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Background: A great amount of information is presented to psychology students through various mediums, often leading to misinformation and believing inaccurate psychological myths. Objective: We conducted two studies to examine psychomythology of psychopathology and whether mythbusting may be an effective pedagogical tool. Method: In Study 1, a total of 251 participants were recruited and asked about psychology myths they believed by using the Myths of Abnormal Psychology Questionnaire (MAP). In Study 2, a total of 46 students across two sections of abnormal psychology courses were asked about psychological myths they believed at the onset of class and at the end of class using the MAP. These students also were provided with an educational mythbusting intervention throughout the class. Results: Participants endorsed several myths of psychopathology and indicated that the greatest sources of their understanding came from instructors, the internet, movies, and mythbusting led to a decrease in myth endorsement. Conclusion: Students enter abnormal psychology courses believing several inaccurate myths and mythbusting appears to be a viable tool to address these misconceptions. Teaching Implications: Mythbusting can be implemented within abnormal psychology courses as an an engaging and effective teaching tool, as well as a means to model scientific thinking.

Objectives: In psychotherapy, clients and therapists work together to forge a path towards better mental health. Key to this process is genuine and honest communication. However, much previous research suggests that clients are not always fully truthful with their therapists. In this study, we make a preliminary examination of the relationship between client deception in therapy, the quality of the therapeutic relationship and therapeutic outcomes. Methods: Participants who had been involved in psychotherapy completed a variety of measures that assessed their use of dishonesty in therapy. They also completed measures of the quality of the client–therapist relationship and measures of their perceived therapeutic outcomes. We hypothesised that client dishonesty would negatively correlate with the perceived quality of the therapeutic relationship and the therapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, we predicted that the quality of the therapeutic relationship would mediate the relationship between client dishonesty and perceived therapeutic outcomes. Results: The results of correlation and mediation analyses supported these hypotheses. Client dishonesty was associated with poorer therapeutic relationships and worse perceived therapeutic outcomes. Additionally, therapeutic relationship quality partially mediated the relationship between client dishonesty and therapeutic outcomes. Conclusions: This initial study provides important tentative insights into the possible negative correlates of client dishonesty in the therapeutic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language psychologists and other mental health professionals utilize impacts the formation of public perceptions concerning the practice of psychology. Psychologists from Warren, Calkins, Dunlap, Gardiner, and Ruckmich to Lilienfeld et al. have raised concerns about the clarity and use of problematic psychological terms. This study measured 309 mental health professionals' (1) recognition and use of 50 psychological terms identified as problematic by Lilienfeld et al., and (2) explored the jangle fallacy by providing potentially synonymous word-pairs for participants to rate for synonymity. Results of Part I indicated that 34 out of the 50 terms were not recognized as problematic by a significant majority of participants. Participants disagreed about whether or not six terms were problematic, and the remaining 10 terms were rated by a majority to be problematic. Results of Part II indicated a disagreement between participants regarding the synonymity of four word-pairs, and agreement regarding the synonymity (or lack thereof) of the remaining 16 word-pairs. These findings support the suggestion by Lilienfeld and colleagues that greater attention is needed in regard to problematic psychological terminology, including synonymous or jangling terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wound management has become one of the ten physical therapy (PT) certification specialty areas. With this advanced clinical designation opportunity, more PT specialists and residencies with integumentary and wound management expertise will be needed for the educational and practice training of future specialists. The purpose of this study was to characterize wound management practice by licensed physical therapists in Texas. A Qualtrics survey was distributed to 19,159 licensed physical therapists. The questionnaire contained 23 questions that inquired into the subject's professional background, clinical experience, and opinions of wound care practice. The response rate was 9.6% (n = 1,839) and 1,643 respondents indicated that they were currently practicing. Although 69.1% of active physical therapists (n = 1,136) stated that they had practiced wound care at some point of their career, most of them do not practice wound care anymore and their reasons were discussed. Of those active physical therapists, 41.3% (n = 679) of them reported wound care was being practiced in their facilities, but only 18.3% (n = 311) directly practiced wound care. The respondents felt that the prevalence of wound management physical therapists practice over the last five years has been decreasing. The current prevalence of wound management practice is low and a decreasing trend of PT practice in wound care was observed in Texas. A limitation of this study is the low response rate. Future studies across different regions of the country are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the ethical use of deception has been discussed in literature, the ethics and acceptability of nursing deception has yet to be studied. The current study examined nurses' and nursing students' ratings of the ethics and acceptability of nursing deception. We predicted that nurses and nursing students would rate a truthful vignette as more ethical than a deceptive vignette. We also predicted that participants would rate nursing deception as unethical and unacceptable. A mixed design was used to examine ethics scores as a within-subjects factor and order as a between-groups design factor. A total of 131 nurses and nursing students were recruited from university nursing programs and hospitals in Texas. Participants were provided with a truthful vignette and deceptive vignette and used the Multidimensional Ethics Scale-Revised 1 to rate each vignette. Participants also completed the Lies in Nursing Ethics Questionnaire. The truthful nursing vignette was rated as more ethical than the deceptive vignette. Results indicated that most participants rated nursing deception as unethical, unacceptable, and a violation of the ANA ethical code. Some participants deemed that nursing deception may be acceptable within some cases. Age and years of experience were not related to the perceived ethics and acceptability of nursing deception. Nurses and nursing students believe that using deception with patients is unethical and unacceptable. However, some participants believed that deception may be warranted within some cases. These findings may reflect nurses' placing the patient at the core of their values and viewing honesty as important for the nurse-patient relationship. Further implications and directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]