Is This a Good Time to Help Your Client Change Jobs? Two Experts Talk Shop…

“The job market just went from great to awful, but there may be some opportunities for those that want to make a wholesale switch,” write Olson and Swift, from Korn Ferry career counselors. Forbes‘ Jack Kelley notes that the unemployment rates caused by coronavirus economic havoc could reach 30%. “And yet,” he says, “for anyone thinking about switching careers,” he says, “now might not be as bad of a time as it may seem.”  

We talked with two local career and business experts, Dr. William Costelloe and Mr. Jim Stood, and ask them about adapting to the job market churn going on in the country.  

William Costelloe, PhD, is a licensed I-O psychologist and owner of Costelloe & Associates, Inc. For over 40 years, he has consulted with both public corporations and family-owned businesses across the country, specializing in interpersonal communication, team building, pre-employment assessments, organizational surveys, and career counseling.  

Jim Stood, M.S., owner of JT Stodd & Associates, has provided consulting services to a diverse mix of clients including those in the healthcare, manufacturing, technology, construction, professional services, finance, government, and education. He also teaches classes in Organizational Leadership and Human Resource Management at Louisiana State University, and serves as the principal instructor for the Human Capital Management Certificate Program at the University of New Orleans.  

We asked Mr. Stodd what are some of the changes he sees for the future and careers? While he warned us that he was speculating, he thinks much of this will be influenced by the upcoming national election.  

“If the republicans win, we will continue to see more ‘domestication’ of our economy with the USA establishing more independence and self-sufficiency. The big winners will be oil and gas, manufacturing, distribution/logistics, and all the jobs associated with those.  

“If the democrats win, he said, “we will likely see a return to ‘globalization’ with more concern for being good citizens within the global economy. It will include a return to offshoring many manufacturing jobs, tech jobs, and a lot of associated logistics/distribution.  

“Irrespective of which party wins, we are likely to see continued growth in demand for STEM workers across all sectors–not necessarily degrees, but ‘credentials’– as well as healthcare, technology and logistics/transportation, particularly as retail establishments, including food services, shrink/disappear and home/office delivery continues to grow. The COVID-19 pandemic will simply add to what has already been a significant trend.”  

What does he think are the most likely new job areas, or those that could boom?  

“Right now both political parties seem to be in agreement that the national infrastructure needs revitalization,” Stodd said. “This will likely be a huge effort. So we should expect that jobs in heavy construction– roads, bridges, airports, big buildings, etc.– including jobs in architecture, engineering, materials manufacturing, construction supplies and equipment, and other related industries will grow– dramatically!” he said. “Also growing will be the business services necessary to support these efforts.”  

With these changes, we asked Dr. William Costelloe what are the signs that it might be time for a person to shift jobs or industries?  

“The current research on employee engagement in the workplace indicates that only 25 percent of the employees are fully engaged in their jobs, 59 percent of employees are ambivalent/disengaged, and 16 percent are actively disengaged. If someone senses that they are becoming less and less engaged in their work, then it is a time for concern,” said Costelloe.  

“The term I like to use is ‘passion.’ If an individual begins to sense that they are feeling more disengaged from their work, then they are losing their passion.  

“We are all going through a shock right now and employees are in a situation where they are seeing furloughs and complete layoffs of their coworkers and unfortunately in many cases even themselves. This situation is causing employees to question their level of job security regarding their current career path. Their level of engagement is by definition decreasing and they are wondering if they should begin to look for a different line of work given the situation we are all facing now,” Costelloe said.  

“At the same time, employees must guard against a kneejerk reaction and not jump into a new career or job just because they are scared. They should not overreact but rather think their situation through seriously with a high level of self-review and introspection.”  

“This is a very difficult question to answer,” Stodd agrees. “The decision to change careers is a very personal decision that must be made based upon factors unique to each individual, their circumstances and what they would like to accomplish in life. As such, it is very difficult to speak generally about the signs that might be important to any given individual. However, what we can talk about rather conclusively is why most people change jobs, and some of these factors are likely to ring-abell with any selected individual.”  

Stodd explained some of the research findings and the main reasons people change their jobs. ” 

Pay is by far the #1 reason folks leave a job, or an industry, for another,” he said. “It is also listed as the #1 reason people decide to stay put in their current job.”  

But employees are also want respectful treatment, he explained. “Employees list ‘respectful treatment’ as the factor most important to their overall job satisfaction,” he said. He pointed out that only 38% are satisfied with the amount of respect they receive.  

Stodd also said factors such as trust and the opportunity to grow are important, as is job security, is a factor in these current conditions. “Okay…Maslow was right! Research shows that people do want to feel reasonably safe and secure in their occupation, and they are likely to move to another opportunity when they feel insecure. Hospitality, entertainment, dining, and gaming have been hit really hard during the pandemic. Because of this it is likely that many employers in these industries will struggle for some time just to hire back the folks they furloughed or laid-off. After all, why go back if there is a better, safer opportunity?”  

Dr. Costello points out that before addressing issues such as job skills and job match, other questions may be more important.  

“The first step is to ask the question ‘What if?’,” said Costelloe.  

“What would happen if I took the time to seriously do some introspective thinking about what I could really do with the rest of my life? If I could determine what it is that I am really passionate about?  

“There is a story about Michelangelo and the process he went through before he built a huge stained glass window in a church in Italy. He spent weeks and weeks gazing at the space in the church where he was going to build the window. The Medeci family, who had commissioned him to build the window, became more and more frustrated as he delayed his start. Finally, they confronted him and inquired about why it was taking him so long to begin. Michelangelo responded that he was imagining in his mind where each and every tiny piece of stained glass would go into the window. In his time stained glass was very rare and he wanted to be very, very sure that he would have all the pieces he needed in the right colors in order to complete the window once he started.  

“Stated somewhat differently, Michelangelo was planning his plan. It has been my experience with my clients that many have not invested the time nor the right amount of mental energy required to plan their plan,” Cotelloe said. Special: Coping with the Coronavirus Pandemic Is This a Good Time to Help Your Client Change Jobs?  

“In order to answer the question ‘What if,’ a great deal of mental energy and introspection is required in order to arrive at a clear answer or vision of what it would be like to change your life and do something that you are truly passionate about. Dreaming alone will not answer the question, ‘What if?’  

“Once an individual has answered that question, the next step is to focus mental energy in order to answer the question, ‘What would I need to do in order to re-invent myself for the future?’ The final question that needs to be answered is, ‘How can I proceed forward so that I will enjoy and engage myself in the process of moving my career forward?’  

“Once the steps listed above have been started, a simultaneous process can begin in order to determine an individual’s knowledge, skills and abilities, which industrial organizational-psychologists refer to as KSAs. These can be determined by referring to national job databases,” he said.  

“In our career consulting practice, we think that it is important for an individual to be aware of the competencies that they could bring to a given job. Therefore, we administer proprietary assessments that determine these unique competencies.”  

“Recent studies have determined that once a student enters college, they will probably change their college major between two and five times before they graduate. Nowadays, because of the frequent switches of one’s college major, it often requires an extra year or more for a student to fulfill the full course requirements necessary to graduate, because they have switched their major so many times.  

“I’ve been contacted by two different nursing schools in the last few years who have found themselves caught in a very serious situation. Today, there is a shortage of nurses coming out of nursing schools. Both of these nursing schools admit around 30 students to their program each year. The problem is that each year a significant number of the students drop out of the program because they come to learn that nursing, as a career, is not what they thought it would be. In other words, the students who have entered and were accepted into their programs did not have a realistic understanding of what being a nurse would involve in the real world.  

“Industrial-organizational psychologists call this a ‘realistic job preview.’ The problem the nursing schools are facing is that by the end of the four-year nursing program only around 50 percent of the entering students graduate. Because of this high dropout rate the nursing schools can only provide half of the nurses needed in the job market.  

“I recall having a conversation with Dr. Ed Timmons who was one of my professors at LSU years ago when he predicted that this situation would occur. He said to me, ‘These kids have no idea what they really want to do once they get out of college. There is just too much ‘fish flopping behavior.’ I had to ask him, ‘What is fish flopping behavior?’ He said, ‘You know, it’s like when you catch a fish and you put it on the dock, it flips and flops and flips and flops until it finally flips off the dock back into the water.’ Today, there Is very little structured planning done before students choose their college major.  

“We also need to remember that things in the world of work are different today than they used to be. Generally speaking, in the old days, people would enter a job and stay with that job until they received a watch from the company upon retirement. Nowadays, studies indicate that after graduating from college the average person will switch the company they work with between three and five times during their career,” Dr. Costelloe said.  

The entire situation has become more complex with the coronavirus crisis. One of the changes is a potential move to remote work and in particular working from home. Researchers have long noted that working from home can provide benefits for workers and employees. Telecommuting can save employers and employees time, stress, money, and in many cases increase productivity by reducing stress associated with commuting and now a lower exposure to the virus. But many opportunities maybe available. Libby Wells of Bank Rate reports that the top jobs for working from home include web developer, computer support specialist, virtual assistant, and social media specialist for examples. for example, web developers have only a medium preparation requirement and yet average wages approach $70,000 a year.  

We asked Jim Stodd to describe some of the challenges coming to the career scene with remote work and he explained that the number of employees working remotely has grown from 3% at the beginning of 2020 to 64% in April.  

“Because of the pandemic, we are starting to learn a lot about remote work–good and bad–in a very compressed time-frame,” he said.  

“Furthermore, without a vaccine, employers are going to be slow in bringing remote workers back to the office simply because of the risk. As such, I believe that remote work is here to stay and will be the ‘new norm’ for those who largely do their work on computers and other digital equipment, which includes almost all professional services.  

“Yes, there will be some retraction efforts on the part of employers as things re-open, but employees are learning that there are huge benefits –at least for some people–in working remotely. A recent report issued by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that after the COVID-19 experience, 43% of the workforce wants to work remotely more of the time, compared to only 12% that want to work in the office more of the time.  

Mr. Stodd explained reasons from the research why people wanted to work remotely. These included not having to commute (55%), more flexible schedule (48%), being more productive (37%), and more time with family and friends (34%).  

“As a result,” he said, “employers are going to be pressured to provide more remote work situations and be much better prepared to lead and supervise a virtual staff. But, there are some documented challenges that employers will face in doing so.  

There will be problems ensuring consistency of treatment, such as for performance appraisals and raises, he said, and remote workers we’ll have greater difficulty separating work and home responsibilities.  

“It is much more challenging to maintain organizational continuity and consistency when the normal in-person interaction of the office is replaced by Zoom and ‘chat’ sessions,” Stodd said.  

“Progressive ‘cultural’ decay––the longer people work remotely the more difficult to maintain the desired culture. Axios has reported that 55 percent of remote workers feel less connected to the company.”  

There is concern that goodwill and harmony can breakdown without actual social interaction between colleagues, he explained. There is a lot to consider Mr. Stodd noted. And all of these are great opportunities for organizational psychologists.  

For more information and questions, Dr. Costelloe can be reached at WHCostelloe@msn.com. 

Mr. Stodd’s website is http://www.jtstodd.com. 

Susie Marie, PhD

Musical Messages® – April 1, 2020

As infants, when we felt irritable and fussy, or were unable to relax and fall asleep, our mothers would wrap their arms around us, hold us close, and sing lullabies to us. These softly sung rhyming words, with their slow, steady, repetitive patterns of simple melodies, delivered with high pitched, deep emotional expression, in swaying triple meter, were the medicine we needed to drift into peaceful slumber.

The mother’s voice, la voix maternelle, has unmatched power to influence the growth and development of her young. Even before birth babies can recognize their mother’s voices, and as infants they prefer the voices of their mothers above all others. Mothers across the centuries and around the globe have used the power of their voices to influence their children through lullabies.

Lullabies are the vehicles through which mothers first teach their children important family stories and traditions, and share timeless cultural knowledge and values. Mothers also express their own troubles and worries, reassuring themselves and their little ones, through lullabies.

Gregor Roy MacGregor of Clan Gregor fought for years to reclaim family land that Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, had granted to the chief of the Clan Campbell. When he was captured and killed in 1570, his widow composed and sang the lullaby Ba Mo Leanabh to her son. You can listen to her mournful tale here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dW 1FtfS9Q

She sang of her plight while comforting her child, “On hush-a-bye, my little baby. Hush, my little baby, hush. Oh hush-abye, my little baby. My own little baby will go to sleep. Though I am without a flock of sheep, And the others all have sheep, Though I am without a flock of sheep, You, little baby, can go to sleep.”

She also sang of the strength of her devotion as she relayed the tragic truth of her child’s father’s fate, “Darling, of the people of the great world, They spilt your blood yesterday, They put your head on an oaken post. A little way from your corpse I breathlessly climbed the great mountain, I climbed and I descended. I would put the hair of my head under your feet, and the skin of my two hands.”

No matter what the circumstances of her life, a mother can establish a secure bond with her child through lullabies, which provide stabilizing comfort by modulating arousal and regulating behavior. Research on premature infants provides some of the most compelling evidence of the benefits of lullabies. Their breathing and heart rates improve, feeding and sleeping increase, they get better faster, and they are discharged sooner than babies deprived of “live” lullabies.

The electronic delivery of lullabies lacks impact for babies in hospitals and in homes. Babies want real, live females to sing their lullabies. One of the beautiful features of lullabies is that the lyrics are customized, adding special endearments and unique details, sometimes with silly words and intonations, that express love and affection, and the worth of each individual child. Babies need the intimate, personal interaction of traditional lullabies that mothers through-out the world have provided for centuries.

Screened presentations of lullabies, such as those available through Apps and YouTube, are generically produced, lack understanding of children’s social and developmental needs, and are promoted by unscientific testimonials. These productions have corrupted the classic definition of lullabies. They use male voices and instruments, and instead of lulling a baby to sleep, they function primarily as ways to settle a baby by signaling a specific family routine.

Children whose mothers sing lullabies to them through-out the first year of life have significant advantages over children deprived of such a rich musical heritage. Lullabied babies show greater growth across multiple developmental realms. Music activates many parts of the brain simultaneously, and establishes strong foundations for speech and language, mathematical and spatial skills, sensory and creative development. Dr. Nina Kraus of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory of Northwestern University aptly describes music as the “quitessential multimodal activity.”

The Polish composer Frederic Chopin gave the world a new musical form in 1844 when he completed his, a cradle song. (Le berceau is French for cradle.) He is thought to have been inspired by Louisetta, the child of his musician friend Pauline Viardot, and by a song from his childhood, “The moon now has risen, the dogs are asleep.”

German composer Johannes Brahms gave us his berceuse, Wiegenlied, a lied (art song) for piano and voice in 1868, which is best known as “Brahms Cradle Song,” one of his most popular works. He too was inspired by a friend who was a mother, Bertha Faber, when she gave birth to her second son. In 1877 Brahms incorporated this melody as the second theme of the first movement of his second symphony. The second theme begins at bar 82 and continues through-out the movement. You can hear that first movement here. https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=uJ3AOeNfWy4

Brahms original lyrics were, “Good evening, good night, With roses covered, with cloves adorned, Tomorrow morning, if God wills, you will wake again. Good evening, good night, By angels watched, who show you in your dream, the Christ-child’s tree. Sleep now blissfully and sweetly, see the paradise in your dreams.” These words express Brahms’ appreciation of the ultimate security a mother provides, by protecting her child even beyond death through faith.

Today we know this piece, so popular in music boxes, as “Brahms Lullaby,” that begins “Lullaby, and good night” and continues “Lay thee down now and rest. May thy slumber be blest.” Twentieth century American lyricist William Engvick created new, simpler words for the melody, giving us “Close Your Eyes.” You can enjoy Rosemary Clooney’s version here. https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=MOLOFTFatgc&feature=yo utu.be

In contrast to the peace and joy of the lullaby is the lament. A lament, as a passionate expression of grief that is prominent in Biblical texts, is an appeal to God for help. The initial wailing complaint is transformed through the process in which the petitioner addresses God, describes the suffering, pleads for divine assistance, expresses trust, and offers thanksgiving and gratitude, in anticipating of receiving relief.

Music therapists have developed “lullaments,” which combine both lullabies and laments, to help hospitalized children and their parents, and adult cancer patients in palliative care. Lullabies, which focus on attachment, nurturance, and growth, used together with laments, which emphasize detachment, sorrow, and loss, can help patients cope with uncertainty and fear of death. As our nation contends with the crises and tragedies of the coronavirus pandemic, lullaments can be an important resource to help ease suffering.

Lullabies, however, capture the blessings and fundamental freedom of a strong maternal bond. Perhaps we all need to envision ourselves embraced in a loving mother’s arms, lulled into peaceful sleep by the sounds of her sweet lullabies. Though the link below takes you to a lessthan-ideal digital format where I share a childhood memory and sing a lullaby inspired by roses, I hope that my Musical Messages® will help bring us emotionally close as we remain physically distant for the health of country.

Musical Messages®

“Sleep has been shown to be an important modulator of the immune response,” said Dr. Denise Sharon, MD, PhD, and Diplomate in Sleep Medicine. “Lack of sleep increases susceptibility to infection by decreasing immunity.” Dr. Sharon is a psychologist and physician and she now serves as Independent Consultant at Pomona Valley Medical Center’s Adult and Children Sleep Disorders Clinic.

Dr. Sharon previously served as Associate Professor of Medicine, Sleep Medicine Fellowship Faculty, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, and also as director of the Comprehensive Sleep Medicine Center of the Gulf Coast.

“Sleep is a behavior,” Dr. Sharon explained, “and it is an important one for health.” Pointing to research by Besedovsky and others, “Sleep and immune function” in Pflugers Arch European Journal of Physiology, Dr. Sharon says, “Sleep supports the immune system through the initiation of an adaptive immune response.”

“There are two major types of immune response: innate and adaptive. Innate immunity is the first line of defense, the immediate generalized response to pathogens,” explained Dr. Sharon. “Adaptive or acquired immunity is an antigen-specific response and develops over time. The innate immune system cell types include monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. During sleep these undifferentiated immune cells peak in the peripheral blood and lymph nodes.”

“Growth hormone and prolactin are released during the same period of sleep and both enhance the proliferation and differentiation of the T cells, which are active in innate immunity. Natural killer cells–NK cells–are also affected by sleep,” she said, citing the research by Reis and others. “NK cells are part of the immune complement system whose activation is increased by sleep.”

“Sleep and immunity have a bidirectional relationship. The stimulation of the immune system triggers an inflammatory response that can induce an increase in sleep duration and intensity, but also sleep disruption. The enhanced sleep potentiates the immune system resulting in improved infection outcomes,” she said.

“Contrarily, sleep deprivation can lead to susceptibility to infections and if chronic to systemic low-grade inflammation,” she explained pointing to a 2019 study by Besedovsky and Lange, “The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease” in Physiol Rev.

“There are huge numbers of people who are sleep deprived,” she said. “And it is a state in which negative emotion tends to prevail, like other strong need deprivation states.”

Clinical psychologist Dr. William Waters, long-time expert in the area of sleep would agree. “The whole country is sleep deprived,” he said in a previous interview. “You can’t do sleep deprivation research without feeling a little scared about traveling on the highway at night or early in the morning.”

Dr. Waters developed his interest in sleep during his years as Clinical Director at Louisiana State University throughout the 80s. An ABPP in clinical psychology with a strong psychophysiological background, Dr. Waters trained psychologists in sleep research and sleep medicine while Director and Full Professor at LSU. His first publication in the area of sleep was also in the 80s. He continues his interest at the Sleep Disorders Center at Ochsner Clinic in Baton Rouge.

“It’s not just sleep deprivation,” he said, “but the quality of sleep is very poor for many of those who actually do get enough sleep. For example, sleep apnea produces fragmented and light sleep that is not restorative, and causes the same functional decrements that are caused by sleep deprivation, including negative affect.”

Dr. Waters has worked in several areas of neuroscience research at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, LSU and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. He holds fellowship positions in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and he sits on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Researchers have found that poor sleep patterns appear connected with a number of chronic illnesses, high stress hormones, hypertension, or a greater risk of diabetes and body mass.

“…And increased morbidity and increased mortality,” noted Dr. Sharon. “If we add intermittent hypoxemia, even mild, to the mix, the result is an inflammatory response that challenges the autoimmune system and contributes to plaque build-up.”

“Look for a middle-aged, overweight male or female,” said Dr. Waters, “and you are likely to find a problem with quality of sleep because they are likely to have sleep apnea. For psychologists, it is worth noting that sleep apnea will look a lot like depression,” he said.

As important as a full night of quality sleep is, the National Sleep Foundation’s data has revealed that 33.7 percent of responders said they did not get the amount of sleep they needed. And only 40 percent said they get a good night’s sleep every night or almost every night.

“The one thing that will reliably destroy sleep is stress,” Dr. Waters said. “No matter what the psychiatrists say, it is all continuous. If you want to take a point on the continuum and call it a disease you can. But stress–the psychophysiological responses–are aimed at getting you to deal with threat,” he said. “And then how likely are you to go to sleep?”

“Keep in mind that negative emotion is a stress response,” he said, “and therefore predictably disrupts sleep, delaying its onset, and making it light and interruptible. In other words, non-restorative.”

Helping a person get the rest and quality night sleep he or she needs was one of the first things that Dr. Sharon enjoyed in this specialty area. “Coming from psychiatry,” she said, “the first thing I liked about sleep medicine was instant gratification. The majority of our patients [obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome] improve immediately after diagnosis and correct treatment with minimal if any side effects.”

“Sleep is the kind of area that clinical psychologists should be doing, it is just made for us,” Dr. Waters said. “We have a whole scientific discipline at our fingertips that is applicable.” He explained that the basic principles of behavior, applied to the treatment of sleep, is a perfect fit.

“Sleep hygiene and stimulus-control therapies are nothing more than applying what we know about sleep related behavior to make the person more likely to sleep,” he said. “Relaxation therapy is what we do to tone down activation. And remember that it is activation, particularly emotional activation, that causes insomnia and reduces the quality of sleep.”

Walter C. Buboltz, Jr. PhD, Professor, Director of Training Counseling Psychology, and his team of researchers at Louisiana Tech have worked to help unravel some of the complex issues in the area of sleep, for college students.

“Basically what we’re finding is people that have poor sleep quality tend to consume more food and weigh more over time,” said Dr. Buboltz, “Our hope eventually is to give them interventions or strategies to sleep better which would keep them healthier and decrease their weight.”

Dr. Janelle McDaniel, currently at University of Louisiana Monroe, and previously Assistant Professor and part of the team at Louisiana Tech, said, “It’s important to consider the interaction between different factors such as sleep and eating habits when thinking about wellness globally because treating one particular factor may not address underlying conditions.”

Dr. Buboltz and his team developed an intervention program for college students called the Step Program. “It’s basically training students to learn appropriate sleep habits, sleep hygiene and sleep education.”

Sleep hygiene, explained Dr. Buboltz, is “Doing things that promote sleep, like not drinking coffee past five, not working out at midnight or eating a lot of food before bed, but relaxing before going to sleep.”

Dr. Buboltz noted that their goal for these types of studies was learning about what’s appropriate. “Most people don’t know you’re supposed to sleep eight to nine hours a night. Most people don’t know about the amount of caffeine in food. Chocolate is actually worse for caffeine content than Coke! Colleges are bad about having intramural sports events at nine and ten o’clock at night and that prevents them from going to sleep.”

“We’re mainly focused on its effect on health,” Dr. Buboltz said.

With the overlap between major areas of psychology, psychophysiology, attention, emotion, Dr. William Waters finds this area to be perfect for those in psychology and the health promotion of patients. “The best clinician you can have is one with an integrated perspective,” he said.

Current research suggests that seven to nine hours of uninterrupted per night is necessary for the immune system to function optimally.

In the last week of February members of the La. Psychological Association reviewed a memo from the Board of Examiners of Psychologists on “Possible Housekeeping Legislation.” The three-page memo, obtained from an undisclosed source, included substantial changes to areas of the psychology law, said the source.

One of the significant areas listed in the memo is the goal to define “Registered Assistant to Psychologist.” The board notes that the psychologist and anyone under the supervision of that psychologist must conduct their activities in ethical and professional ways that meet standards required by the board. The authors of the memo write, “Clear authority to require registration of assistance will allow the board to enforce regulations that it promulgates, ensure the individuals who are being employed or qualified do not have a history of violent behavior, or other impairment that would prohibit them from interacting with vulnerable populations, with whom they are often alone.”

The board also notes that the changes they seek would allow them the authority to collect fees for registering assistants.

The memo also included a number of expansions to the authority of the board including the right to delegate to an employee or Executive Director subpoena authority.

The authors note that even though the board has authority to issue a summary suspension (of a license) there is no clear language in the law that gives the board the right to delegate that authority to a specific individual or executive committee.

This authority is outlined in Louisiana Administrative Procedures Act 49:956, they write, however there is no clear authority given to the board to delegate the authority to a specific individual or committee.

“Present law is also silent on the authority of the board to delegate duties to an Executive Director of the agency in order to effectuate the provisions of the Chapter.”

The board would also like to change the law to give itself clear authority to provide educational activities and to recuperate the cost of providing such education.

According to the memo the board would like to modify the definition of the practice of psychology. “This definition has been challenged in an attempt to exclude from licensure those individuals who practice in a forensic setting,” the board writes. The definition, authors say, should also be modified to include individuals engaged in education and training in a clinical setting such as university hospitals and clinics.

The LSBEP wants to change the definition of board member such that the qualification no longer includes a minimum of five years practice under Louisiana law. “This is unnecessarily restrictive and narrows the pool of qualified board members,” they write. “A new licensee may have been in practice for more than five years in another jurisdiction.”

The board is also seeking changes in the licensing requirements because they are outdated, they explain. They suggest changes are needed to match the current national standards for training and credentialing for licensure.

Adding the words “or otherwise restrict“ into the definition of the boards power to “suspend, deny or revoke” someone’s license, and so this would allow them to modify licenses in a less restrictive way where appropriate and allow some individuals to continue to practice in a limited capacity in contrast to completely revoking their license, the authors explain.

The board members also recommend changes to establish clear authority for them to collect applicable administration and maintenance fees, as related to application, registration and renewals.

The board is also seeking to change the definition of “Executive Committee” because the present law is not clear regarding the authority of the board to delegate certain functions.

Authors write they want to make additions or changes in matters of telepsychology including the authority to collect fees necessary to review or deny request to provide training via electronically means.

Also the LSBEP is seeking to further define and determine the differences between an “applicant” for licensure and a “candidate” for licensure because the board has been challenged with determining the level of due process rights of an individual once they are granted candidacy status.

The memo was obtained from an undisclosed source in Louisiana Psychological Association who said that the association was not in favor of major changes without more assessment of the suggestions by the members at the state association and the community at large.

The memo does not appear to be posted on the board’s website. However, according to the December minutes (posted January 10) legislative efforts were discussed briefly. “Dr. Gormanous expressed his opinion that the LSBEP should prepare to educate people, including new legislators if the Board is going to seriously consider statutory changes.” And, “The committee agreed that they would wait for ASPPB to publish recommendations for the ‘Elevator Speech’ and revisit that topic at that time.”

The minutes contained no reference to comments from the members about separation of powers.

Showcased in one of the cover features of LSU Research magazine, cognitive psychologist Dr. Melissa Beck is being called a “collaborative champion,” for her skill in developing cross-discipline research and teamwork.

Dr. Beck is professor of psychology at LSU and leads the Beck Visual Cognition Research Lab, where she conducts innovative and interdisciplinary research on visual attention and memory.

Dr. Beck serves on the executive committee for the LSU MIND group, or the Multidisciplinary Initiative for Neuroscience Discovery. “She’s been described as ‘the glue’ for various cross-campus collaborations,” reported Elsa Hahne at the LSU Office of Research & Economic Development.

In an interview with Hahne, Dr. Beck said, “When I first came to LSU, I was doing basic science research with my graduate students while also doing applied collaborative research at the Human Factors Group at the Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. We were looking at how pilots allocate attention to digital maps while they’re flying and how their expertise develops. I learned how to take basic research and apply it to different areas while working with people who aren’t cognitive psychologists.”

Beck is aware of how little other disciplines know about psychologists’ skills. She told Hahne, “At all universities, silos get created. Someone in engineering might think psychology is therapy— and it is!—but there’s also this huge other area of psychology called cognitive science. It doesn’t occur to them that we have all of these people with skills and the ability to study interesting problems that are related to business or marketing or engineering. We could collaborate, but people don’t understand what our skills are, and vice versa. Not unless we have conversations.”

Dr. Beck and her team of researchers have worked to uncover the “inattentional blindness” that impacts automobile drivers, the ways that visual attention and memory work or don’t work in various situations. With the aid of grants from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and working through LSU’s University Transportation Center for the Gulf Coast Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency, Beck and her students are able to study human responses in a driving simulator.

Housed in the LSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, “The simulator consists of a full-sized passenger car––a Ford Fusion with no wheels,” she said, “combined with a series of cameras, projectors and screens to provide a high fidelity virtual environment. Realtime Technology Inc. manufactured the simulator,” Beck explained.

“Lately,” Dr. Beck told Ms. Hahne, “I’ve been working with faculty members in construction management and architecture on a grant submission to look at how architects and engineers communicate with each other around design. People from different disciplines have different conceptualizations of what they do. For example, they might cognitively perceive a building differently. So, how do we get them to communicate well with each other? It’s kind of meta, because the very thing we want to study— cross-discipline communication—is necessary during our collaboration.”