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Psychology calls itself the science of behavior, and the American Psychological Association’s current “Decade of Behavior” was intended to increase awareness and appreciation of this aspect of the science. Yet some psychological subdisciplines have never directly studied behavior, and behavior is dwindling rapidly in other subdisciplines. We discuss the eclipse of behavior in personality and social psychology, in which direct observation of behavior has been increasingly supplanted by introspective self-reports, hypothetical scenarios, and questionnaire ratings. We advocate a renewed commitment to including direct observation of behavior whenever possible, and in at least a healthy minority of research projects.

In addition to direct effects on detainees, interrogators, intelligence agencies, and law, the U.S. torture program had additional corrupting influences on other aspects of society. This chapter explores the effects that the torture program had on civil society by exploring its effects on the profession of psychology and on the largest U.S. psychological professional organization, the American Psychological Association (APA). We briefly summarize public knowledge regarding the involvement of psychologists in the CIA and DoD "enhanced interrogation" torture programs. We then describe the public response of the APA as news of this knowledge emerged. However, the public response did not match the APA’s behind-the-scenes actions, as was revealed by a 2015 Independent Review of APA leaders' potential complicity with the torture program conducted by Chicago attorney David Hoffman. The resultant Hoffman Report found a pattern of backchannel collaboration ("collusion") to ensure that APA ethics guidelines on psychologists' interrogation support did not constrain psychologists beyond permissive DoD rules. We then put psychology's interrogation controversy in the context of broader issues regarding the ethics of “operational psychology,” that is, the use of psychological knowledge and expertise by psychologists to further military and intelligence operations. We argue that certain operational psychology applications conflict with the ethics of the profession, and question whether practitioners of such applications properly belong to the profession of psychology. We conclude with a call for a Truth Commission to document the involvement of psychologists in post-9/11 detention and interrogation processes, and to focus on lessons learned regarding professional relations with the security sector, so that future generations of psychologists are less likely to repeat post-9/11 mistakes.

Treatment guidelines may be a useful tool in training mental health professionals to combine clinical experience with current research information in a format that enables the practitioner to narrow treatment variance to the benefit of the patient. On the other hand, treatment guidelines have the potential to narrow the range of available services and to stifle clinician creativity. This chapter uses as a template for comparing treatment guidelines those prepared by the American Psychological Association (APA). These guidelines for the generation of guidelines highlight the process and the political context of treatment guidelines. The chapter also examines the existing treatment guidelines for depression in some detail. The analysis of existing guidelines provides the background for the generation of more extensive guidelines.

In conducting ethnographic research, it is important that fieldworkers have ethical guidelines to provide direction concerning ethical standards, professional conduct, and methods of obtaining high-quality data. In this chapter, the authors address issues that they faced in developing guidelines for ethnographic fieldwork on sexual behavior among Latino men who have sex with men (MSM). Ethnographic observations were conducted as part of a larger study concerning contextual influences on sexual risk among Brazilian, Colombian, and Dominican gay men in the New York City area. Gay-identified Latino fieldworkers carried out participant observation in venues where Latino men went to socialize and to find sex partners. Existing guidelines from professional organizations did not adequately address the unique and special conditions that these fieldworkers faced. Therefore, the authors set out to create their own set of guidelines that prohibited sex and drinking between researchers and their informants. This chapter also compares the different ethical guidelines developed by the two leading psychological and anthropological organizations, the American Psychological Association and the American Anthropological Association, and observes greater ethical flexibility among anthropologists.

This chapter draws upon the experiences of its authors as psychological counselors for survivors of torture, as well as their expertise as professors of psychology. They argue that the psychological effects of torture on mental health are multi-dimensional, and affect its survivors, their families, their communities, and those who treat their trauma. Societies that resort to using torture also harm those who are tasked with torturing others. Torture frequently leads to trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder among its survivors, and presents difficulty for functioning in a variety of aspects of everyday life. Many torture survivors are also refugees forced to flee their homes, which often magnifies the difficulties of achieving recovery from torture. The authors suggest, however, that torture survivors often achieve significant degrees of recovery and reintegration into their communities when given adequate support and counseling. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the role psychologists and the American Psychological Association played in facilitating the United States' use of torture against captives in its war on terror.

This chapter provides a few guidelines for conducting, interpreting, and reporting primary and secondary research on children and adolescents who are deaf. The focus is on publishing in refereed journals that adhere to the reporting standards of the publication manual of the American Psychological Association. The chapter addresses a few salient quality indicators or desirable research characteristics such as theoretical frameworks, literature review, and sample demographics. Problematic areas such as plagiarism and piecemeal publications are covered, as are the notion of balance within manuscripts and the use of scholarly caution and language in interpreting data. Finally, the chapter ends with recommendations for researchers who are interested in investigating the educational achievement of students who are deaf.

The media, even in democratic societies, have been faulted for glorifying violence, especially in the entertainment industry. And we have seen how the harsh use of hateful propaganda through the media, by nationalist and sectarian leaders, can inflame conflicts in many parts of the world. The international community can support media that portray accurate information on current events, show constructive relations between different groups, and report instances in which violence has been prevented. Foundations, commissions, and universities can work with broadcasters to help provide responsible, insightful coverage of serious conflicts. For example, through constructive interactions with the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, CNN International moved to balance coverage of violence and strategies for peaceful conflict resolution. Social action for prosocial media may become an effective function of nongovernmental organizations, similar to their achievements in human rights. Research findings have established a causal link between children’s television viewing and their subsequent behavior in the United States and a variety of other countries (e.g., Australia, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland). Both aggressive and prosocial behaviors can be evoked, depending on the content of programs. There is no reason to assume that the impact of movies is substantially different. As early as age 2, children imitate behaviors (including violent behaviors) seen on television, and the effects may last into their teen years. Must violent content predominate forever? How can the media help to prevent deadly conflicts in the future? The proliferation of media in all forms constitutes an important aspect of globalization. Films, television, print, radio, and the Internet have immense power to reach people with powerful messages, for better and worse. At present, the United States is largely responsible for the output of film and television content seen by people worldwide. But advances in technology are making it increasingly feasible for media to be produced in all parts of the world–all too often with messages of hate, and they may become even more dangerous than the excessive violence in U.S. television and movies. Films have great, unused potential for encouraging peace and for nonviolent problem solving. They entertain, educate, and constitute a widely shared experience.

Public interest in education for conflict resolution has increased in response to the violence of recent years. Serious articles now appear in newspapers and magazines, reporting research that might explain the background and meaning of the surge in youth violence. This widening concern suggests the real possibility of building a public constituency for education on conflict resolution and related questions. Probing educational policy issues are also being raised in the media. For example, Alina Tugend asked the question, “Do conflict-resolution programs really deliver on their promises to reduce school violence and teach conflict resolution?” in her November 2001 article in the “Education Life” supplement to the New York Times. She examined the existing conflictresolution program of Public School 217 in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist-induced tragedies. She also looked at other conflict-resolution programs nationwide, along with studies that assess their effectiveness. Based on these data, she concludes that overly aggressive and hateful behavior among students can often be reduced, but she noted that to be effective, lessons must be frequent. Brief exposure to one or two presentations of conflict-resolution techniques will do nothing toward improving behavior. In cases of peer mediation, the greatest beneficiaries are the student mediators themselves. Disadvantaged minority students have unique needs that require specific attention. For these students, there are significant differences between the culture at school and the culture in their own homes and communities. These differences can give rise to disputes or overt aggression. The New York Times article goes on to describe the student interest in understanding the events of September 11 and some responses by teachers. For example, the teachers at Brooklyn’s Public School 217 were looking for ways to explain the tragic attacks to their students. They began by using a simple lesson from their existing conflict-resolution program. Because children were almost exclusively focused on the U.S. desire to retaliate, teachers, drawing on the conflict-resolution program, were able to give the students a basis of understanding conflict on an international scale and a framework in which they could identify and articulate their feelings related to conflict. They also offered grief and trauma counseling.

This chapter depicts the policy influence activities of psychologists who work for intermediary organizations. Fourteen psychologists identified their greatest policy success as occurring through such work. The 14 case examples are organized by the type of intermediary organization in which the psychologist worked: professional membership organization; the national academies; research, evaluation, and consulting organizations; and foundations. The case examples highlight the specific methods and skills employed by individual psychologists in these four types of intermediary organizations. Major differences in policy focus and methods exist across the case narratives in the chapter, in part due to fundamental differences in mission and culture across the four types of intermediary organizations. Nonetheless, although particular applications may differ, the core policy skills of relationship-building, communication, research, and strategic analysis are central to effective policy work in each context.