Daniel Kaplin

In this paper, we examine similarities between Sigmund Freud’s tripartite theory of personality to foundational works across various religious and philosophical movements. First, conceptual similarities to the id, ego, and superego are illustrated through scriptural verses and commentators of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Next, elements of the tripartite theory in the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism are explored. Finally, this Freudian theory is viewed in relationship to various philosophical works from Ancient Greece to modern day. We suggest these earlier tripartite approaches emanating from diverse religious and philosophical movements emerge as a broader universal understanding of man from which Freud could have profited in developing one of his most seminal theories.

This study investigates a recently developed model of spiritual intelligence in relation to the common mental health concerns of depression, anxiety, and substance use. Three-hundred and fifty-three undergraduate psychology students responded to the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale–Revised, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and the Drug, Alcohol, and Nicotine scale. We hypothesized spiritual intelligence would be negatively associated with the study’s mental health outcomes. A secondary aim was to examine the contributions of spiritual intelligence model components to mental health. Overall spiritual intelligence was not associated with anxiety, depression, or substance use. Examination of the relationships between spiritual intelligence components and mental health suggested this model lacks cohesiveness in relation to mental health. While the capacity to critically examine existential issues was associated with i...

Much of the past research explores the viewpoints of psychologists or psychiatrists as it relates to RxP. Since the 1990s, the majority of psychologists have supported RxP (Fagan, Ax, Liss, Resnick, & Moody, 2007; Sammons, Gorny, Zinner, & Allen, 2000). The psychiatric community has generally opposed RxP. The focus of this research study was to explore the viewpoints of Nurse Practitioners. Methods To be eligible for this study, participants must possess licensure as either a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistants. Prospective respondents were identified through the NPI registry and Nurse Practitioner Association of New York (NPA). Participants were sent an email invitation to participate in this study. A 15 item scale was adapted from Sammons et al. (2000) for this study. A total of 118 Nurse Practitioners responded to this survey. Preliminary Results Nurse Practitioners show significant support for RxP. Majority of NPs supported the concepts that appropriately trained psychologists should be provided legal authority to prescribe psychotropic medication (68%); the acquisition of prescriptive privileges will enhance the ability of psychologists to more effectively treat certain clients/patients (79%), increase psychologist’s scope of practice (82%), lead to increased ability to care for underserved populations (77%), and increased ability to practice in a hospital setting (49%). All results were significant at p < .01. Moreover, a minority of NPs felt that the acquisition of prescriptive privileges would lead to damaged relations between psychologists and psychiatrists (22%), would lead to under-prescription (4%),over-prescription (20%), inappropriate prescription (18%), suboptimal medication (13%), insufficient monitoring of medication (19%), and prescriptive privileges would lead to medication taking the place of psychotherapy (23%). All results were significant at p < .01. Nurse practitioners showed significant concern that prescriptive privileges would lead to an increase in malpractice rates (51%) change psychologist’s professional identity (62%), and should be limited to doctoral-level licensed providers (44%). All results were significant at p < .05. Implications These results point to favorable support from other professional communities. Nurse practitioners have prescriptive authority in all 50 states (United States Department of Justice, 2012). As a result, psychologists should explore opportunities to collaborate with NPs to acquire prescriptive authority.

In this article, I present how various cultural identity factors can result in either having privilege or vulnerability. According to the latest hate crime statistics, the prevalence of religiously-motivated bias crimes is second only to racial/ethnic bias crimes. More specifically, Jews and Muslims are the most common victims of these incidents. This is concerning because there recently has been a spike in religiously- motivated bias crimes. However, on a subtler level, religious microaggressions threaten the self-concept of religious minorities. Examples are provided of how those who commit microaggressions might (a) endorse religious stereotypes, (b) engage in exoticization of Jews and Muslims, (c) pathologize different religious groups (d) assume their religious identity is the norm, (e) assume that all members of a religious faith practice their faith similarly (f) deny the existence of religious prejudice. I conclude the article by proposing several ways members of religious majority cultures and minority groups can approach microaggressions.

& Pyszczynski), people are prone to embrace charismatic politicians in times of historical upheaval to mitigate existential terror. Consistent with this view, previous research has demonstrated that reminders of death (relative to an aversive control condition) increased support for a charismatic leader in a hypothetical gubernatorial election, and support for President Bush and his policies in Iraq prior to the 2004 presidential election. The present Study 1 hypothesized and found that a death reminder increased support for Donald Trump. Study 2 found that while Hillary Clinton was viewed more favorably than Donald Trump in an aversive control condition, Mr. Trump was viewed more favorably in response to a death reminder while impressions of Mrs. Clinton were unaffected. Study 3 demonstrated that asking people to think about immigrants moving into their neighborhood increased the accessibility of implicit death thoughts. These findings suggest that electoral outcomes and public policy can be affected when existential concerns are aroused.

This study investigates a recently developed model of spiritual intelligence in relation to the common mental health concerns of depression, anxiety, and substance use. Three-hundred and fifty-three undergraduate psychology students responded to the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale–Revised, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and the Drug, Alcohol, and Nicotine scale. We hypothesized spiritual intelligence would be negatively associated with the study's mental health outcomes. A secondary aim was to examine the contributions of spiritual intelligence model components to mental health. Overall spiritual intelligence was not associated with anxiety, depression, or substance use. Examination of the relationships between spiritual intelligence components and mental health suggested this model lacks cohesiveness in relation to mental health. While the capacity to critically examine existential issues was associated with increased depression and anxiety, the ability to draw meaning and purpose from experience was associated with improvements in all mental health outcomes. These findings cast doubt on the construct of spiritual intelligence and suggest that existential thinking and the production of meaning may be closely related to mental health. Future research should explore differences in spiritual intelligence components and their associations with mental health among varying religious affiliations.

In this article, three classes of psychological conditions are presented
using the framework of whether pharmacotherapy should be viewed as
an essential component of treatment, useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy, or unessential for treatment. This information is valuable for several reasons. First, and foremost, as psychologists we
recognize the value of psychotherapy being a first line treatment for mental health concerns. As such, prescribing psychologists will not write
scripts for all conditions. Secondly, this information can
help frame the discussion around the use of psychotropic
medication. Lastly, this article can be used by non-prescribers to
develop greater understanding when a referral to a prescribing professional
could be useful.

In this paper, we examine similarities between Sigmund Freud's tripartite theory of personality to foundational works across various religious and philosophical movements. First, conceptual similarities to the id, ego, and superego are illustrated through scriptural verses and commentators of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Next, elements of the tripartite theory in the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism are explored. Finally, this Freudian theory is viewed in relationship to various philosophical works from Ancient Greece to modern day. We suggest these earlier tripartite approaches emanating from diverse religious and philosophical movements emerge as a broader universal understanding of man from which Freud could have profited in developing one of his most seminal theories.

The Prescriptive authority for psychologists (RxP) movement has been viewed as a controversial issue for members of the medical community. The existing literature has focused primarily on psychologists’ support and psychiatrists’ opposition to psychologists gaining prescriptive privileges. The purpose of this study is to assess the views of physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) using a modified version of Sammons and colleagues (2000) survey. In this survey, benefits and liabilities of RxP were presented. Based on social identity theory and persuasion theory, we formulated three hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that NPs would support RxP. Secondly, we hypothesized that PAs would oppose RxP. Thirdly, we hypothesized that there would be significant differences in mean scores between the two groups. A total of 192 participants (119 NPs, 72 PAs, and 1 who did not report their profession) participated in this study. Using a Chi Square analysis, we found that both NPs and PAs endorsed the benefits of RxP. However, PAs reported more concern than NPs about the liabilities of granting prescriptive privileges in the areas of malpractice, over-prescription and under-prescription. These findings support hypothesis one and partially support hypothesis two. Using independent samples t-tests, we found significant differences in mean scores for the drawback items and total scores between nurse practitioners and physician assistants. These findings support hypothesis three. In sum, these results suggest that while both NPs and PAs support RxP, NPs provided greater support for psychologists obtaining prescriptive authority.

The  topic of  prescriptive  authority  for  psychologists  (RxP)  remains  a  highly  contested
issue.  This  review  article  examines  the  benefits  and  liabilities  of  RxP  from  a  program
evaluation  perspective.  The  effectiveness  of  RxP  training  sequence,  consumer  safety,
arguments for and against the need for RxP training, research surveying the viewpoints
of  psychologists,  training  directors,  and  trainees,  and  other  benefits  and  liabilities  are
presented  and  evaluated.  The  article  concludes  with  ways  to  close  the  gap  between
proponents  and  opponents  of  RxP  to  help  this  initiative  regain  traction  throughout  the
United States.

This poster presents a model that can be used by new faculty to improve their pedagogical style. This model recommends the use of PowerPoint, video clips, classroom response systems, and virtual learning software to supplement chalkboard lectures. This model suggests a more interactive teaching style that could improve classroom learning.