. It is Penrose started to OMPANY delight fans of ironic that such a private man

design his own . science fiction and of became the godfather of ‘problem pictures’, as computer graphics psychedelic art, and who turned he called them, and the BJP BJP article and at the bottom of as well being of particular down offers from Mick Jagger to paper ‘Impossible objects’ which there is a man holding a interest to psychologists. design a record cover [see featured a perspective drawing cube with similar pedigree to Judging by the footfall in the tinyurl.com/o28s5rx], and who of a ‘tri-bar’ familiar to the impossible triangle. Escher Edinburgh gallery, Escher’s ignored a request by Stanley thousands of psychology also sent the Penroses a copy amazing craftsmanship is Kubrick to work on a film students through Richard of his lithograph ‘Ascending and evident to all, and continues to exploring the fourth dimension! Gregory’s book Eye and Brain. Descending’, inspired by the have an enduring fascination. Escher wrote to the Penroses endless staircase depicted in The exhibition notes and I The exhibition is moving to the enclosing a print of his the Penrose article, together catalogue indicate an intriguing Dulwich Picture Gallery, London ‘Belvedere’ which he had with ‘Waterfall’, a reworking of disparity between his work and from 14 October to 17 January created years before he read the the tri-bar form into a viaduct his reserved and very private Reviewed by Peter Wright

in the shoes’ of his various articulates repeated experiences The Sick of the Fringe characters. Between his personal of his encountering ‘But you ain’t Edinburgh Fringe Festival narrative, he alludes to the British, mate, you’re Asian’, historical narrative of British despite him being bi-racial and The Sick of the (Edinburgh) Fringe, supported by the Wellcome Trust, immigration policy, channelling growing up in a middle-class aims to ‘inspire collaboration between science and the arts’. Organiser Enoch Powell and his famous British family. Moscovici’s social and compere Brian Lobel, who does shows about his own health issues, 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’, Idi representation theory comes to has spoken of creating a ‘space for shared vulnerability’, and it is Amin, David Cameron and Ed light in his examples – certainly good to see room for difficult stories around medicine, mental Miliband reflecting on the migrant representations of a particular and physical wellbeing and how they are expressed at the Fringe. boat crisis, and quotes from ethnic group are perpetuated and This is its first year, and it has ambitious aims to be open and celebrities such as Jeremy become accepted as ‘authentic’. inquiring, to follow as well as lead. Inevitably this means it is also Clarkson. Whilst his narrative is Labels astutely raises the issue confusing and contradictory. The title implies issues of health and framed through the lens of the of the ‘politics of representation’ sickness, and yet this is not the stated aim. I came as a psychotherapist British Asian experience, his – if negative stereotypes of and the first discussion about depression and Bryony Kimmings’ show performance is accessible and immigrants continue to run Fake It ‘Til You Make It (reviewed in the September issue) seemed relatable to all audiences, who rampant, and acceptance into familiar territory. The second was Simon McBurney discussing his one- get a glimpse of how, despite the the larger British mainstream is man show, ending with an extended riff on the need for changing purported view of tolerance of denied, can ethnic ghetto-isation consciousness of climate change, very similar to that of John Burnside British society, racism continues be surprising? at the Book Festival. I also attended Sir Colin Blakemore’s talk on to be systemically entrenched. Labels cleverly uses political perception, and Liz Carr’s brilliant discussion about disability and There’s much social and personal narratives to enable assisted suicide. psychology in how Labels seeks to questions and conversations – if I was enchanted, inspired and challenged by all the events. I was deconstruct the prevalent notion we can identify with Sellman- also confused: I like to understand the narrative and comfortably land of what it means to be British – is Leava’s own story at a human at the end. However, I know that is unrealistic, and usually means that it a race-bound construct, or can level, why then are we immune uncertainties have been missed, and valuable loops and byways not answers such as ‘I’m from to those ‘other’ migrants who explored. By the end, I was no clearer about where the programme was Devon/Cheltenham’ from an are dying on boats to reach safe leading, but I had enjoyed myself very much and had great conversations. ethnic minority be accepted at havens? With immigration a Most powerfully I’m reminded of the importance of awareness of the face value? Labels alludes to current hot topic, Labels forces needs of the environment we live in. Burnside and McBurney, both group processes involved in us to examine whether we are passionately concerned at our slide into over-consumption and Other-isation – whereby even merely paying lip service to degradation of the oceans in particular, left me wondering how the world an ethnic name can be seen to multiculturalism when confronted of the arts can help us to take this seriously, both in our own lives and as influence job prospects, and with our own social political animals. Finally, as a psychotherapist, I wanted to join in with potentially stir up feelings of representations as to who can what I know of the body–mind connection, as it felt so different from the disenfranchisement. Notions really be ‘British’. world of theatre. Can psychotherapy join this discussion, addressing of authenticity and of multiple health, wellbeing and the life and death questions raised here? identities come into play – I Reviewed by Karim Mitha who is particularly when Sellman-Leava at the University of Edinburgh I Reviewed by Cathie Wright, Edinburgh

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 853 reviews

Understanding OCD I had observed some schizophrenic patients who A Monster in My Mind were utterly convinced that BBC Two (Horizon series) their irrational thoughts were nothing but the bare truth. By Uta Frith on why she was pleased to be asked to be involved contrast, the patient’s account of himself was incredibly rational. His monster had only When I was a young student in Saarbrücken, accidentally acquired. It was a monstrous grown stronger over the years; Germany in the early 1960s, I was quite fear that haunted him all his waking hours, he knew the cleaning undecided what I should study. I went to and that no amount of washing could rid procedures he imposed on many different lectures, with no idea what him of. himself were hopelessly subject to specialise in. One day my decision Like most people I had thought that ineffective and only ever gave was suddenly made for me. being obsessive and compulsive was merely him a few moments’ relief, yet For a psychiatry lecture, which a quirky personality characteristic, and quite he could not stop them. psychologists as well as medical students a common one. I imagined that I too was From then on I knew what could attend, the professor had brought a bit obsessive. I can remember that, as I wanted to do. I wanted to be along one of his patients who suffered from a child I sometimes had the urge to touch a researcher and find out what OCD. The patient impressed me hugely. He every fence post, and I am still strongly makes the mind behave in spoke in a strikingly rational way about how drawn to straightening picture frames when such a strangely contradictory he was obsessed by an absurdly irrational they hang askew. But that was a long way way. How could your own mind fear. He was convinced that, if he did not rid from the case that I witnessed. It made me keep you in thrall of some himself of germs, there was a real chance realise that OCD is a harrowing mental unimaginable fear when you that he could infect members of his family illness. But this was also very different from knew that the fear was irrational? This was through wounds they might have what I had imagined mental illness to be. like creating your own nightmare and never

An ideal resource Clarifying diagnostic obfuscations Psychology of Physical Activity: Determinants, Disruptive Mood: Irritability in Children and Well-being and Interventions (3rd edn) Adolescents Stuart Biddle, Nanette Mutrie & Trish Gorely Argyris Stringaris & Eric Taylor

Given the high level of author expertise in this textbook, I was very eager to get stuck in. The breadth and depth of topics covered is While irritability and tantrums obfuscations. comprehensive and of note from the outset. With insights drawn from are a hallmark of early In addition to exploring epidemiology, health psychology, public health, medicine and exercise childhood, they are of concern neuroscientific models of science, much more than a purely psychological perspective can be when they assume chronic or anger and irritability, the book gained from reading. As well as discussion of key theoretical models, intense proportions. also offers practical this book also integrates practical resources and guidance on physical Disruptive Mood situates guidelines on how to manage activity assessment tools. The range of international intervention irritability within the context these negative emotions in examples across school, workplace, primary healthcare and beyond of child psychopathology. The various psychological ensure there are ideas of relevance to a wide readership. book is a useful guide for conditions. The strategies An important addition to this edition is a section clinicians who have to make covered include devoted to sedentary behaviour: the ‘new kid on the block’ black-or-white diagnostic pharmacological interventions of activity research. Addressed at the end of the book with decisions based on symptoms to CBT to parent training accompanying epidemiological and intervention evidence, that range anywhere on a programmes. While the book this sets the scene for future research trends in the field. spectrum of greys. Further, is a good resource for those Another important change in this edition is the discussion diagnoses is also complicated who work in the field of of physical activity interventions. This is now framed by the fact that irritability can paediatric mental health, the around behaviour change models and techniques, clearly be a diagnosis in and of itself reader should be forewarned reflecting a shift in theoretical models over recent years. as in disruptive mood that it takes the DSM-5 as the Discussion of interventions also gives a useful focus on dysregulation disorder, or gold standard of psychiatric process evaluations: promoting assessment of why not it can be one of several diagnoses. For those who are simply whether a physical activity intervention works or not. symptoms of a disorder like sceptical of some of the A new companion website with question bank, PowerPoint slides the manic phase in bipolar classifications of DSM-5, this and additional learning activities make this an ideal resource for disorder or depression. Other book does not offer a critique physical activity teaching. I have no doubt that as with previous editions, conditions, like ADHD, which or alternative to current this version will be a widely recommended text for students, do not include irritability in psychiatric models. researchers and health professionals interested in physical activity their diagnostic criteria, may promotion. Even if you just have an interest in the activity choices of be accompanied by irritability. I Oxford; 2015; Pb £24.99 yourself, friends or family, this is a great book to get you well informed. Finally, certain organic Reviewed by Aruna conditions, like epilepsy, may Sankaranarayanan who is I Routledge; 2015; Pb £45.00 result in irritability. The Director of PRAYATNA, a Reviewed by Emma Norris who is a PhD student at University College authors have done a fine job centre for children with London of clarifying these diagnostic learning difficulties in India

854 vol 28 no 10 october 2015 reviews

being carried out with humans in the brain scanner at Cambridge’s Addenbrookes’ Hospital. I was also excited to meet David Adams, whose insightful account of his own OCD in his book The Man Who Couldn’ t Stop is better than any textbook. I discovered that the leading OCD researchers are on the way to finding the brain abnormality that can explain the cruel Have tricks that OCD plays on the mind. Trevor Robbins and his group in Cambridge have identified a critical neural circuit, connecting two major brain regions. One is the orbitofrontal cortex, known to be concerned with achieving valued goals. The other is you mid-brain region, the basal ganglia. This is known to be associated with our ability to acquire automatic habits. According to Robbins, in the case of OCD the habit system has gained dominance over the heard… goal-directed system, just as it does in drug addiction. It’s an ancient system that serves as a precaution against invisible threats, being able to escape from it. such as contamination and predator attack, I started to read avidly about mental but in OCD it seems that this system cannot illness and found that the then available be turned off. The potential threat is ever methods of treatment, ranging from present. There is no way to obtain certainty lobotomy, electroshock, psychoactive drugs that it has disappeared. to psychoanalysis, were spectacularly I was also struck by the ‘hyper- unsuccessful. But then, in the psychology responsibility’ of the patients: their family, department I heard about a new way of even the world at large will be treating mental illness that was being catastrophically affected if they fail to carry developed in London’s Maudsley Hospital. out precautionary rituals. Why? I couldn’t let I knew I had to go there and learn more go of this question. We know little about how about it. we control our own thoughts. Fortunately, The revolutionary new way was called most of us are under the illusion that ‘behaviour therapy’, and OCD, together with unwanted thoughts are not caused by us, other anxiety disorders, was a showcase for but by ‘our brain’. We can dismiss them, and its success. By good fortune I was accepted then we do not feel responsible for them. on a course in what was then called People with OCD don’t have this luxury. The ‘abnormal psychology’. I had already unwanted thoughts intrude on their full decided to do a PhD on OCD, but fate consciousness, creating the illusion that intervened. During my rotation on the they did cause them, and therefore that they course I met children with autism. This are responsible. diverted my interest from OCD (although By the end of the filming I was The new podcast from autism too is often associated with convinced that OCD provides an amazing obsessions and compulsions). example of how our common understanding The British From time to time I have wondered of mental illness has gradually changed wistfully what progress had been made in over the last 50 years. Today we have much Psychological Society’s our understanding of OCD. This was why more awareness of mental illness and put I was extremely excited to be asked to less blame on those who are affected. Research Digest present this documentary. It gave me a Professional help is available. There are also chance to catch up on new developments excellent support networks that inform and and it immediately rekindled my earliest inspire. Exciting advances are being made interests in the mind and brain. about the abnormal functioning of particular Listen via One particularly gratifying experience brain circuits, but that’s only the start. To during filming was that I was able to visit understand how brain and mind relate to www.bps.org.uk/digest Isaac Marks, who had been one of the each other is a hugely complex enterprise. pioneers of behaviour therapy at the We have hardly embarked on it. Maudsley when I was a student. It was fascinating to hear him reminisce about his I BBC resource: www.bbc.co.uk/guides/ first attempts to apply the insights he had z2vxp39 gained from an animal learning experiment More behind the scenes: he had watched in the US. www.slam.nhs.uk/media/our-blog/ Remarkably, later on during the filming, behind-the-scenes-making-a-bbc- I saw a version of this same experiment documentary-on-ocd

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk 855 that the power of the ‘expert’ is of occupational psychology to easy to abuse. business schools where … with Jo Silvester journals are given a greater One great thing that REF weighting compared to psychology has achieved psychology. ‘Nothing you learn is I’d say ‘reach’. I’ve been

ONE ON visiting university open days One cultural with my daughters, and recommendation ever redundant’ several of their friends have Doctor Who. joined me for work experience. It’s easy to forget One alternative career path how much psychology inspires My PhD investigated parental interest among young people. attributions in child abuse, I know some people worry and I won a place to train as One moment that changed Liberal Democrat Party and about the popularity of a clinical psychologist, but the course of your career implementing 360-degree psychology – that it may I decided I wasn’t cut out to It would have to be a press review for candidates in the somehow lead to a ‘dumbing work full-time in the area. interview at the BPS 2010 general election. I now come across Centenary Conference in writing about abuse 2001, which led to the One essential and power in political newspapers picking up on my characteristic for a contexts – I guess research about diversity and politician nothing you learn is selection. I received a letter For the past decade ever redundant. from Christina Dykes, who Maddy Wyatt and I have was then Director of collected self-report data One nugget of advice Candidates for the from many hundreds of for aspiring Conservative Party. Christina politicians. We now have psychologists invited me along to discuss good evidence (empirical Don’t be afraid to take how they could develop a and qualitative) that risks and challenge fairer and more objective three qualities emerge current paradigms. There process for approving consistently as are only so many ways prospective parliamentary important: ‘analytical you can test a theory – candidates. I got to redesign skills’ (i.e. cognitive focus on creating your the Party’s procedures based ability), ‘resilience’, and own. on best practice from ‘relating to others’. occupational psychology. In ‘Communicating vision’ One hero from the 2005 general election we and ‘developing support’ psychology past or captured the first empirical were also key to present evidence that critical thinking performance for political Donald Broadbent because ability impacts on electoral candidates, and local he helped me jumpstart my performance (i.e. the politicians identified integrity down’ of the discipline – but car when I was an percentage swing in votes as important (strangely this this energy and enthusiasm undergraduate student at a achieved by a candidate). The did not emerge for national can only be positive. BPS conference. Here was one work led on to many other politicians). If I had to say of the great minds of cognitive projects, including redesigning which I thought was key to One challenge psychology psychology asking me about selection procedures for the getting elected, I’d say faces what I wanted to do as a ‘communicating vision’ – I think a major challenge for future psychologist. My heroes voters need to know what the discipline is the need to are those people who have Jo Silvester politicians believe and what reconcile divisions between achieved success, whilst is Professor of they think is important. research and practice, and avoiding the traps of hubris, Organisational between pure and applied who still have the humanity Psychology, Cass One book that you think all research. University and interest to encourage Business School, psychologists should read appointments are driven by a lesser mortals along the way. City University London One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s need for applicants to have 4* Nest, because it reminds us publications for the REF. In One psychological psychology most 4* journals superpower I’d like to have are not concerned with I’d like to be able to applied areas, and the knock- understand my dog. Attachment – beyond interpersonal relationships, and much more... on effect is a reluctance to I Contribute: reach 50,000 colleagues, with something to suit all. See appoint staff to teach applied One inspiration www.thepsychologist.org.uk/contribute or talk to the editor, Dr Jon postgraduate courses without My mother (a teacher) was Sutton, on [email protected], +44 116 252 9573 such publications; even if fond of quoting Piaget: ‘play they have extensive expertise is work you enjoy doing’. coming soon coming I Comment: email the editor, the Leicester office, or tweet @psychmag. I To advertise: Reach a large and professional audience at bargain as practitioners and rates: see details on inside front cover. professionals. This perhaps More answers online at leads to the steady migration www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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