American Psychologist最新文献

Memorializes Michael A. (Mick) Smyer (1950-2024). Mick was a clinical psychologist, gerontologist, expert in mental health and aging policy, academic administrator, and climate activist. He contributed importantly to the development of clinical geropsychology from the beginning of its emergence as an organized field. Among many roles and recognitions, Mick was president of Division 20 of the American Psychological Association (APA). He contributed to the founding of the Clinical Geropsychology section of Division 12 and was the section's first president. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The article by Walker et al. (2025) titled "The American Psychological Association and Antisemitism: Toward Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion" regrettably suffers from serious shortcomings in regard to scholarship. These include flawed analyses, an overreliance on unreliable and biased sources, and the presentation of provocative and significant claims without any documentation at all. There is no question that deep fears about resurgent antisemitism are legitimate and deserving of dedicated attention. However, as summarized here, on multiple fronts, this article fails to accurately illuminate these risks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

In the face of harmful disparities and inequities, it is crucial for researchers to critically reflect on methodologies and research practices that can dismantle systems of oppression, accommodate pluralistic realities, and facilitate opportunities for all communities to thrive. Historically, knowledge production for the sciences has followed a colonial and colonizing approach that continues to silence and decontextualize the lived experiences of people of color. This article acknowledges the harm to people of color communities in the name of research and draws from decolonial and liberation frameworks to advance research practices and psychological science toward equity and social justice. In this article, we propose a lens rooted in decolonial and liberatory principles that researchers can use to rethink and guide their scientific endeavors and collaborations toward more ethical, equitable, inclusive, respectful, and pluralistic research practices. The proposed lens draws on literature from community psychology and our lessons learned from field studies with historically marginalized Latinx communities to highlight six interrelated tensions that are important to address in psychological research from a decolonizing and liberatory lens. These interrelated tensions involve conflicting issues of (a) power, (b) competence, (c) practices and theories, (d) rationale, (e) approach, and (f) trust. In addition, seven practical recommendations and examples for decolonial and liberatory research practices are outlined. The recommendations can assist researchers in identifying ways to ameliorate and address the interrelated tensions to give way to decolonial and liberatory research practices. Community and social justice scientists have the responsibility to decommission oppressive research practices and engage in decolonization and liberation toward a valid, ethical, equitable, and inclusive psychological science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The states of the Mountain West region of the United States consistently have the highest rates of suicide in the country, a pattern particularly pronounced in older White men. Although multiple constructs have been proposed to explain this long-standing pattern, including social isolation, cultural values, and psychopathology, relatively little research has been conducted to directly examine the predictive role of these risk factors and how they interact. We review the extant research for these constructs to establish (a) whether the risk factor occurs at a higher rate or is otherwise more influential in this region compared to the rest of the country and (b) whether the risk factor may account for specific effects in older White men in order to determine whether the evidence supports the role of each risk factor in understanding the high rates of suicide among older White men in this region. Using the results of this review, we then present a possible cultural script for suicide based on cultural scripts of gender and suicide theory (Canetto, 1997, 2017, 2021) that describes who dies by suicide, the methods they use, their emotions and motives, and the cultural understanding of the causes and acceptability of their suicidal behaviors within the Mountain West. This cultural script can serve as a guide for researchers investigating the complex mechanisms that account for elevated rates of suicide in this region. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Social support is the degree to which people are accepted by, cared for, and attended to by important others and is one of the most popular constructs in the psychological canon. This project synthesized data from 60 meta-analyses, which included over 2,700 studies and 2.1 million participants, to evaluate the association of social support with psychological adjustment. Results from a second-order meta-analysis indicated that, overall, social support yielded a robust association with psychological adjustment, r = .24, 95% CI [.22, .26]. Effects of social support were detectable across several outcome categories (mental health, psychological traits, educational outcomes, workplace outcomes), specific outcomes (depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, stress, burnout), and sources of support (friends, family, peers, teachers, coworkers, supervisors), and were detectable across age and cultural groups. However, perceived support was more strongly associated with psychological adjustment than received support. Furthermore, social support effects were larger when examining unhealthy samples, well-validated scales, and cross-sectional studies. Finally, effects were less pronounced in six meta-analyses that controlled for relevant covariates, r = .17, 95% CI [.10, .23]. Given the substantial variability of social support effects across prior meta-analyses (range = .07-.41), future study is needed to identify additional moderators of its association with psychological adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in American Psychologist on Sep 19 2024 (see record 2025-24490-001). The name of the author, Amy N. Arndt was incorrectly omitted from the author list in the original article. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Recent studies have found a citation gap in psychology favoring men. This citation gap is subsequently reflected in differences in h-index scores, a crude measure but important one for impact on career advancement. We examine a potential reason for the gap: that male researchers are more likely to come to mind than female researchers (i.e., a difference in memory accessibility). In a survey, faculty from psychology departments in R1 institutions in the United States listed up to five names they considered experts in their field and up to five names they considered rising stars (defined as pretenure) in their field. Results revealed that the proportion of female experts recalled by women generally matched the percentage of more senior female faculty at R1 institutions, whereas the proportion recalled by men was much lower as compared to this baseline. With rising stars, we observed both underrepresentation of women from male participants and, unexpectedly, overrepresentation of women from female participants, as compared to the percentage of more junior female faculty at R1 institutions. For both experts and rising stars, male names were also more likely to be generated earlier in lists by male respondents, but women did not vary in the order in which they listed women versus men. Despite the differences in recall observed in our data, there was no such gap in name recognition, suggesting that the gap is one of accessibility-who comes to mind. Implications and recommendations for psychology researchers are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions diagnosed in children. Most autism research, intervention, and policy focus exclusively on this condition in childhood, but autism often persists across the life course. This narrative review leverages data from 115 participants first diagnosed with autism between ages 2 and 3 years and subsequently followed for 3 decades (M_age = 30.93 years, SD = 3.41) to highlight key aspects of adult life and experiences for autistic individuals identified in early childhood. Compared to other autism samples, the participants described here are relatively diverse: 20% are Black or mixed race; 13% are female; 43% reside in Census-designated rural locations; and 37% have a primary caregiver without a college degree. Fifty participants have average cognitive abilities (mean intellectual quotient [m_IQ] = 98.8, SD = 19.3) and are verbally fluent; the remaining 65 have an intellectual disability (m_IQ = 28.5, SD = 17.7) and/or are minimally verbal. In some ways, the adult experiences of autistic individuals are quite distinct from those of the general population, but important similarities exist also, particularly related to quality of life. As the number of autistic adults continues to rise, and increasing numbers of autistic adults seek out clinical and community services, high-quality research and clinical services focused on this population should be a priority for psychological science and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Recently, Dodge et al. (2024) published an article in American Psychologist offering recommendations to the mental health field for changing from an individual-level to a population-level focus. These recommendations included scaling up evidence-based programs, innovating and evaluating population-level interventions, and creating a primary system of care to promote mental health and well-being. For the past 2 decades, the Veterans Health Administration has been successfully engaged in these activities. In this commentary, we describe some of these ongoing efforts to demonstrate that Dodge et al.'s (2024) recommendations are indeed feasible with the proper infrastructure and resources and that the Veterans Health Administration's efforts can serve as a model for the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A resilience-based approach in American Indian (AI) communities focuses on inherent sociocultural assets that may act as protective resilience buffers linked to mitigated mental health risks (e.g., deep-rooted spiritual, robust social support networks). Executive control functions are implicated as mechanisms for protective factors, but little evidence exists on the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that support resilience. This study examined how sustainable and community-centric factors of social support and Native Spirituality were linked to neural mechanisms of executive control functions in a heterogeneous AI community. Fifty-nine self-identified AI participants underwent electroencephalography recordings during a stop signal task and completed measures of social support and spirituality engagement. Event-related potential components indexed attentional resource allocation for inhibitory processing (N2, P3a) and for response error monitoring (error/correct-related negativity; error positivity). Greater social support was linked to attenuated attentional demands for early and sustained inhibitory processing (N2, P3a). Greater Native Spirituality beliefs were linked to greater attentional resources for early but not sustained error-monitoring error-related negativity. Results provide novel evidence for neurocognitive mechanisms of resilience, contribute a deeper understanding of resilience within Indigenous communities, and highlight the role of salient protective factors in mental health that offer a foundation for targeted resilience-based treatment(s). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Memorializes Stanley Sue (1944-2024). Stan Sue was a second-generation Chinese American who became interested in ethnicity as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon where he received his B.S. degree in 1966. He completed his PhD in psychology at University of California, Los Angeles in 1971. He was an assistant and associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington (1971-1981) and professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (1981-1996). He was a professor of psychology, psychiatry, and Asian American studies (1996-2004) and distinguished professor of psychology and Asian American studies (2004-2010) at the University of California, Davis, and distinguished professor of psychology at Palo Alto University (2010-2015). Stan Sue is one of the most noted and influential experts in the field of ethnic minority mental health and ethnocultural psychology. What distinguished him from other elite scholars centered on his ability to exert this influence through numerous roles as a social scientist, professional leader, teacher, mentor, and social justice activist. Over the last 50 years, he conducted some of the most pioneering and significant work in ethnic minority mental health. Stan's legacy centers on his sustained prominence as an internationally and nationally recognized scholar with respect to ethnic minority and cultural diversity issues. Importantly, he made these contributions and achievements with deep humility, compassion, that charismatic smile, and sparkling humor that endeared him to his students and colleagues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).