Rose Mary Shaw, Psy.D.

On March 23, 2018, DAPA board members and SOPP students from Wright State University volunteered as judges for West District Science Day. Hosted at Central State University, West District Science Day offers western Ohio students from grades 5-12 the chance to present their high-rated independent research projects and compete for various honors and sponsored awards. Members of DAPA and SOPP judged projects in the category of Behavioral and Social Sciences, which includes research in the areas of clinical and developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology.
DAPA helped sponsor the Behavioral Science Award, which is awarded to a student whose project reflects creativity, skillful methodology, and a passion for behavioral science. The purpose of this award is to promote scientific research in the field of psychology at an early level. This year the Behavioral Science Award at the West District Science Day was awarded to Brianne Snider and her project, “Music Memory” which studied how playing an instrument may benefit memory. All DAPA and SOPP volunteers had a terrific time judging and supporting budding behavioral researchers. DAPA volunteers included the current SOPP Student Representative , Peyton Jones, and fellow SOPP student volunteers, including Anthony Sumpter, Walter Garcia Hernandez, Katie Abrahamowicz, and Stacey Henry.

Below is the abstract of Ms. Snider’s project.
Abstract:
This science experiment investigates the correlation between playing an instrument/rhythm and a person’s memory. After researching, my hypothesis is that playing an instrument benefits your memory. If your brain is able to associate an object to a beat or sound, it is more likely to store and remember it. Being a musician myself, when playing a song there is a specific timing you have to follow. What the brain does is correlate the note and its position to a certain pitch, and then to the timing you have to play. To test the hypothesis, I am having kids who play instruments and kids who do not play instruments watch two videos. One video has no rhythm or beat, and the other video does. The kids who play instruments should be able to remember better because they are already accustomed to associate an object to a certain timing. Overall, a rhythm should help people remember better in general, so I am hoping to see growth in both groups for that variable. In addition, kids who do not play instruments should show some growth when comparing their tests, but they should not be able to remember better than kids who play instruments.

A Telepsychology Casebook is a book published in 2018 by the American Psychological Association (APA) “…to help psychologists understand how standards of practice apply to telepsychology and to offer ways in which psychologists may think about ethical decision-making regarding their movement into telepsychology.”  It is edited and written primarily by former members of the APA Telepsychology Task Force represented by the APA, the APA Insurance Trust (now The Trust), and the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards who jointly developed the APA telepsychology guidelines adopted by the APA in 2013. Telepsychology is broadly defined as the provision of psychological services using telecommunications. 

The eight telepsychology guidelines discussed in the book include: competence of the psychologists, standards of care in delivery of telepsychology services, informed consent, confidentiality of data and information, disposal of data, information and technologies, testing and assessment, and interjurisdictional practice.

Each of the guidelines are given a separate chapter that follows a similar format: a guideline, a rationale for the guideline, a brief discussion of the guideline, and multiple case examples or scenarios showing how to interpret and use the guideline in different settings and circumstances. Key points are listed at the end of each chapter that highlight important takeaways to consider. A helpful copy of the telepsychology guidelines is also included as an appendix. 

Although earlier telepsychology guidelines had been developed by psychologists in Australia, United Kingdom and Ohio prior to those of the APA, this publication takes the APA guidelines an important step further by demonstrating how they are applied in practice. This book is useful in identifying that to practice telepsychology ethically (i.e. compliant with the APA code of ethics), psychologists need to be prepared by not only knowing how to do in-person services but also how to apply the same ethical standards when providing services using telecommunications.  A key guideline relevant to this issue is the first guideline, competence of the psychologist.  Since many practicing psychologists have not had education, training or

supervision in telepsychology practice, it is critical that to develop competency in telepsychology, they should obtain sufficient training before delivering telepsychology services.  Hopefully, in the future such education and training will be incorporated in graduate psychology curriculums and newly licensed psychologists will have the knowledge and skills to practice telepsychology.  Until then, most psychologists and psychologists in training will need to develop their own personal telepsychology educational and training plans.

This is not a “how to” book.  Psychologists are provided a good framework and numerous examples to consider when developing or practicing telepsychology.  Questions about the uses of specific technologies (e.g. teleconferencing, social media, email, texting) in specific circumstances (e.g. type of service, type of presenting problems) will at times require further education, consultation and maintaining awareness of what are evolving best practices. 

This book is not only for psychologists who are already practicing or plan to practice telepsychology but can also be helpful for psychologists who may not believe that they are practicing telepsychology.   Many psychologists whether they know it or not have been practicing telepsychology for years.  Communicating with clients via landline or cell phones is a form of telepsychology and commonly is used by psychologists who may be primarily doing in-person services.  

Reading this book is a good first step in sensitizing psychologists to the numerous issues that need to be considered when practicing telepsychology.  It presents a clear framework outlining what psychologists need to know and do to ethically practice telepsychology and can be used to plan and obtain the needed education, training and experience.

*Reprinted with permission from the March/April 2019 issue of The National Psychologist

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A recent publication* describing a study of 82,501 pre-installed software programs (apps) on 1,742 Android smartphones found that many apps secretly collected user data that was transmitted to the app developers. This included such things as user contacts, emails, telephone metadata, geolocation information, and other user statistics.  

*the article, An Analysis of Pre-Installed Android Software,  can be accessed at https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_comments/2018/08/ftc-2018-0052-d-0036-154998.pdf