An eNewspaper for the Psychology Community The Psychology Times Independent Voice for Psychology in Louisiana Vol. 10, No. 1 January 2019 Vol. 10, No. 1 INSIDE Amitai Heller Appointed as Consumer Member to Psychology Board – Page 3 Dr. Jennings Discusses Rural Health – Page 3 LSBEP Nominations Open – Page 3 From the Minutes LSBEP Discussions – Page 4 CDC and Dr. Pedersen on Brain- Cont’d pg 3 Health – Page 5 Stress Solutions Dr. Andrews – Page 6 2018 Year in Review Bookshelf Dr. Reed's Hectic The year was relatively calm on the meantime, the state board said it JANUARY 2018 political front, with a budget deal will rework its complaints process. Happiness finally being made that took higher Ongoing positive reports of the Dr. Chaney Serving on Governor – Page 17 education and healthcare off the prison reforms were frequently in Edwards’ Task Force to Prevent chopping block. The legislative the news, innovations that in part Sexual HarassMent and Rachelle Schuck session produced a bill that reflect the work of Dr. Susan Discrimination Governor Edwards restructured state healthcare boards, Tucker. The year was packed full of named Industrial-Organizational LSPA's School adding a consumer member to the psychology researchers from all Psychologist Dr. Courtland Chaney Psychologist of Year LSBEP. Two news events continue over presenting at conferences to the Governor’s Task Force on to unfold: the psychological around the country, while several Sexual Harassment and – Page 18 association and the psychology famous scientists came here for Discrimination Policy. board dug in their hills about the local continuing education events. Dr. Angela Breidenstine expanded EPPP-2; and Cerwonka vs Drs. Frick and Matson were named Appointed to Children’s Trust Shrink at the Flicks LSBEP continued with twists and top scientists at year end. The Fund Board The Governor turns––two of the several items that community lost a cherished Dr. Burstein Reviews appointed Angela S. Breidenstine, Judge Caldwell used to vacate the colleague, Dr. Fred Davis. Even PhD, of New Orleans, to the Mary Poppins board's decision were reversed at the with that sad note, it was a good Louisiana Children's Trust Fund Returns– Page 16 appeals court, while others were year in Louisiana psychology. returned to Caldwell. In the Cont’d pg 7 The Psychology Times 2018 COMMUNITY AWARDS The Times scanned the year's news and activities and found glowing examples of community contributions and leadership. For our Community Awards we focus on these special people, some new and some regulars, who pushed for excellence in hoping to make our community better, who innovated and persevered, and who made that extra effort to improve our lives and the lives of others. We thank and honor them for their vision and dedication to our community! Psychology Times, January 2019 - Page 2 Editorials and Opinions What's the Matter with Psychology? by Times publisher, J. Nelson In his recent study of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology, known as the EPPP, Dr. Brian Sharpless uncovered some serious problems. His data shows that the New York state psychology board's use of the EPPP has what is called adverse impact. Adverse impact, or "disparate impact," means that the New York board's selection procedures result in differing pass-fail rates for different races. The gaps between the pass-fail rates are large enough for African- Americans and Hispanics to fall into disparate impact discrimination as described in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which brings the whole process under scrutiny. The EPPP can be roughly considered a type of selection testing. In the business setting, when a testing program has adverse impact, everything changes. Without adverse impact a company could use tea leaves to predict job performance and it wouldn't matter, only a waste of time and money. When psychologists find these differences in scores they go running around like crazy people to the logical leap from that to the goal of "protecting the public" is a find ways to eliminate the impact, or at least dramatically reduce it. task of predicting job performance behaviors, and that is more Dr. Sharpless' findings should not be ignored by state boards. It is complex. reasonable to assume that if New York's use the EPPP produces Boards aren't employers. Boards don't have the luxury or economic adverse impact, then other boards, using a similar cut-off, will also rationale to set the cut-off to exclude average or even poor have adverse impact on minority candidates. performers, since lack-luster job performance is not a danger to the A strong case of validity, including a study of test bias, is required public. There is always a bell-shaped curve of performance and boards are focused at the bottom of the distribution, on those now in regard to the EPPP especially if the exam score winds up as the single data point for why an African-American or Hispanic behaviors that lead to "gross negligence." Good luck with that. With candidate is denied a license. a base rate of .002 for disciplinary actions, we're going to need it. The EPPP is content validated which makes sense to a point. It is Dr. Sharpless' finding calls for scrutiny of methods at the a way to confirm that the candidate has mastered a body of Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB). The questions and problems appear to be mounting in regard to knowledge, and a double-check on educational requirements. But their decisions in selection testing, including the new expanded test, EPPP-2. This is no small irony. Psychologists are the elite providers of tests and selection programs. We literally wrote the book on this. If our selection program winds up in court––and fails– –there will be egg-on-the-face to go around. The Psychology Times It is not clear to me who is in charge when it comes to the use of the EPPP and the ethical and professional responsibility for the Member, Louisiana Press Association testing program used at the boards. The ASPPB is a non-profit business organization but it’s “members“ are state boards. Who is Published monthly legally responsible and who is supposed to fix the problem once identified? by Nelson News, LLC. [email protected] Dr. Sharpless' research finding seems to be the newest example of things that are not going well in psychology, which appear to be failings in our group level problem-solving. I've observed that for us Publisher: Julie Nelson, PhD to identify and confront a problem, the issue unfortunately has to Journalism Consultant: reach a crisis level. Robert Holeman, What’s the matter with psychology? Editor (Ret.), The Coushatta Citizen, Winn Parish Enterprise. Why did it take a law suit for the LSBEP to correct its complaints process, which had gone off the tracks years before? Columnists/Reporters: Why did APA hire Hoffman, an attorney with no experience in Susan Andrews, PhD, Alvin Burstein, PhD psychology, to deal with crisis issues at APA that were Cartoonist: Jake Nelson-Dooley psychological, professional and organizational in nature? Photography: Yael Banai, PhD, Mike Dooley, MBA Why did it take an outsider and a Freedom of Information Act Tom Stigall, PhD request for us to find out about the adverse impact with the EPPP? What's the matter with psychology? Copy editor: Susan Brown We welcome ideas for news, features, Letters to the Editor, photos, and other material related to psychological community of Louisiana. [Julie Nelson is a licensed psychologist, journalist, and organizational consultant, and publisher of the Times. She also holds other various positions in the community. However, her Editorials and commentary reflect the opinions of this newspaper. opinions here are those of her own, and do not represent any group or association. She and the Columns and Letters to the Editor express the opinions of the writers and Times receive no compensation other than paid advertising. Email her at not necessarily those of The Psychology Times. All materials copyrighted [email protected], ––she welcomes feedback.] by J. Nelson unless otherwise noted. The Times is NOT affiliated with any organization, other than the Press Association. Corrections & Clarifications George Hebert pointed out that we typed "guess" speaker rather than Subscriptions are free. To subscribe go to the Times at guest, in the story about Dr. Matson. Other than that and some other http://thepsychologytimes.com/ typos pointed out by Ms. Brown, we did not receive corrections for December. Send your corrections to: [email protected] Psychology Times, January 2019 - Page 3 State & National News Gov. Appoints Mr. Heller To Psychology Board as New Consumer Member On December 27 the Governor appointed Amitai Heller, of New Orleans, to the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. Heller is an attorney with the Advocacy Center of Louisiana. He will serve as a private citizen and consumer member on the board, a new reform put forward in the 2018 legislative session by Senator Mills. Mr. Heller works in the legal division of the Advocacy Center, an organization that serves people with disabilities and senior citizens. According to their website, "The Advocacy Center of Louisiana protects, empowers, and advocates for the human and legal rights of people with disabilities and seniors living in Louisiana, in order that they may In December the Governor appointed Amitai Heller to the board as the new consumer member. Mr. Heller is live an integrated life in the community, an attorney with the Advocacy Center of Louisiana. Above are (L to R) Drs. Amy Henke, Jesse Lambert, Koren free from abuse, neglect and Boggs, and Leah Crouch (facing away).