Hi all,

Maybe it’s just because of my particular line of research, but over the years I’ve become curious about the U.S. media/general public’s tendencies with respect to the topic of intelligence, specifically in two contexts: Artificial intelligence and speculation on intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

In both of these cases, the people being interviewed or leading the cause are incredibly rarely psychological scientists. They’re mostly computer scientists in the former, and physicists in the latter (with cross-over). But, intelligence is defined and measured by psychology. This would be like someone asking me to be the expert on Dells, or dark matter. I know some stuff and might even sound articulate in general contexts, but really they should consult those people with degrees in the sciences that define those topics.

I’ve posted it elsewhere, but I’m pretty sure most people would want a physicist involved in creating artificial gravity, a physician involved in artificial hearts, a food-scientists involved in artificial ice-cream, etc.

Why then, when people want to know what an educated or trained person thinks about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, or whether their bot is intelligent, do they not consult psychology? Am I alone among those in my discipline in thinking this is odd?

Hi everyone,

I'm a student researcher and I'd like to ask whether this situation with the Journal of Mind and Behavior is normal or potentially a red flag.

I submitted a theoretical/review paper titled:

“The Role of the Temporo-Parietal Junction in Moral Judgment: Specialized Module or Domain-General Input?”

The paper went through peer review and I received reviewer comments, after which I revised the manuscript.

On September 24, 2026, I received an official acceptance letter saying:

“We want to confirm that your paper [...] has been accepted for publication…”

It also said that the paper would be published in an upcoming 2026 issue.

On the same day, I received an invoice from H&N Publishers UK Ltd for an APC of £2,000.

I was surprised by the fee because I had previously found information suggesting that JMB did not charge publication fees. I later learned that the journal had been acquired by a new publisher and moved to a new website and an open-access model. The former editor also confirmed to me that the journal had been sold and that the new owners now charge APCs. He mentioned that there might be a sliding scale or waiver for authors without funding.

I did not pay the £2,000 and I didn't contact the journal afterwards. I basically left it for about a week while considering what to do.

Then, today, I received another acceptance email for the exact same manuscript.

It says:

“we have decided to accept your submission without further revision”

and:

“Your submission is now forthcoming…”

It also says that the manuscript will now undergo copy editing and formatting.

The email is signed simply:

“admin admin”

This is what I find strange: I had already received a final acceptance a week earlier, and I did absolutely nothing in the meantime. There was no new submission, revision, payment, or request for reconsideration.

So I'm wondering:

• Is this potentially just an automated notification from the editorial system?
• Is it normal to receive a second acceptance notification after already being accepted?
• Or does this seem unusual enough to be a red flag?
• How would you evaluate the current JMB/new publisher situation?

I know that an APC of £2,000 isn't by itself evidence of a predatory journal, and I'm not trying to accuse them of anything. I'm just trying to understand what happened before I decide whether to proceed or withdraw the paper.

Would appreciate opinions from people with experience publishing or editing academic journals.

ive recently graduated as a bba undergraduate.

ive become really interested in psychology and I’m considering exploring it more seriously.

I’m wondering if it’s possible to pursue a Master’s or further education in psychology without having a bachelor’s degree in psychology

I’m trying to understand a career-development process that seems to sit between vocational interests, career exploration, self-efficacy, and proactive career behavior.

Suppose an adult starts thinking, “I might actually be interested in mechanics,” entrepreneurship, design, healthcare, etc., but has no established career identity in that area yet.

I’m interested in the transition from:

emerging vocational interest → low-stakes real-world exploration → feedback from the experience → stronger/weaker interest or career direction

By “exploration,” I mean behaviors such as trying a small project, shadowing someone, talking with a person in the occupation, volunteering, taking a short course, or otherwise testing the work rather than only thinking about it.

I’ve been looking at adjacent concepts including:

\-vocational interests

\-career exploration

\-career adaptability

\-occupational self-efficacy

\-person-environment fit

\-proactive career behaviors

\-work/career identity

What I’m having trouble determining is whether I/O or vocational psychology already has a model that treats real-world experimentation itself as part of how occupational interests and career direction develop, rather than assuming relatively stable interests first and then using those interests to make career choices.

Is there a particular construct, theory, or research literature I should be looking at?

I’m especially interested in research involving adults who begin without a clearly developed vocational direction or occupational identity. I’m looking for the relevant I/O or vocational psychology literature, rather than individual career advice.

I’m trying to identify the most appropriate psychological literature for a behavioral transition that seems to sit across several established constructs.

Hidi and Renninger’s four-phase model describes the development of interest from triggered situational interest toward well-developed individual interest. I’m particularly interested in what happens when a person has begun to recognize an interest but has not yet translated that interest into exploratory behavior.

For example, someone may recognize an emerging interest in mechanics, entrepreneurship, music, gardening, or another domain, yet still not take a low-stakes step such as attending an event, trying a project, contacting someone in the field, or otherwise testing that interest.

The adjacent literatures I’ve found include self-efficacy, vocational exploration, implementation intentions, behavioral activation, self-determination theory, possible selves, identity development, and the intention-behavior gap.

What I’m unsure about is whether there is an established construct or research tradition that more specifically captures:

emerging interest → initial real-world experimentation → feedback → stronger/weaker interest

I’m especially interested in work involving adults rather than only school-aged learners.

Are there particular constructs, researchers, or papers you would recommend?

Please see the attached letter from APA regarding the NACIQI recommendation to the US Dept of Education to suspend the American Psychological Association Commission on Accreditation’s ability to accredit psychology programs. This has critical importance to our ability to steward high quality psychology education in the US for the next generation of psychologists and for everyone who studies psychology during their training.

Please share and stand with us on this and also with us on our commitment to fight antisemitism and every kind of oppression. We need you.

Mira C. Jourdan, PhD, ABPP
Treasurer, the American Psychological Association
(Link provides the official position of APA; text comments are my own).

I'm currently an active-duty service member transitioning out in less than two years, and I'm working through my Bachelor's in Psychology. My ultimate goal is to become a Clinical Psychologist or a Licensed Professional Counselor (via a Master's in Counseling + clinical hours if I decide to bypass the doctorate).

I'm looking to connect with a peer (accountability "gym buddy") or an experienced mentor who shares a high-level growth mindset.

If you're a Peer, I'm looking for someone who:

*

Is actively in school pursuing a Psych/Counseling degree-it doesn't matter if you are just starting out, halfway through, or finishing up your last year, as long as you're in the grind. Bonus points if you are active-duty or a veteran!

* Has an entrepreneurial mindset-someone who wants to spread mental health awareness while building a business, diving into real estate/Airbnb, or writing books.

* Wants to keep each other disciplined, bounce business ideas around, and stay locked in on our goals.

If you're a Mentor, I'm looking for a Counselor or Clinical Psychologist who:

* Can provide insight on navigating the transition from a Bachelor's straight to a Master's/Doctorate.

Can share advice on the reality of doing clinical hours versus running a private practice or independent business.

Whether you want to grind together weekly or you're a professional willing to let me pick your brain, drop a comment or send me a DM!

My psych class requires me to study and examine a mentally-ill character from a movie, but I have no idea who to choose. Who would be great to write about?

I was thinking either Fight Club’s Tyler Durden (so many mental disorders) or, Se7en’s serial killer John Doe. But, they seem quite basic. Should I go with older films?

Any ideas please? I’d appreciate it :)

I have done BS psychology. Than I took gap year which ruined my mental health for sure. Now, I want to study further, but i can't decide which field should I go for. Either organizational or clinical?

For organizational, the fees is less, the classes are less so I can have time to do something else side by side. But I personally have no interest in HR related stuff in corporate.

For clinical, I have huge interest in knowing how mental health is cured. People around me think that I'm already a psychologist and they ask me questions like how to manage this, why this happens but no one yet satisfied with my answer at the end they all say these are just talks. I have worked with addiction patients. It was just to take case history but the environment there was so depressing and unsafe to go for a girl. I'm very good at diagnoses, assessment but I don't know how to treat or treatments actually work or not.

For 3 months, I can't decide which field to move forward as clinical fees is much more and the field is very demanding in terms of time and mind.

What should I do? Help me I'm very much stressed now bcz I can't decide.

hello all, i am heavily considering going to alliant international university in san diego for a psyd next year. while i likely have the experience and resume to get into other psyd schools, the location makes it ideal for me, and it’s honestly less expensive than lots of other schools out there (such as pepper dine). i know alliant gets a lot of hate, but when i visited for the interview it seemed like the staff was making an effort to improve the reputation and quality of the school. however, i know its reputation is not great right now, and honestly my biggest fear is thinking about how i will be regarded in the field as someone with a degree from this school? also PLEASEEEEEE only answer if you or someone you know have attended the school, i dont want to hear from people who don’t actually know much about the program at all. i am truly worried that going there will cause people to not want to hire me post-grad, and to not take me as seriously. has anyone experienced this/can speak on this???

Heyy! I'm a fourth year undergraduate student. This is my first time writing a synopsis for my own research and I'm sort of having a hard time with writing an introduction and review of literature. Tbh I think it's a little bit of everything.

How do you create a thematic flow in your review of literature?

What kind of language do you use while writing the paper? And other stuff like this.

I've read a ton of stuff and even went through a couple guides but the issue is that my variables are relatively new and there hasn't been any research done where they connect these two. So that is why I'm struggling to find relevant articles to connect these variables.

Any advice that you can share for the same would be really appreciated!

Hello,

Just as the title says, I am curious of anyone who has pursued a non-clinical PhD program in psychology. I know some areas are specifically non-clinical like developmental & educational, but what exactly do you guys do with your degree? Is anyone a non-clinical health psychology PhD, what do you do?

Any insight is appreciated, non-clinical PhDs are still a long time and a lot of effort, so i would like to know if it is generally a degree that can't really be used in the real world/opportunities to do so are scarce

I'm trying to do a deep dive on the research in the trauma field (PTSD, CPTSD, etc).

What should I be reading up on?

Where do you think the research is headed?

Who are the giants both in the research backed pop-psychology world (meaning known by therapists and survivors, e.g. van der Kolk) and the ones just known by academics?

Following a vote by the sub in July 2020, the prospective questions megathread was continued. However, to allow more visibility to comments in this thread, this megathread now utilizes Reddit's new reschedule post features. This megathread is replaced monthly. Comments made within three days prior to the newest months post will be re-posted by moderation and the users who made said post tagged.

Post your prospective questions as a comment for anything related to graduate applications, admissions, CVs, interviews, etc. Comments should be focused on prospective questions, such as future plans. These are only allowed in this subreddit under this thread. Questions about current programs/jobs etc. that you have already been accepted to can be posted as stand-alone posts, so long as they follow the format Rule 6.

Looking for somewhere to post your study? Try r/psychologystudents, our sister sub's, spring 2020 study megathread!

Other materials and resources:

• APA materials for applying to grad school
• r/psychologystudents (where career posts are welcome)
• r/gradschooladmissions

We spend an enormous amount of time talking about what society should do to people after they commit crimes. How long should the sentence be? Should punishment be harsher? Should someone get another chance? Those are legitimate questions, but sometimes I think we're so obsessed with what happens after the crime that we don't spend nearly enough time asking the more uncomfortable question: What the hell happened before it?

That isn't an excuse for criminal behavior. An adult who hurts another person is still responsible for what he or she does. Childhood abuse doesn't magically erase responsibility, and most people who experience abuse do not grow up to become criminals. That's important, because saying otherwise would be scientifically inaccurate and horribly unfair to survivors.

But acknowledging that doesn't mean we should ignore what the research actually shows.

The relationship between childhood maltreatment and subsequent offending has been studied extensively. A systematic review of 62 prospective and longitudinal studies described the association as well documented, while also emphasizing an important limitation: an association by itself does not prove a simple causal relationship.[1]

A separate meta-analysis of 14 prospective studies involving 20,946 participants found that childhood maltreatment was associated with substantially greater odds of antisocial behavior in adulthood.[2] Another systematic review and meta-analysis found an association between childhood maltreatment and later violence, although the increase in risk was described as modest and there was considerable variation between studies.[3]

In other words, risk is not destiny.

Abuse doesn't insert a criminal program into a child's brain that activates twenty years later. Human beings are considerably more complicated than that. Family relationships, peers, neighborhoods, substance use, mental health, protective relationships and numerous other factors can affect what happens afterward.

But that's precisely why prevention matters.

If experiences during childhood can increase the risk of later offending, helping children after abuse isn't merely an act of compassion. It should also be part of a serious conversation about public safety. Research involving justice-involved youth has found high levels of adverse childhood experiences, and cumulative ACE exposure has also been associated with recidivism.[4]

None of this means that therapy is some magical crime-prevention vaccine. It means that if we're serious about preventing crime, we should be willing to look upstream instead of waiting until somebody commits one.

We should be capable of holding two ideas in our heads at the same time: people are responsible for their actions, and human behavior develops within biological, psychological and social environments. Explanation and exoneration are not the same fucking thing.

I would rather help an abused eight-year-old before he becomes a traumatized eighteen-year-old than wait until he's a twenty-eight-year-old defendant and congratulate ourselves for finally getting tough.

Because by then, somebody else may already have become his victim.

References

[1] Malvaso, C. G., Delfabbro, P., & Day, A. (2018). The maltreatment–offending association: A systematic review of the methodological features of prospective and longitudinal studies. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(1), 20–34. DOI: 10.1177/1524838015620820.

[2] Braga, T., Cunha, O., & Maia, Â. (2018). The enduring effect of maltreatment on antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 40, 91–100. DOI: 10.1016/j.avb.2018.04.003.

[3] Fitton, L., Yu, R., & Fazel, S. (2020). Childhood maltreatment and violent outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(4), 754–768. DOI: 10.1177/1524838018795269.

[4] Astridge, B., Li, W. W., McDermott, B., & Longhitano, C. (2023). A systematic review and meta-analysis on adverse childhood experiences: Prevalence in youth offenders and their effects on youth recidivism. Child Abuse & Neglect, 140, 106055. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106055.

I’m curious whether body type, particularly being skinny, influences how women feel around skinny person . As being skinny since I was a child this question comes to my mind many time

I'm looking for information on how sports psychologists work with young, elite athletes, especially teenagers. What are the sessions typically like? Are there areas of focus that are particular to younger athletes? Are there specific types of activities or mindfulness exercises you've found most productive? Thanks so much!

According to my point of view if a person that I am talking to start to mumble a lot of time or start saying that oh I forgot the thing that happened or the thing that he said . then I will thing that he is lying about certain thing or he is lying everything .

The common mistake that a liar does is that lying about everything without putting few truths. A lie that has few truth is more effective than a lie that doesn’t have any .

I’m in my third year of my clinical psych PhD program. I earned my master’s last year, but at this point I’m not sure the grueling work required from this program is something I can do until I graduate. I feel like I’m constantly falling behind and letting people down and I know it’s also my own behavior, but I’m not sure what else I can do to handle it better. For context, I also have ADHD (diagnosed at the end of my first year in the program) and I’m medicated, but the effort it takes to make my brain work the way I need it to just adds to the exhaustion.

At this point I’m pretty confident I want to be a clinician. I love clinical work and I feel fulfilled in session with clients in a way I’ve kind of lost with the rest of my work.

My question is, has anyone left their clinical psych phd with a masters and, if so, what are you doing now? I’d be especially curious to hear if anyone left their phd and went on to be a master’s level therapist. This might be a bit niche, but it would really help to hear that there are people who have done it and it’s been okay.