Wilbert ("Bill") James McKeachie (1921-2019).

Memorializes Wilbert ("Bill") James McKeachie (1921-2019). A past American Psychological Association president, Bill's influence was not limited to the psychology community but extended to teachers of all disciplines who cared deeply about how their students could learn most effectively. A noted educational researcher and organizational leader, Bill's research interests were focused in the areas of (a) student motivation (particularly test anxiety); (b) how student motivation, cognition, instructional choices, and classroom characteristics interact; (c) the improvement of instruction; and (d) helping students to become self-regulated learners. Of course, Bill's textbook, Teaching Tips, has positively influenced teachers in and out of psychology for decades and is currently in its 14th edition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Bernardo J. Carducci (1952-2018).

This article memorializes Bernardo J. Carducci (1952-2018). Bernie's interests in shyness blossomed when he founded and directed the Shyness Research Institute at IUS. His mission became helping shy people to develop more interaction options and build their confidence in order to become full participants in the world. Bernie was internationally recognized as an authority, resulting in wide-ranging interviews with, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BBC, Good Morning America, U.S. News and World Report, and, appropriately, Psychology Today. His small treasured book, The Pocket Guide to Making Successful Small Talk (1999) continues to receive accolades from colleagues for its insight and helpful guidance. Bernie was also a productive contributor in the scholarship of teaching and learning, focusing on career preparation strategies for psychology majors who enter the workforce upon graduation. He regularly spoke in regional and national venues about ways to improve learning experiences that would help psychology students better articulate what they could do to impress potential employers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Quality benchmarks in undergraduate psychology programs.

Performance benchmarks are proposed to assist undergraduate psychology programs in defining their missions and goals as well as documenting their effectiveness. Experienced academic program reviewers compared their experiences to formulate a developmental framework of attributes of undergraduate programs focusing on activity in 8 domains: curriculum, assessment issues, student learning outcomes, program resources, student development, faculty characteristics, program climate, and administrative support. A continuum of performance was conceptualized for each attribute in each of the domains to characterize underdeveloped, developing, effective, and distinguished achievement for undergraduate programs. The authors hope to inspire a national conversation about program benchmarks in psychology in order to improve program quality, encourage more effective program reviews, and help optimally functioning programs compete more successfully for resources on the basis of their distinguished achievements.

The scientifically-minded psychologist: science as a core competency.

At the Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology, the Scientific Foundations and Research Competencies Work Group focused on identifying how psychologists practice scientifically. This article presents the subcomponents associated with the core competency of scientific practice. The subcomponents include: 1). access and apply current scientific knowledge habitually and appropriately; 2). contribute to knowledge; 3). critically evaluate interventions and their outcomes; 4). practice vigilance about how sociocultural variables influence scientific practice; and 5). routinely subject work to the scrutiny of colleagues, stakeholders, and the public. In addition, the article briefly discusses how the depth of training for and assessment of each subcomponent will vary by training model. Implications and future directions for individual psychologists, training programs, and the profession are discussed. This is one of a series of articles published in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Several other articles that resulted from the Competencies Conference will appear in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice and The Counseling Psychologist.