Editorial
With the General Election almost upon us, we catch up with Professor Jo Silvester to talk about her work in the selection and development of politicians. Professor Silvester is Director of the Organisational Psychology Research Group at City University London, and she has some timely insights into the similarities and differences between politics and other occupations.
At a time when we are bombarded with declarations of competence by our prospective leaders, it is perhaps appropriate that we also feature the impostor phenomenon: the sense that many of us have that we are just 'winging it'. The author of that piece, Dr Christian Jarrett, is certainly the real deal: he recently won 'Best blog - Psychology' in the international Research Blogging Awards for the Society's Research Digest blog, and our congratulations go to him.
Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor)
Contents
What makes a good politician?
Jo Silvester talks selection and performance, on the eve of the General Election
Feeling like a fraud
Christian Jarrett examines the psychology of the impostor phenomenon
Can we salvage the concept of psychological trauma?
Richard J. McNally has some advice for those revising the diagnostic manuals
The puzzle of blushing
Ray Crozier on an elusive phenomenon with implications for understanding emotion, expression and social anxiety
Methods: Keeping it simple
Christopher Peterson and Nansook Park on the lasting impact of minimally sufficient research
Plus...
Forum
Electronic record keeping; educational training; discrimination; and more
News and digest
Fingerprints; Royal Society funding report; Milgram replication; politics and progress; behavioural economics; and nuggets from the Research Digest
Media
Reflections on the recent 'bullying helpline' furore, from Cary Cooper
Book reviews
Street prostitution; active listening; autism; history of neuroscience; self-awareness; and quantitative psychological research
Society
President's column; Research Digest award; the work of the Society's Policy Support Unit; new CRB check benefit for members; and more
Careers
A personal view on overthrowing collective impostor syndrome, from Sarah Dale; the light-bulb moment that led Jan Stannard into psychology; the latest jobs, and how to advertise
Looking back
Memories of working with the great Jean Piaget, from Joan Bliss
One on one
...with Sheila Payne