PsychCounsel-Bench: Evaluating the Psychology Intelligence of Large Language Models
Min Zeng
Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable success across a wide range of industries, primarily due to their impressive generative abilities. Yet, their potential in applications requiring cognitive abilities, such as psychological counseling, remains largely untapped. This paper investigates the key question: \textit{Can LLMs be effectively applied to psychological counseling?} To determine whether an LLM can effectively take on the role of a psychological counselor, the first step is to assess whether it meets the qualifications required for such a role, namely the ability to pass the U.S. National Counselor Certification Exam (NCE). This is because, just as a human counselor must pass a certification exam to practice, an LLM must demonstrate sufficient psychological knowledge to meet the standards required for such a role. To address this, we introduce PsychCounsel-Bench, a benchmark grounded in U.S.national counselor examinations, a licensure test for professional counselors that requires about 70\% accuracy to pass. PsychCounsel-Bench comprises approximately 2,252 carefully curated single-choice questions, crafted to require deep understanding and broad enough to cover various sub-disciplines of psychology. This benchmark provides a comprehensive assessment of an LLM's ability to function as a counselor. Our evaluation shows that advanced models such as GPT-4o, Llama3.3-70B, and Gemma3-27B achieve well above the passing threshold, while smaller open-source models (e.g., Qwen2.5-7B, Mistral-7B) remain far below it. These results suggest that only frontier LLMs are currently capable of meeting counseling exam standards, highlighting both the promise and the challenges of developing psychology-oriented LLMs. We release the proposed dataset for public use: https://github.com/cloversjtu/PsychCounsel-Bench
Sustainable Development Goals in Psychology: A Century of Progress in Publications
Xinyi Zhao, Ralph Hertwig, Dirk U. Wulff
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a lens for tracking societal change, yet contributions from the social and behavioral sciences have rarely been integrated into policy agendas. To take stock and create a baseline and benchmark for the future, we assemble 233,061 psychology publications (1894 -- 2022) and tag them to the 17 SDGs using a query-based classifier. Health, education, work, inequality, and gender dominate the study of SDGs in psychology, shifting from an early focus on work to education and inequality, and since the 1960s, health. United States-based research leads across most goals. Other countries set distinct priorities (e.g., China: education and work; Australia: health). Women comprise about one-third of authors, concentrated in social and health goals, but have been underrepresented in STEM-oriented goals. The 2015 launch of the SDGs marked a turning point: SDG-tagged publications have been receiving more citations than comparable non-SDG work, reversing a pre-2015 deficit. Tracking the SDGs through psychology clarifies long-run engagement with social priorities, identifies evidence gaps, and guides priorities to accelerate the field's contribution to the SDG agenda.
Mapping the gender attrition gap in academic psychology
Xinyi Zhao, Anna I. Thoma, Ralph Hertwig
et al.
Although more women than men enter social science disciplines, they are underrepresented at senior levels. To investigate this leaky pipeline, this study analyzed the career trajectories of 78,216 psychology researchers using large-scale bibliometric data. Despite overall constituting over 60\% of these researchers, women experienced consistently higher attrition rates than men, particularly in the early years following their first publication. Academic performance, particularly first-authored publications, was strongly associated with early-career retention -- more so than collaboration networks or institutional environment. After controlling for gender differences in publication-, collaboration-, and institution-level factors, women remained more likely to leave academia, especially in early-career stages, pointing to persistent barriers that hinder women's academic careers. These findings suggest that in psychology and potentially other social science disciplines, the core challenge lies in retention rather than recruitment, underscoring the need for targeted, early-career interventions to promote long-term gender equity.
Navigating permanent underdetermination in dark energy and inflationary cosmology
William J. Wolf, James Read
We identify troubling cases of so-called `permanent underdetermination' in both dark energy and inflationary cosmology. We bring to bear (a) a taxonomy of possible responses to underdetermination, and (b) an understanding of both dark energy and inflationary cosmology from an effective field theory point of view. We argue that, under certain conditions, there are viable responses which can arguably alleviate at least some of the concerns about underdetermination in the dark energy and inflationary sectors. However, the epistemic threat of permanent underdetermination remains a significant challenge.
en
physics.hist-ph, gr-qc
Résumé de thèse. « Transformation de l’activité d’apprenants de l’enseignement agricole en situation de presque accident. Une approche énactive »
Sylviane Lopez
Psychology, Social Sciences
Data protection psychology using game theory
Mike Nkongolo, Jahrad Sewnath
The research aims to explore how individuals perceive and interact with data protection practices in an era of increasing reliance on technology and the widespread availability of personal data. The study employs a game theoretical approach to investigate the psychological factors that influence individuals' awareness and comprehension of data protection measures. This involves using strategies, moves, rewards, and observations within the game to gain comprehensive insights into these psychological factors. Through the analysis of player strategies and moves within the game, the research identifies several psychological factors that impact awareness of data protection. These factors include levels of knowledge, attitudes, perceived risks, and individual differences among participants. The findings highlight the intricate nature of human cognition and behavior concerning data protection, offering insights crucial for developing effective awareness games and educational initiatives in this domain.
Comment on "Theoretical evaluation of art education from the perspective of traditional Chinese philosophy"
Yanling Cao
Commented article: ZHENG, X. D. Theoretical Evaluation of Art Education from the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Philosophy. Trans/Form/Ação: revista de filosofia da Unesp, v. 47, n. 4, “Eastern thought”, e02400123, 2024. Available at: https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/15024
Mastering Digital Media Literacy of Muslim Woman's Activists in Preventing Online Gender-Based Violence
Prima Ayu Rizqy Mahanani, Fatma Dian Pratiwi, Fartika Ifriqia
et al.
This article tends to analyze how Muslim women's activists, who are the members of Nasyiatul Aisyiyah and Fatayat NU in Kediri and Yogyakarta, build their digital literacy to prevent violence in social media. Mainly due to the digital divide between men and women, which causes imbalance and injustice when they access digital media. The method used in data collection was semi-ethnographic, in which the researcher participated in observing research objects when carrying out activities using digital technology, interviews, and documentation on 3 members of Nasyiatul Aisyiyah and Fatayat NU, both in Jogja and Kediri. The research findings show that what has been stigmatized to women so far is that they are powerless to master information and communication technology, which does not apply to members of Fatayat NU and Nasyiatul Aisyiyah. This research shows that women are also reliable in accessing the internet for the benefit of empowering women, especially KBGO issues. This research has provided a different understanding of the phenomenon of the massive use of internet-based technology by female activists
Communication. Mass media, Islam
Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on Depression and Anxiety Among Chinese Workers: A Moderated Mediation Model
Ma C, Zhang W, Da S
et al.
Chenlu Ma,1 Wen Zhang,1 Shu Da,2 Huan Zhang,3 Xichao Zhang1 1Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210024, People’s Republic of China; 3Academy of Global Innovation & Governance, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xichao Zhang, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 XinJieKouWai Street, HaiDian District, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China, Email xchzhang@bnu.edu.cnPurpose: Environmental uncertainty has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. While there is substantial knowledge about the connection between environmental uncertainty and organizational outcomes, limited attention has been devoted to investigating its impact on employees’ depression and anxiety symptoms. Grounded in job demands-resources theory, this study aims to explore the relationship between environmental uncertainty and employees’ depression and anxiety symptoms, and it further investigates the mediating role of work pressure and the moderating role of union practices.Methods: In September 2022, we undertook a cross-sectional survey study, gathering data from 1081 employees across various enterprises situated in Liaoning, China. Throughout this timeframe, notable global occurrences heightened the awareness of environmental uncertainty. Following the exclusion of participants who did not provide information on the main variables, the final valid sample comprised 940 employees. To test all hypotheses, a series of confirmatory factor analyses and path-analytic procedures were conducted using Mplus 7.0.Results: Our results confirm that environmental uncertainty, as a high job demand, increases employees’ work pressure, thereby elevating rates of anxiety and depression; the indirect relationship between environmental uncertainty and employees’ anxiety and depression through work pressure is stronger when union practices are lower.Conclusion: Our findings indicate the detrimental impact of environmental uncertainty on employees’ mental health, and highlight the roles of work pressure and union practices. In light of this, organizations should take steps to mitigate employees’ perceptions of environmental uncertainty and establish mental health programs, in cooperation with union practices, to protect employees’ mental well-being.Keywords: environmental uncertainty, anxiety, depression, union practices, work pressure
Psychology, Industrial psychology
The structural-genetic theory program as the fundamental theory both of history and of social sciences and humanities
George Oesterdiekhoff
The structural-genetic theory program is an off-spring of Piagetian theory. It has accomplished the task that Piaget had intended to carry out but did not seriously. He wanted to study children to understand better history of mind, science, philosophy, and culture. It is shown that world history of culture, society, politics, law, morals, science, philosophy, religion, and arts has gone through the same stages that are known from developmental psychology. Accordingly, psychogenetic advancements have shaped the historical trajectories of these collective systems or societal phenomena. The application of developmental psychology to history sheds also a new light on the rise of modern, industrial society, thus dwarfing competing materialistic, institutional, and economic approaches. It is held that the new program inherits positions provided by Elias, Weber, Wundt, Cassirer, and other classical authors. It cannot only rebuild single humanities and social sciences but can also unify them under one common roof, breaking apart borders previously separating them from each other.
Memahami Filsafat Manusia Melalui Video Animasi
Fildzah Rudyah Putri
This paper is about the implementation of community service activities carried out by lecturers of the Faculty of Psychology Universitas Negeri Jakarta for the general public. Community service activities are carried out by making animated videos about Human Philosophy. Rumors circulating in society that studying philosophy is difficult and can lead people to get lost in religion need to be changed. Though Human Philosophy essentially invites people to think critically and logically. A thing that is needed in today's era. Therefore, an animated video with an attractive appearance and light language is made to increase people's understanding of Human Philosophy, so that these stigmas can change. Animated videos are created and uploaded on the YouTube page to make it easier for the general public to access them. As a result, of all the people who filled out the feedback questionnaire, there were 52% of the people who thought that the video was very clear and able to increase their understanding.
The stalwart - Carl gustav jung
Jigisha Das
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist who pioneered in analytical psychology. His fundamental work on the unconscious human mind, association tests, archetypes, anima and animus, the self, the persona, introverted, extroverted, synchronicity, psyche, complexes, and individuation has an influential impact on psychology, for which he became the father of analytical psychology also known as Jungian psychology. His works in literature, art, philosophy, religion, and spirituality are inspirational. In World War I, he worked under Eugen Bleuler as a psychiatrist at Zurich University. He was a close associate of Sigmund Freud but it did not last long. “Psychology of the Unconscious” is one of his exceptional works.
Psychological Metrics for Dialog System Evaluation
Salvatore Giorgi, Shreya Havaldar, Farhan Ahmed
et al.
We present metrics for evaluating dialog systems through a psychologically-grounded "human" lens in which conversational agents express a diversity of both states (e.g., emotion) and traits (e.g., personality), just as people do. We present five interpretable metrics from established psychology that are fundamental to human communication and relationships: emotional entropy, linguistic style and emotion matching, agreeableness, and empathy. These metrics can be applied (1) across dialogs and (2) on turns within dialogs. The psychological metrics are compared against seven state-of-the-art traditional metrics (e.g., BARTScore and BLEURT) on seven standard dialog system data sets. We also introduce a novel data set, the Three Bot Dialog Evaluation Corpus, which consists of annotated conversations from ChatGPT, GPT-3, and BlenderBot. We demonstrate that our proposed metrics offer novel information; they are uncorrelated with traditional metrics, can be used to meaningfully compare dialog systems, and lead to increased accuracy (beyond existing traditional metrics) in predicting crowd-sourced dialog judgements. The interpretability and unique signal of our psychological metrics make them a valuable tool for evaluating and improving dialog systems.
An Analytical Study of Sadàrasantosa with Stability of Family Institution
Phon Mammani
The Sadàrasantosa refers to contentment with one’s own wife. It is considered as the doctrine of the stability and development of the family institution to have the noble living or Brahmacariya: a holy life. One should restrain from Akusala-kamma: or unwholesome action viz., evil deed; bad deed and should have the Sanyama or Self – Control, consisting within non-violence to oneself and others in the family and society. In addition, one should develop the doctrine of Drama: taming and training oneself and living with the heedfulness. The Sadàrasantosa can be defined as the family action plan which can build up the warm family, stability and peace.
About kindness as a character trait. An exploratory study
Razvanalexandru Calin
Kindness is a subject of study that is equally concerned with psychology, religion, philosophy
Counting hiddenness: cognitive science and the distribution of belief in God
Adam Green
Abstract Establishing the distribution of belief in something, especially something that spans cultures and times, requires close attention to empirical evidence and to certain inadequacies in our concept of belief. Arguments from divine hiddenness have quickly become one of the most important argument types in the philosophy of religion. These arguments and responses to them typically rely on robust but relatively undefended empirical commitments as to the distribution of belief in God. This article synthesizes results from psychology, anthropology, and the cognitive science of religion to show that the distribution of belief in God is much more messy and much more philosophically interesting than is currently appreciated. I then derive some implications for how one might reconceive the hiddenness debate in light of these findings.
Footprint of publication selection bias on meta-analyses in medicine, environmental sciences, psychology, and economics
František Bartoš, Maximilian Maier, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers
et al.
Publication selection bias undermines the systematic accumulation of evidence. To assess the extent of this problem, we survey over 68,000 meta-analyses containing over 700,000 effect size estimates from medicine (67,386/597,699), environmental sciences (199/12,707), psychology (605/23,563), and economics (327/91,421). Our results indicate that meta-analyses in economics are the most severely contaminated by publication selection bias, closely followed by meta-analyses in environmental sciences and psychology, whereas meta-analyses in medicine are contaminated the least. After adjusting for publication selection bias, the median probability of the presence of an effect decreased from 99.9% to 29.7% in economics, from 98.9% to 55.7% in psychology, from 99.8% to 70.7% in environmental sciences, and from 38.0% to 29.7% in medicine. The median absolute effect sizes (in terms of standardized mean differences) decreased from d = 0.20 to d = 0.07 in economics, from d = 0.37 to d = 0.26 in psychology, from d = 0.62 to d = 0.43 in environmental sciences, and from d = 0.24 to d = 0.13 in medicine.
The Network Capital of the Cossack Youth as an Element of the Social Capital of the Russian Cossacks
A. S. Shilyaeva, S. V. Kurapov, M. E. Zabolotnikov
et al.
Introduction. The article considers the modern Russian Cossacks as a complex social object in the trinity of interpersonal, intragroup and intrapersonal communications. The ethno markers of the Cossacks that influence the perception of “friend or foe” are determined; the problem of the concept of the network capital of the Cossacks is formulated.Methodology and sources. The section formulates the construction of network capital from the point of view of structuring social relations in the network approach, and from the point of view of the culture of interactive communication in the network space. The main approaches to the definition and measurement of network capital are shown, its specificity for the social group of Cossack youth is revealed. The network model of the Cossacks and Cossack youth is described as a whole and its part. The role of state-forming values in the Cossack environment is shown. The largest network Cossack youth organizations from different regions of Russia are presented.Results and discussion. The article describes the methodology for researching network capital, organized at the All-Russian Gathering of Cossack Youth in the fall of 2021 in the city of Krasnoyarsk. On the basis of four groups of values of the Cossack youth, namely social, personal, values of the Cossacks and values of the direct contact environment, a network analysis of positive and negative relationships, as well as relationships in subgroups of values, is carried out. As a comparative analysis, the results of measuring the network capital of students of the IT faculty of the evening department are used, which show a clear professional orientation and belonging to a generalized supranational community of IT specialists and a low team-building potential. The authors conclude that the construction of “network capital” is more often used in an empirical sense to obtain information about the mechanisms of access to resources or some kind of influence through network relations.Conclusion. In general, the theory of “network capital” is in the process of its formation and requires further scientific understanding. In the ongoing process of institutionalization of the Cossacks, contradictions often arise between the traditions and values of modern society, which the Cossack youth seeks to resolve in a compromise way. It is concluded that the network capital of the Cossack youth is in the stage of its active accumulation and continuous transformations.
Philosophy (General), Sociology (General)
The Effectiveness of a Brief Telehealth and Smartphone Intervention for College Students Receiving Traditional Therapy: Longitudinal Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment Data
Madison E Taylor, Olivia Lozy, Kaileigh Conti
et al.
BackgroundBrief interventions such as mental health apps and single-session interventions are increasingly popular, efficacious, and accessible delivery formats that may be beneficial for college students whose mental health needs may not be adequately met by college counseling centers. However, no studies so far have examined the effectiveness of these modes of treatment for college students who are already receiving traditional therapy, despite it being common among this population.
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to compare the differences in self-reported momentary negative affect between college students in therapy and not in therapy who received a brief single-session intervention delivered by counseling center staff and a supplemental mobile app.
MethodsData for this study were drawn from E-Manage, a brief mobile health intervention geared toward college students. Participants in the study were 173 college students who indicated whether they had received therapy. We conducted a multilevel model to determine whether there were differences between those in therapy versus not in therapy in negative affect reported throughout the study. Following this, we conducted multilevel models with therapy status as the predictor and negative affect as the outcome.
ResultsResults of the multilevel model testing showed that the cross-level interaction between the time point (ie, pre- vs postexercise) and therapy status was significant (P=.008), with the reduction in negative affect from pre- to postexercise greater for those in therapy (b=–0.65, 95% CI –0.91 to –0.40; P<.001) than it was for those not in therapy (b=–0.31, 95% CI –0.43 to –0.19; P<.001). Therapy status was unassociated with both the pre-exercise (b=–1.69, 95% CI –3.51 to 0.13; P=.07) and postexercise (b=–1.37, 95% CI –3.17 to 0.43; P=.14) ratings of negative affect.
ConclusionsThese findings suggest that app-based and single-session interventions are also appropriate to use among college students who are receiving traditional therapy. A randomized controlled trial comparing students receiving therapy to students receiving therapy and E-Manage will be necessary to determine to what extent E-Manage contributed to the reductions in negative affect that therapy-attending college students experienced.
A rowing-specific mindfulness intervention: Effects on mindfulness, flow, reinvestment, and performance
Katherine V. Sparks, Christopher Ring
Mindfulness can benefit athletes’ mindset and performance. These benefits may be enhanced by sport-specific mindfulness interventions. Accordingly, our objectives were 2-fold: first, to develop a rowing-specific mindfulness intervention, and second, to investigate its effects on mindfulness, flow, reinvestment, and rowing performance. Rowers were randomly assigned to either a 6-week rowing-specific mindfulness intervention (n = 23), which included generic and rowing-specific practices, or a control group (n = 21). Rowers completed pre-test and post-test measures of performance, mindfulness, flow, and rowing-specific reinvestment. Lastly, rowers completed an evaluation form following the intervention. The results demonstrated that the intervention group increased flow, mindfulness, and improved performance, additionally conscious motor processing decreased from pre-test to post-test. However, the intervention did not preferentially change mindfulness or reinvestment compared to control. Participants provided favorable feedback and evaluated the intervention positively. Our 6-week rowing-specific mindfulness intervention promoted flow, encouraged mindfulness, and aided performance. Thus, we provide preliminary explorative evidence that a sport-specific mindfulness intervention can benefit athletes. We recommend that future research, with large sample sizes and improved home practice, should examine mediators and moderators of the mindfulness-performance relationship.