counselors' collective self‐esteem mediates job dissatisfaction and client relationships

Given the central role of professional identity (i.e., collective self‐esteem in this study), the authors examined whether collective self‐esteem mediated or moderated relations between job dissatisfaction and client relationships in a sample of 132 professional counselors in the United States. Results indicated that collective self‐esteem partially mediated the relationship between job dissatisfaction and client relationships. Furthermore, job dissatisfaction was negatively related to greater levels of private collective self‐esteem, and greater private collective self‐esteem was positively related to better client relationships.     

Effects of client and counselor sex on client attendance at counseling

The present study examined the relationship between sex of client, sex of counselor, client's presenting problem, and the length of time the counseling dyad stayed together. Dyads engaged in personal counseling had significantly more sessions than dyads engaged in vocational counseling or test feedback. Clients receiving personal counseling were more likely to terminate unilaterally than clients receiving vocational counseling or test feedback.A preliminary version of this article was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, September 1980.     

The effects of interviewers' initial impressions on information gathering

M. Synder and W. B. Swann, Jr. (1978, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1202–1212) suggest that people adopt information seeking strategies that confirm their hypotheses. To investigate whether or not these findings can be extended to employment interviews, an experiment was conducted examining the effects of interviewers' initial impressions and their decision task on the questions they formulate to assess applicants for a sales position. Twenty-six persons with varied interviewing experience reviewed the paper credentials of three applicants and then stated the questions they would ask each one. In separate sessions, ninety-two persons took the role of interviewee and responded to these questions. Contrary to the findings of P. Sackett (1982, Personnel Psychology, 35, 789–803) and T. McDonald and M. D. Hakel (1985, Personnel Psychology, 38, 321–334), the questions that interviewers asked of an applicant with poor credentials were biased in a more negative direction than the questions that were asked of moderately and highly qualified applicants. Consistent with these studies, however, no evidence was found for the strong confirmatory biases revealed in the Snyder and Swann (1978) research.     

Effects of outcome performance feedback on maintenance of client and staff behavior in a residential setting

This study examined effects of outcome performance feedback on maintenance of client and direct care staff behavior in a group home for four clients with severe/profound intellectual disability. Following baseline observations, 8 staff were instructed to prompt and praise interclient interactions and game activity during leisure sessions. Staff training comprised written instructions, in situ modeling and rehearsal, and performance feedback. This was followed by a 17-week maintenance period, during which staff received outcome performance feedback based on independent and self-recorded observations. Results showed that client gains were maintained, but did not stabilize. It was concluded that process feedback should have accompanied outcome feedback until staff behavior levels suitable for durable maintenance were obtained. In addition, successful use of performance feedback as a maintenance tool is highly dependent on which outcome behaviors are selected, and whether these are eventually naturally reinforced.     

Effects of nicotine deprivation on alcohol-related information processing and drinking behavior

This study examined the influence of smoking cues and nicotine deprivation on responses to alcohol among hazardous drinkers. Fifty-six daily smoking, hazardous drinkers were exposed to either smoking cues or control cues after either 6 hr of nicotine deprivation or no deprivation. Urges to drink alcohol, alcohol-related cognitive processing, and alcohol consumption were assessed after cue exposure. Results indicated that nicotine deprivation increased urges to drink, the accessibility of alcohol outcome expectancies, and the volume of alcohol consumed. There was little influence of the smoking cue manipulation on these processes. Implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying alcohol-tobacco interactions are discussed.     

Influence of the spacing of trait information on impressions of likability

Five experiments were conducted in which subjects were shown lists of trait adjectives that supposedly described particular individuals. Each list included both positive and negative traits, with all such traits occurring twice. The second occurrence of a trait followed the first either immediately (massed presentation) or after four other traits intervened (distributed presentation). For a given list, all positive traits received massed presentation and all negative traits were distributed, or vice versa. After list presentation, subjects judged how likable the person described would be. In Experiments 1–3 only, there was also a free recall test for the traits. The free recall test revealed both a spacing effect (distributed items being recalled better than massed) and a bias toward recalling negative traits better than positive. Likability judgments paralleled the recall pattern, with the judgments being more positive when positive traits were distributed (and negative massed), than in the opposite arrangement. Correlations calculated between recall and impressions were mostly nonsignificant, however, suggesting that judgments were not based on the recall of specific traits and that inferences formed at encoding were of primary importance.     

Managing and creating an image in the interview: the role of interviewee initial impressions

In employment interviews, individuals use impression management tactics to present themselves as suitable candidates to interviewers. However, not all impression management tactics, or the interviewees who employ them, are effective at positively influencing interview scores. Results of this study indicate that the relationship between impression management tactic usage and interview success is contingent on the type of tactic employed. Specifically, self-promotion was found to have a positive relationship (r = .20) and slight (r = -.11) and extensive (r = -.19) image creation were found to have negative relationships with end-of-interview scores. Further, the relationships between these 3 impression management tactics were moderated by interviewees' initial impressions of the interview (ΔR2 ranged from .04 to .10). Interviewees who perceived they were seen as less suitable during rapport building were more effective when using any of the 3 impression management tactics.     

Effects of client presenting syndromes on client and therapist dominance and affiliation during early sessions of Rational-Emotive psychotherapy

This is a study of effects of presenting clinical status on interpersonal presentation during early Rational-Emotive therapy (RET). Independent variables were intake scores for clients from the axis I scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI; Millon, 1983). Dependent variables, from audiotapes of sessions at the Institute for RET (IRET), were Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scale (IAS-R; Wiggins, Trapnell and Phillips, 1988) ratings of clients and therapists. MCMI scales associated with stimulation seeking (N, hypomania; T, drug abuse) were significantly positively correlated with client dominance. Therapist affiliation was negatively correlated with all client MCMI scales, and these were significant for scales that assessed the most severe intake presenting problems (A, anxiety, D, dysthymia).     

Prototypicality and personality: Effects on free recall and personality impressions

An experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that it is easier to process information about characters who fit well with and are, therefore, “prototypical” of shared beliefs about various personality types. Character prototypicality was manipulated in a free recall and personality impression paradigm through variations in the consistency of a character's identification with preexisting beliefs about two personality-type categories—extraversion and introversion. Subjects also were given information about each character that varied in degree of abstraction from traits to concrete behavior. As predicted, both the amount and nature of the information correctly recalled were significantly affected by the consistency of the character's identification with extraversion or with introversion. Character consistency also significantly affected the amount of material written in the personality impressions and the tendency to qualify the generality of the impressions. The results support a model in which incoming data about personality are coded, structured, elaborated, and remembered according to the quality of their match with preexisting beliefs about various personality types.     

Effects of procedure and outcome accountability on interview validity

This study tested effects of holding interviewers accountable for either the procedure they follow to make interview judgments (procedure accountability) or the accuracy of their judgments (outcome accountability) on interview validity. Undergraduates (N = 338) simulated employment interviewers in an experiment that crossed 2 levels of procedure accountability with 2 levels of outcome accountability. They watched videotapes of 60 managers answering an interview question and rated the managers on leadership potential. The dependent variable was the correlation between their interview judgments and supervisory ratings of the managers' actual leadership performance on the job. Results showed that procedure accountability increased interview validity and outcome accountability lowered it. Participants' apparent attentiveness fully mediated effects of procedure accountability on interview validity.     

Remembering first impressions: Effects of intentionality and diagnosticity on subsequent memory

People rely on first impressions every day as an important tool to interpret social behavior. While research is beginning to reveal the neural underpinnings of first impressions, particularly through understanding the role of dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), little is known about the way in which first impressions are encoded into memory. This is surprising because first impressions are relevant from a social perspective for future interactions, requiring that they be transferred to memory. The present study used a subsequent-memory paradigm to test the conditions under which the dmPFC is implicated in the encoding of first impressions. We found that intentionally forming impressions engages the dmPFC more than does incidentally forming impressions, and that this engagement supports the encoding of remembered impressions. In addition, we found that diagnostic information, which more readily lends itself to forming trait impressions, engages the dmPFC more than does neutral information. These results indicate that the neural system subserving memory for impressions is sensitive to consciously formed impressions. The results also suggest a distinction between a social memory system and other explicit memory systems governed by the medial temporal lobes.