Humor and Counseling: Close Encounters of Another Kind

The basic premise of this article is that humor has a place in counseling. The paper touches on some of the more prominent theoretical explanations of humor, presents assumptions that seem pertinent to any rationale for using humor in counseling, points out the reasons counselors may have overlooked its value, and considers the uses and abuses of humor. Finally, the implications of using humor, both in terms of training and research, are considered, and a five-point scale for assessing its effectiveness in counseling is presented.     

The Use of Humor in Counseling: The Laughing Cure

The benefits of humor are briefly reviewed, and the ways in which humor can be effectively used in the client—counselor relationship are explored (i.e., using humor as a diagnostic tool and as a therapeutic tool). Finally counseling vignettes are provided and admonitions regarding the improper application of humor in counseling are reviewed.     

The Path of Good Medicine: Understanding and Counseling Native American Indians

This article presents a brief overview of Native American cultural values, beliefs, and practices concerning the tribe, elders, family, and spirituality. Native American Indian communication style, humor, and cultural commitment are briefly discussed and recommendations are given for counseling with Native American Indians.     

Humor in Counseling: Leader Perspectives

This article explores the existence of humor in counseling from the perspectives of several leaders in the field. Specifically, the last 5 authors describe some of their thoughts and experiences regarding the emergence of humor in counseling.     

Broadening sources of Diginity and Affirmation in Work and Relationship

This article builds on assertions in Richardson's (2012, this issue) Major Contribution on counseling for work and relationship. In this reaction, I expand on the relevance and potential of the counseling for work and relationship perspective to enrich the field of counseling psychology. My comments focus on three considerations to further extend the cultural relevance of Richardson's work and relationship perspective: (1) broadening sources of dignity, (2) centering knowledge of marginalized communities, and (3) promoting psychologists' critical consciousness. Richardson's perspective holds great promise for being a guiding heuristic to inform counseling psychology research, theory, and practice.     

Identifying process variables in career counseling: A research agenda

Remarkably little is known about what underlying processes and mechanisms lead to effective change in career counseling. This article examines potential reasons why career counseling process research has been infrequently conducted and provides 10 avenues from psychotherapy process research, and the limited pool of existing career counseling process research, that hold promise for advancing a productive process-research agenda in career counseling. These 10 avenues include: (a) examining the working alliance and five promising counselor techniques; (b) reconceptualizing career counseling as a process of learning, and investigating the processes that lead to effective learning; (c) investigating differences in career counseling process and outcome due to subtype membership, cultural perspectives, and other critical client attributes; (d) investigating differences in career counseling process and outcome based on counselors’ levels of self-efficacy, cultural perspectives, and other critical counselor attributes; (e) examining influential session events; (f) utilizing a common problem resolution metric for examining change across clients; (g) examining client change longitudinally to examine stability of change and functional practicality of assessed outcomes; (h) examining cognitive processes that may be mediating the career counseling process; (i) developing molecular and global taxonomies of counselor behaviors; and (j) utilizing advances in methodological approaches and statistical analyses.     

Just a joke. Psychogenesis of humor in alcohol advertisements

This article asks what psychic functions humorous alcohol advertisements employ and how they are connected to the wider cultural meanings of alcohol. The material comprises 27 advertisements televised in Europe in 2013. The material is primarily examined using Freud’s ideas regarding the psychogenesis of jokes. Freud’s conceptions of humor provide in-depth point of views to understand how the advertisements address the viewer’s mind. We recognized three psychic processes: the pleasure of nonsense, recognition of the familiar, and liquidation of criticism. We argue that these are essential psychic activities which characterize the more or less unconscious functioning and content of humorous alcohol advertisements. The article suggests that the humorous strategies recall the infantile pleasure connected to playing with language. The humor in alcohol advertisements may also liquidate the critical attitudes toward drinking, enforce the process of denial of addiction and prohibit the reality-based reflection of alcohol use.     

Critical Race Theory as a Decisional Framework for the Ethical Counseling of African American Clients

The authors introduce critical race theory as a decisional framework for ethical counseling, with a focus on racial disparities when working particularly with African American clients. The authors provide a fictional case example that explains how this framework can be implemented when conducting cross‐cultural counseling with African American clients. Implications for counselors are provided.     

Applying Critical Consciousness: Culturally Competent Disaster Response Outcomes

The authors explored the use of critical consciousness as a training tool to provide effective, culturally competent disaster response counseling services to disaster‐affected communities. The results are presented of a qualitative study evaluating the outcomes for participants in a disaster response outreach project serving residents of post‐Katrina New Orleans. Participants demonstrated increased personal and cultural awareness and also constructed new knowledge related to counseling outreach competencies.     

Cultural Values,Counseling Stigma,and Intentions to Seek Counseling Among Asian American College Women

The authors explored the extent to which Asian American college women's perceived stigma about counseling mediated the relationship between their adherence to Asian cultural values and intentions to seek counseling. Participants, 201 Asian American college women (age range = 18–24 years), completed measures of Asian cultural values, perceived stigma regarding counseling, and intentions to seek counseling, along with a demographic questionnaire. Asian cultural values were positively correlated with perceived counseling stigma; both Asian cultural values and social stigma were negatively correlated with intentions to seek counseling. The main analysis showed that perceived counseling stigma partially mediated the relationship between participants' Asian cultural values and intentions to seek counseling.     

Therapy at the Cultural Interface: Implications of African Cosmology for Traumatic Stress Intervention

The topic of intercultural or multicultural therapy continues to stimulate much debate in the field of psychotherapy. Intercultural counseling training emphasizes respect for cultural beliefs as a core dimension of appropriate intervention. This paper addresses the limitations of this perspective in guiding therapists when faced with a clinical situation in which the non-challenging of cultural belief systems seems counter-therapeutic. The discussion is focused around critical observations of circumstances in which conventional African wisdom, as understood by clients presenting for trauma counseling, appeared to be counterproductive for their recovery in terms of western intervention principles. In psychotherapy for traumatic stress and traumatic bereavement, such tensions appear to arise particularly strongly because of the inevitable search for meaning in the face of extraordinary life events. Focusing on meaning making, cognitive intervention, schema realignment and reframing within trauma therapy, the paper explores ethical considerations and areas of potential conflict with reference to theory and clinical case material. Some strategies for therapeutic engagement are proposed.     

The Quest for Multicultural Competence: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Clinical and Organizational Research

Multicultural competence refers to the ability to appreciate diversity and to work effectively in multicultural settings. In this increasingly diverse and globalized world, being culturally competent has become more important than ever. Integrating research in counseling and organizational studies, the authors examine the conceptualization of cultural competence across disciplinary boundaries. The authors review pertinent research to dissect the major challenges posted to the quest for cultural competence and conclude that training programs that overemphasize knowing the different ‘Others’ may promote a false sense of competence, and even fuel intergroup hostility and reactance. To enhance cultural competence, we recommend shifting the emphasis in competence trainings from knowing the different ‘Others’ to enhancing critical self‐awareness.     

Beloved Women: Nurturing the Sacred Fire of Leadership From an American Indian Perspective

Counseling professionals are taught to rely heavily on theories and interventions steeped in a Western, masculinized worldview. This article explores a paradigm shift by providing a contrasting cultural view of leadership among women. The “crosswalk” between the American Indian perspective of nurturing leadership in women and the theoretical basis of relational‐cultural theory is explored as a way of adding critical, ancient knowledge about leadership to the counseling profession. Implications for mentoring female leaders are presented.     

A threshold theory of the humor response

The humor response has long been considered mysterious, and it is given relatively little attention in modern experimental psychology, in spite of the fact that numerous studies suggest that it has substantial benefits for mood and health. Existing theories of humor fail to account for some of the most basic humor phenomena. On most occasions when a humor response occurs, certain verbal or visual stimuli (the "setup" stimuli, which function as an establishing operation) must precede a critical stimulus (such as a "punch line" or the final panel or critical feature of a cartoon), which then occasions a sudden "revelation" or "understanding"; this revelation is often accompanied by the humor response. We suggest that the setup stimuli increase the strength of the revelatory response to a point just below the threshold of awareness and that the critical stimulus, properly designed and timed, edges the revelatory response to a point just above threshold. We also suggest that it is this threshold phenomenon that produces most instances of the humor response. We discuss these issues in the context of some notable humor of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner.     

The Cross‐Cultural Relevance of Person‐Centered Counseling in Postapartheid South Africa

In this article, the need for effective cross‐cultural counseling in South Africa is emphasized against the background of the country's sociocultural context. The characteristics of person‐centered counseling that make it cross‐culturally suitable in the South African situation are discussed. Rogers's cross‐cultural group work during his visits to South Africa is briefly described. The ways in which specific cross‐cultural obstacles can be overcome by means of the person‐centered approach are pointed out. The relationship between person‐centered counseling and traditional African healing practices is described. Finally, ways to address the language barriers in cross‐cultural counseling in South Africa are discussed.     

Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology in Portugal: A Political Perspective

In this article, we present an overview of the political context of vocational psychology and career counseling in Portugal. The essence of our position is that career counseling needs to encompass all the major tasks of personal and social development, beyond the traditional focus on primarily vocational/occupational goals. Given the importance of social and political factors that are apparent in an analysis of the Portuguese climate within career development, we propose that vocational psychology must go beyond a conceptualization of vocational behavior and intervention based on a person–environment fit model and must try to enhance strategies for the development of persons in a broader sense. We further propose that we need to provide career counseling not only at critical decision points, but throughout the life-span, and should not focus merely on occupational details, but on all matters of the development of the person as a whole. Finally, we suggest a perspective on career counseling and vocational psychology that is more responsive to our cultural and historical context and which is sensitive to the reality of a new political era in Portugal.     

Different attitudes toward humor between Chinese and American students: evidence from the Implicit Association Test

Although cross-cultural research indicates that Chinese people demonstrate less humor than do Americans, little research addresses the reasons. This cross-cultural difference may be largely due to different implicit attitudes toward humor held by Chinese and Americans, deeply rooted in the two cultural traditions. Both self-report evaluation and the Implicit Association Test (IAT) were used to compare Chinese and American attitudes toward humor. Although 60 Chinese undergraduate students showed no significant difference from 33 American exchange students in explicit attitudes toward humor, the former associated humor more frequently with unpleasant adjectives and seriousness with pleasant adjectives on the IAT; the opposite pattern was found for the American group. This indicated a negative implicit attitude toward humor among the Chinese students.     

论心理咨询本土化:基于文化的视角

随着心理学文化转向热潮的兴起,心理咨询越来越重视文化的因素,一般从两个途径去探讨文化因素是如何影响心理咨询的。基于对本土研究成果的理解,以及我国心理咨询本土化已取得的成就和不足,本土心理咨询模式的架构应从中国本身的思维特性及对自我的认识入手,发展出本土的心理咨询的理论和模式。     

Aha over Haha: Brands benefit more from being clever than from being funny

We examine whether the cleverness of a brand's humor attempt affects consumers' brand attitudes and engagement. A clever humor attempt is any humor attempt wherein the consumer feels she must make mental connections to solve the joke (e.g., understand a cultural reference, understand the dual meaning of a pun). Across five studies, we demonstrate that as the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers' need for cognition.