VOLUME 30 , NUMBER 1 -January 1999

DIVISION SPOTLIGHT

Div. 46 (Media)

Div. 46 has released 'Media Psychology and New Technologies,' a summary of an 18-month investigation that studied how new media technologies will affect the future of psychologists. The Task Force on Media Psychology and New Technologies, which was created by Irene Deitch, PhD, conducted the study. The study's co-chairs, Bernard Luskin, PhD, and Lilli Friedland, PhD, led the study by integrating the expert opinions of more than 200 panelists in psychology, education and communication.

Results from the study identified the following new areas in which psychologists can use their expertise:

Work in cable, broadcast or electronic media as expert guests, or write books, articles, screenplays or shows.

Provide consultation to media personnel.

Create more user-friendly and efficient technology and focus on human factors in new media design, such as the design of computer hardware and software.

Employ new technology to enhance supervision, peer consultation and treatment in clinical psychology, as well as improving test monitoring and training via new technologies.

Develop educational resources to learn more about media psychology, and to educate companies on the importance of media psychology for training and marketing programs.

Improve and develop media standards.

Set standards in commercial fields.

Examine psychological and sociological effects of media.

Develop concepts and products for underserved or challenged populations.

Find successful ways to help criminal populations.

To learn more about the Task Force on Media Psychology and New Technologies, contact Friedland, (310) 553-6445, fax: (310) 553-3009, or Luskin, (818) 783-7629, fax: (818) 783-7628.

Div. 12 (Clinical)

Phillip Kleespies, PhD, invites psychologists to join Div. 12's 'Section on Clinical Emergencies and Crises (Section VII).' This new section is for clinical psychologists working with patients or clients who engage in suicidal tendencies or violent behavior and who put themselves at risk of victimization.

Kleespies and other members of Div. 12 established Section VII in response to the lack of training psychologists receive at the graduate level to handle at-risk patients. The section has also been established as a forum for the exchange of clinical professional forensic and scientific information about life-threatening behaviors.

'Clearly psychologists deal with emergency patients all the time. Any clinician with an active practice will eventually encounter a suicidal or violent patient,' says Kleespies. 'But we have not done a good job preparing people in their graduate school years.'

Section VII will try to ensure that graduate schools do more to train students on how to handle life-threatening behavior and help psychologists handle the emotions that result from working with such patients.

Kleespies has recently edited a book, 'Emergencies in Mental Health Practice: Evaluation and Management' (Guilford Press, 1998). The book is structured as a curriculum for training non-medical mental health professionals in evaluating and managing patients at risk for life-threatening behavior.

To date, Div. 12 continues its membership drive and plans to hold elections for officers. For more information, contact Kleespies at Psychology Service (116 B), VA Medical Center, 150 S. Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130, (617) 232-9500, ext. 4106.

-Compiled by Mel Waters

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