PGSP Fall 2007 Newsletter

While many of us were enjoying summer vacations, getting ready for the Fall semester, or sitting at our desks, many of PGSP’s faculty and students were in the field, both in the US and around the world (e.g., Israel, Cambodia and Japan), teaching, researching, training, presenting, and sharing their expertise with those in need. Here is an overview of how some of PGSP’s faculty spent their busy summers.

The Psychology of Fear

Dr. James Breckenridge and Dr. Philip Zimbardo presented new research in the past couple of months on the public’s perception on the threat of terrorism, support for civil liberty trade-offs to protect against terrorism, and the influence of non-terrorism related tragedies on the fear of terrorism at the international Society for Political Psychology and the American Psychological Association. They continued their work directing CIPERT, the Center for Interdisciplinary Education and Research on Terrorism (www.cipert.org), and recently received 501 (c) (3) status on the anniversary of 9/11. CIPERT is comprised of several scholars from around the country, including PGSP’s own President Allen Calvin, Dr. Leonard Beckum, Dr. Larry Beutler, Dr. Nigel Field, Dr. William Froming, Dr. Joseph Ruzek, and research assistant Yotam Heineberg. Dr. Breckenridge is releasing a new book on the fear of terrorism in the Fall of 2008.

Talking with a Terrorist

Over the summer, Dr. Breckenridge traveled to Israel as a Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) fellow (http://www.chds.us/?press/breckenridge), where he was able to interview a Hamas terrorist about his motivations, as well as a victim of a suicide bomber who lost most of his family in the attack and how he copes. This October, Dr. Breckenridge will be the keynote speaker at the California Department of Homeland Security’s retreat and he has been appointed to the editorial board of two more professional terrorism and homeland security journals.

Suicide and Terrorism – A Link?

Dr. Bruce Bongar, along with several of his colleagues, has been working on a review paper on suicide terrorism that examines the historical and current elements of the problem. In particular, the paper will focus on the question of whether suicide terrorists are "suicidal".

Early Intervention Clinic Sees Increase in Referrals

Dr. Joseph Ruzek and Dr. Matthew Cordova, co-directors of the PGSP Early Intervention Clinic (http://www.eiclinic.org ), worked through the summer to evaluate the impact of early interventions for recent trauma survivors. They have a fantastic group of students working with them, and they have seen an increase in referrals from their community contacts.

Improving Clinical Supervision and Training

Dr. Reiser has been working with a British psychologist, Derek Milne (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nnp/staff/profile/d.l.milne), examining the effects of implementing an evidence-based supervision model in a pilot study at the Kurt and Barabara Gronowski Clinic. Dr. Reiser has trained in the enhanced supervision model over the last five months by having audiotapes of his weekly supervision rated on a process evaluation scale developed by Dr. Milne and receiving weekly feedback on improving the process of supervision. The goal of the current pilot study is to identify enhanced supervision training outcomes for students and clients. In phase two of the program, Dr. Reiser and Dr. Milne will provide training in evidence-based practices to Gronowski Clinic supervisors. Dr. Reiser believes that this unique evidence-based training program will greatly enhance student training at the Gronowski Clinic and position the Clinic as a cutting edge training program in evidence-based supervision practices.

Uncovering the Effects of Sexual Exploitation

Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith, who joined PGSP last year, spent the summer continuing her research on commercially sexually exploited minors. Dr. Briscoe-Smith is an expert child psychotherapy and child psychopathology.

The “Zimbardo” Effect

Dr. Philip Zimbardo spent most of his summer everyplace except home. He traveled Europe (London, Rome, Vienna, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Cannes) to promote his New York Times best seller, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (http://www.lucifereffect.com). Since its launch at the end of March 2007, Dr. Zimbardo has given more than more than 70 interviews and nearly 30 full length lectures to diverse audiences, from 1000 High school students in London, 300 Stanford University Summer School High School Students, to 800 attendees at the APA conference. His book reached New York Times best seller status as #11, following his guest appearance on the Jon Stewart Daily Show and Terri Gross, NPR Fresh Air.

In addition to his book tour, Dr. Zimbardo gave lectures Cal Tech, Scripps College, Harvard Law School, MIT Business School, Georgetown University, Cambridge University, East London University, Los Angeles Public Library (on C-span), S.F. Commonwealth Club, and in September to Google, Cal State Univ. Monterey Bay, Bucknell University, Columbus State City College and more.

Psychology Meets Medical in New Way to Study the Brain

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a noninvasive medical test that helps physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions. Functional MRI (fMRI) is a relatively new procedure that uses MR imaging to measure the tiny metabolic changes that take place in an active part of the brain. Dr. Rowena Gomez has been busily working this summer at the Depression Research Clinic at Stanford Psychiatry Department conducting research. The newest development is that she has been learning to process and analyze fMRI data to see relations between executive functioning performance based on standard neuropsych tests versus measures of brain activity during an executive functioning task in an fMRI.

Diversity and Tolerance Promoted in Elementary Schools

Dr. Peter Goldblum, Director of CLEAR (Center for LGBTQ Evidence-based Applied Research), was approached this summer by the Human Rights Campaign to help them evaluate their Welcoming Schools Pilot Project (http://www.hrc.org/issues/parenting/schools/7201.htm) at the San Francisco Unified School District. The Welcoming Schools Guide is a curriculum for elementary schools to help teachers create and foster an atmosphere where all students feel they belong, where diversity and tolerance are celebrated. This groundbreaking program will be piloted in three cities: Boston, Minneapolis and San Francisco. The San Francisco Unified School District will introduce the curriculum in three schools in 2008 and hopes to expand it to all elementary schools in September of 2009.

Sexual Offenders Studied

Dr. Becky Jackson and her colleagues recently published an article this summer that presents data on 190 civilly committed and detained sexually violent predators in Washington State. According to Jackson and her colleagues, “These sexual offenders suffer from a variety of mental illnesses. The modal offender is diagnosed with both an Axis I and an Axis 11 disorder [and]… these offenders are at moderate to high risk for reoffense and present with a significant degree of psychopathy." See “Book Releases” below for publication information.

Understanding a Brutal Cambodian Regime

This summer, Dr. Nigel Field gave a presentation, “Intergenerational transmission of collective blame assignment linked to the Khmer Rouge regime: attitudes among second generation Cambodians,” to an interest group on Mental Health and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC), Transcultural Psychosocial Organization, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge regime is best known for causing the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people through execution, starvation and forced labor, and imposing an extreme form of social engineering on Cambodian society under the leader Pol Pot.

While there, Dr. Field met with a potential collaborator at the Center for Social Development (CSD) aiming to examine the psychological impact of Public Forums conducted by CSD to educate Cambodians on the Khmer Rouge justice tribunal process. He is in the early stages of designing a study examining the continuing bond to the deceased in complicated grief among survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime in collaboration with Professor Ly Vanna of Royal University of Phnom Penh, and with Assumption University in Bangkok Thailand to also set up possible future research collaborations.

PGSP Helps Develop Masters Program Abroad and Promotes Distance Learning

Also while in Cambodia, Dr. Nigel Field worked with faculty members in the psychology department at Royal University of Phnom Penh and outside consultants in designing the curriculum for a Master's degree in counseling/clinical psychology. He then traveled to Thailand to meet with faculty at Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand to promote PGSP’s distance learning program to potential graduate students. PGSP’s DL program is in its seventh year.

Japan Seeks PGSP’s Guidance on Treatment of Stress Disorders

Dr. Larry Beutler was invited by several universities and two conference groups during summer break to discuss research on empirically informed therapeutic treatments and to talk about treatment of stress disorders. They were particularly interested in Systematic Treatment Selection, Dr. Beutler’s method of developing treatment protocols based on research-informed principles of care. Satoko Kimpara coordinated the trip through her colleagues in Japan and served as his guide and interpreter throughout.

Dr. Beutler gave five lectures, four of which were related to predictors of psychotherapy outcome and one was on treatment of victims of mass trauma and stress, to the following groups:

speaking at Kagoshima University at the opening of the first Japanese Professional Psychology training program;
giving the keynote speech at a regional conference on PTSD and stress in Kurume;
speaking at a symposium at Kwansai Gakuin University in Osaka;
speaking at a symposium at Tokyo University;
giving the keynote address at the national Stress Management Conference in Kurume.

Dr. Beutler will be establishing an ongoing research program on culture and psychotherapy. He has been invited to return to Japan in December, 2007 for more discussions.

Doll Play and Attachment Issues

Dr. Sandra Macias spent five weeks this summer training with Dr. Carol George in the use of her Doll Play Assessment for classifying attachment style in children. Dr. George, a Lee Mirmow Professor of Psychology at Mills College in Oakland, is known for her research on the development and sequelae of attachment in children and adults, including divorce and overnight visitation and relationship violence and adult depression. Her Child Doll Play Projective Assessment and Maternal Caregiving Interview is one of her many representational and projective attachment assessments.

Having Character

Dr. Beckum continued his character education work this summer in Nevada, where he led training sessions in Pahrump, Nye, and Delco for teachers and school administrators. He also conducted cultural competency training in Kansas City for teachers from Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas and Missouri.

MMPI-2 Road Show

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is one of the most frequently used personality test in the mental health field. Designed to help identify personal, social, and behavioral problems in psychiatric patients, the test helps provide relevant information to aid in problem identification, diagnosis, and treatment planning for the patient. The revised version, the MMPI-II (*also known as MMPI-2), was published in 1989 and changed the scoring method and some of the normative data.

Dr. Roger Greene continued this summer to routinely present MMPI-2 workshops and around the country. Dr. Greene, along with Dr. Phil Erdberg (http://www.collaborativepsychology.com/about-phil.html), also presents MMPI-2 and Rorschach workshops, including for example the Society for Personality Assessment (http://www.personality.org/training.htm), Rorschach Training Programs (www.rorschachtraining.com), and the American Academy of Forensic Psychology (www.aafp.ws).

H.E.R.O. Gets Examination

Dr. Sandra Macias' research team was granted approval by the San Mateo County Probation Department and the South San Francisco Police Department to move forward in the evaluation of their new H.E.R.O. (Help Eliminate Repeat Offenders) Juvenile Mentoring Program.

P³ Program Enrollment Triples in Year Two

Paul J. Marcille, Ph.D., the Director of the PGSP Bachelor of Science degree completion program at De Anza College in Cupertino has been busy all summer recruiting the second class for the P³ (Psychology: Passion & Promise) program.

As of early September, there were 15 students expected for the second year class, a 300% increase from the first year. According to Dr. Marcille, there is every indication that this will be strong program for PGSP, and the target enrollment goal for Fall 2008 is 30 students and the development of a part-time component.

PGSP now has a solid presence at De Anza College, which has a student body of some 28,000 students. This population is very diverse in terms of socioeconomics, ethnicity, culture, age, etc. The De Anza Psychology Dept, which enrolls some 7,000 students in their classes each year, has agreed to provide extra credit to their students who participate as subjects in psychological research projects conducted by PGSP faculty and students. Faculty is invited to take advantage of this resource and contact Dr. Marcille if they would like to explore this.

Researching Student Motivation and Improving Academic Outcomes

Dr. Marcille, who is starting a small practice in Los Gatos after passing his CA licensing exam this summer, anticipates starting a research project at De Anza College this fall using David McClelland's model of achievement motivation and narrative storytelling to identify high and low achieving college students and then to teach achievement motivation cognitive strategies to students to improve their academic outcomes.

Going Green

Dr. Nancy Olsen, an Anthropology instructor in Dr. Marcille’s P3 program, and a group of ecology-minded California Indians joined forces this summer to apply to the California Council for the Humanities (http://www.calhum.org/) for money to fund a project that presents a 54 minute long videotape program on California Landscape (mountains, coastline and desert) from the Native Californian perspective. The project is currently in the script writing stage. While targeting the general public, they aim to reach toward "youth and older" or 12 years of age and upwards. Dr. Olsen and her team are doing this project through the sponsorship of the California History Center at De Anza College which is a non-profit entity.

PGSP Prof Becomes a President

Dr. Steven Lovett began his year as president of the Association of VA Psychologist Leaders (AVAPL) http://www.avapl.org/index.html. The AVAPL is an independent organization dedicated to optimizing the efforts of Psychology and psychologists within the VA system and seeks out members from VA psychologists who are in, or aspire to, leadership roles. AVAPL provides VA psychologists another channel for communicating with its Central Office staff in Washington, DC and the political leaders who ultimately decide on funding for the VA system.

PGSP Presence at APA Convention

Several faculty presented papers or spoke at the August APA Convention, including Dr. Wendy Packman. She spoke on the “Evolution of Research: Cognitive and Psychosocial Outcomes of Bone Marrow Transplantation Symposium.” Other PGSP faculty presenting included Dr. Zimbardo and Dr. Breckenridge.

Final Report Completed for the Three Year $500,000 Health Trust Young Adults in Transition Training Program Grant

Dr. Reiser completed a final report for the Health Trust grant involving training 68 community clinicians representing over 20 county or contact agencies in Santa Clara County in evidence-based practices over a three year period. This three year grant involved collaboration between Santa Clara County Health and Hospital Systems, Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) on a demonstration project to train clinicians on a systematic set of programs and interventions targeted to the Young Adult Transition (YAT) System of Care. The grant provided extensive training, consultation and supervision to a core group of ethnically diverse clinicians.

One of the grant deliverables was a website [clinical-desktop.com] and 300 copies of a mini-desk reference manual (“Resource Guide to Evidence-based Practices for Santa Clara County Mental Health Clinicians”) with a series of key evidence based procedures developed to help sustain new clinical practices and enhance the impact of previous clinical training.

Grant Received from Vesta Strategies Foundation

Dr. Lynn Waelde’s research group received a grant from Vesta Strategies Foundation to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the effects of meditation vs. treatment as usual for PTSD among returning OEF/OIF veterans. Ginny Estupinian will serve as Project Coordinator for this study. Other project staff in the research group includes Jenni Johnson, Suniti Kukreja, Mary Jo Mortensen, Allison Penner, Jeanna Spannring, and Adi Zief.

Book Releases and Published Articles

Dr. Nigel Field completed a final revision of the following manuscript accepted for publication: Field, N. P., & Chhim, S. (in press). Desire for revenge and attitudes toward the Khmer Rouge Tribunal among Cambodians. Journal of Loss and Trauma.

Dr. Becky Jackson, Learning Forensic Assessment, edited by Dr. Jackson and published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis, September, 2007.

Dr. Becky Jackson and colleagues, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (Report summarizes criminology study findings from R.L. Jackson and co-researchers. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2007;51(3):313-323).

Packman, W., Henderson, S., Mehta, I., Ronen, R., & Danner, D., Chesterman, B., & Packman, S. (in press). Psychosocial and behavioral issues in families affected by MSUD. Journal of Genetic Counseling.

Packman, W., Smith, G., & Andalibian, H., (in press). Legal issues of psychiatric malpractice in suicide cases. Directions in Psychiatry.

Waelde, L. C., Silvern, L., Carlson, E., Fairbank, J. A., & Kletter, H. (in press). Dissociation in PTSD. In P. F. Dell & J. A. O'Neil, (Eds.). Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond. New York : Routledge.

Bruce, E., & Waelde, L. C. (in press). Relationships of ethnic identity and trauma symptoms to delinquency. Journal of Loss and Trauma.

Khaylis, A., Waelde, L. C., & Bruce, E. (in press). The role of ethnic identity in the relationship of race-related stress to trauma. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation.