Academic Writing

Cannabis, Metabolic Syndrome, And Emotional Distress
Cannabinoids & Metabolism Much attention has been paid to the emotional and cognitive effects of marijuana. However, we believe that these effects can only be understood in the context of the endocrine interactions which are initiated by marijuana’s ingestion. In this article we will examine the function of both endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids with an […]

Adlerian Career Assessment & Counseling
The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler and his successors has always purported to have implications for career choice and satisfaction. The techniques of Adlerian lifestyle analysis, such as the assessment of psychological birth order and the interpretation of early recollections, provides a great deal of information about an individual’s motivations, preferences, and general orientation towards self, […]

A Review of Interventions for Reducing Mental Health Stigma
Stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness, individuals suffering from mental illness, and psychological service utilization are widespread. They result in social isolation, reduced opportunities, and outright discrimination against affected individuals (Gaebel, Zäske, Baumann, Klosterkötter, Maier, & Decker et al., 2008). The negative effects of stigma also extend to the families of individuals with mental illness, their […]

Transformational Leadership In Mental Health Administration
The transformational model of leadership has gained considerable traction among leadership theorists and researchers over the past few decades. It appears to be a fairly reliable and unitary construct referring to a set of leadership behaviors which are associated with a variety of positive organizational outcomes. In this paper we will briefly detail the behaviors […]

Cultural Factors In Problem Gambling Among The Chinese
The most current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 2000) provides only a single gambling-related diagnosis: Pathological Gambling. This diagnosis requires that an individual meet at least five out of ten criteria which are representative of problem gambling among Western samples. However, even in the West, many individuals suffer significant financial and interpersonal consequences from […]

Mental Health Parity: A Policy Analysis
Although psychological and addictive disorders have come to be recognized as common and treatable conditions within the medical profession and even among the general population, the United States health care system is still lagging behind. Insurance companies do not provide equal coverage for mental health services, and most Americans lack access to even basic mental […]

Hypno-Oncology: Hypnosis in the Treatment of Cancer
Abstract Clinical hypnotherapy has been soundly established as an effective treatment for the symptoms associated with cancer and its related therapies, including chronic and acute pain, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, and mood disturbances. Its use produces strong tendencies toward improvement of patients’ quality of life and of treatment cost. As the etiology and […]

Meth Use & AIDS in The Gay Community
Methamphetamine use is highly prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM) and presents a serious public health issue (Shoptaw & Reback, 2006). Use of the drug is associated with increased engagement in high-risk sexual behaviors with a greater number of partners, and therefore with increased transmission of HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, and other sexually […]

The Medical Model of Psychology
The “medical model” that currently guides the majority of psychological research, assessment, and treatment is a deeply entrenched historical, social, and political phenomenon (Maddux, Snyder, & Lopez, 2004; Laungani, 2002) which has no empirical support whatsoever (Wampold, 2001). This article will outline some of the problems that the widespread acceptance of the medical model poses […]

Repressed Memory Phenomena
The issue of repressed memory is surprisingly heated, and comes loaded with the weight of several fundamentally different conceptions of the human mind. The real issue, hidden away in the word “repressed,” is whether a memory once repressed can be unleashed, or “recovered.” Thus we find ourselves in the awkward scientific predicament of having, for […]

Jonestown and The Social Psychology of Accepted Truth
Everybody “knows” what happened in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. At the behest of their charismatic leader, all the members of the Peoples Temple religious cult—the residents of Jonestown—“lined up in a pavilion in front of a vat containing a mixture of Kool-Aid and cyanide” and “drank willingly of the deadly solution” (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, […]