Positive predictors of teacher effectiveness

Some teachers are dramatically more effective than others, but traditional indicators of competence (e.g., certification) explain minimal variance in performance. The rigors of teaching suggest that positive traits that buffer against adversity might contribute to teacher effectiveness. In this prospective longitudinal study, novice teachers (N = 390) placed in under-resourced public schools completed measures of optimistic explanatory style, grit, and life satisfaction prior to the school year. At the conclusion of the school year, teacher effectiveness was measured in terms of the academic gains of students. All three positive traits individually predicted teacher performance. When entered simultaneously, however, only grit and life satisfaction remained significant predictors. These findings suggest that positive traits should be considered in the selection and training of teachers.     

Clients' pretreatment counseling expectations as predictors of the working alliance

Because research suggests that counseling expectations are malleable and that alliance ratings predict clinical outcomes, the relationship between this pretreatment client characteristic (expectations) and the quality of the alliance early in treatment deserves further attention. This study examined the relationships between 57 clients' pretreatment role expectations and 3rd-session client-rated alliance in a naturalistic setting. Prior to intake, clients completed the Expectations About Counseling-Brief Form (H. E. A. Tinsley, 1982), and clients completed the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form Revised (R. L. Hatcher & J. A. Gillaspy, 2006) following the 3rd therapy session. Results indicate that clients' expectations for personal commitment predicted the task, bond, and goal dimensions of the alliance. Expectations for facilitative conditions and counselor expertise did not predict clients' perceptions of the alliance. Clinical implications and research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a telephone counseling center

Three-thousand questionnaires were distributed to students on campus to identify a sample of actual telephone counseling center users and their ratings of the effectiveness of the help received and of the counselor. Ratings of help received and impact of counseling on life as it is today were considered for sex of caller and counselor across type of problem. A sample of 66 actual callers was identified who had used the service for personal problems at least once. Of male callers, 67% reported that telephone counseling helped at least somewhat, while 80% of female callers reported favorable results of telephone counseling. Female callers who talked with male counselors reported a significantly greater impact on their life than did the callers in any other caller/counselor sex interaction. Only one average rating of counseling effectiveness by problem type fell below the neutral rating. Results are presented as evidence for the effectiveness of paraprofessional counselors.     

Expressed vs inventoried interests as predictors of paramedical effectiveness

Two interest measures, a composite of six items which provide a direct assessment of an individual's preferences for Navy health care work and a Navy Vocational Interest Inventory (NVII) scale which assessed the degree of similarity between an individual's activity preferences and those of hospital corpsmen (HMs), were considered along with aptitude test scores as potential predictors of effectiveness among 2429 Navy enlisted personnel assigned to training for HM jobs. Effectiveness was defined as completion of HM training and remaining on the job for at least 2 years. The six-item composite and NVII HM scale scores were correlated .51 with each other and were correlated .27 and .28, respectively, with the effectiveness criterion. When these measures were added to the aptitude measure by using multiple regression procedures, the validity for predicting effectiveness was increased significantly from .36 to .42 with a cross-validity of .42 for the three-variable equation. These findings provide support for the contention that interest measures can be useful predictors of occupational success as well as occupational entry. Furthermore, since most of the interest-related attrition that was found in this study occurred during HM training, these findings suggest that job withdrawal attributable to mismatches in vocational interests may tend to occur very soon after the individual enters the occupational field.     

Couple therapy for military veterans: overall effectiveness and predictors of response

Despite the numerous challenges facing U.S. veterans and their relationships, there have been no examinations of the effectiveness of couple therapy for relationship distress provided to veterans. In the present study, 177 couples presenting for couple therapy at two Veteran Administration Medical Centers completed assessments of relationship satisfaction prior to therapy and weekly during therapy. Results revealed that the average couple showed significant gains in relationship satisfaction during treatment (d=0.44 for men; d=0.47 for women); gains were larger for couples beginning therapy in the distressed range (d=0.61 for men; d=0.58 for women) than for couples in the nondistressed range (d=0.19 for men; d=0.22 for women). Rates of premature termination were high, with 19% of couples completing fewer than three sessions and 62% rated as not completing a "full course" of therapy. Benchmarking analyses demonstrated that the average gains were larger than would be expected from natural remission and similar to previous effectiveness trials; however, average gains were smaller than those observed in couple therapy efficacy trials. Relationship, psychological, and demographic characteristics were generally unrelated to the amount of change in therapy after controlling for initial satisfaction. However, African American couples showed significantly larger gains than Caucasian, non-Hispanic couples. Thus, though yielding smaller effects than those shown in efficacy trials, the impact of couple therapy for veterans' relationship problems appears to generalize across various demographic, psychological, and relationship characteristics.     

Symptomatic distress and effectiveness of psychological treatments delivered at a nationwide student counseling service

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of student counseling in Denmark and to compare the symptomatic distress among student counseling clients with that of Danish outpatients. The pre-intervention level of self-reported symptomatic distress among 1256 students closely paralleled that of psychiatric outpatients. Participants in the intervention study were the 739 student clients with two or more counseling sessions. For the 530 (71.7%) participants with both pre- and post-measurements, the mean pre–post Cohen’s d effect size (ES) was .76 on the Global Severity Index of the Symptom Check List-90-Revised. An intention-to-treat analysis of all 739 clients resulted in an ES of .59. The number of recovered clients according to the Jacobson and Truax criteria was 295 (68.8%) of the 429 (80.9%) clients above the clinical cut-off at pre-intervention, while 66 (12.5%) of the 530 clients reliably deteriorated. The mean number of sessions was 5.0. Individual counseling, number of sessions, and ending counseling in agreement predicted better outcome. In line with results from other countries, this study may indicate that in Denmark student counseling is an effective intervention for a highly needy clientele, even though a high proportion of clients deteriorated (12.5%) or dropped out (31.7%).     

Perceived environmental predictors of physical activity over 6 months in adults: activity counseling trial.

PURPOSE: In the present study, the authors extend previous cross-sectional findings by using a prospective design to determine whether physical and social environmental characteristics predict physical activity over 6 months. DESIGN: Inactive adults were recruited to the Activity Counseling Trial, a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial of physical activity intervention in primary care. Participants were 387 women and 474 men aged 35-75 years in 3 regions; 1/3 were minorities; 56% had some college education. Baseline perceived environmental variables were used to predict physical activity at 6 months, adjusting for experimental condition and other potential moderators. MEASURES: The validated 7-day physical activity recall interview was used to estimate minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity. A standardized survey was used to measure social and physical environmental variables around the home and neighborhood. RESULTS: Women reporting no unattended dogs and low crime in their neighborhoods and men reporting frequently seeing people being active in their neighborhoods did 50-75 more minutes of physical activity per week than did those with different environmental characteristics. Interactions of environmental variables with age group suggested that older adults may be more affected by environmental variables than are younger adults. CONCLUSIONS: Self-reported social and physical environmental variables were significantly related to moderate to vigorous physical activity among a diverse sample of adults living in 3 regions of the United States. These prospective findings strengthen the conclusion from previous cross-sectional studies that environmental variables are important correlates of physical activity.     

Short-term memory,verbal competence,and age as predictors of imagery instructional effectiveness

Children 6 to 11 years of age heard concrete sentences that they were asked to learn. Half the subjects were instructed to construct images representing the sentence meanings. The remaining participants were provided no strategy instructions (control condition). Consistent with previous outcomes, the older children in the imagery condition learned signficantly more than did the older control subjects. There was a slight trend favoring imagery for younger children in the sample. Individual differences in short-term memory and verbal competence were more highly associated with performance in the imagery than in the control condition, such that greater short-term memory and verbal competence predicted better sentence learning in the imagery condition. In particular, short-term memory and verbal competence made unique contributions (relative to age and to each other) to prediction of sentence learning in the imagery condition, but not in the control condition. In short, imagery instruction is more effective with children who are more intellectually competent.     

Cognitive behavioural treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome in a rehabilitation setting: effectiveness and predictors of outcome

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was combined with graded exercise therapy (GET) for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in an uncontrolled implementation study of an inpatient multidisciplinary group therapy. During the intake procedure, 160 CFS patients completed a questionnaire on fatigue related measurements, physical impairment, depression, somatic and psychological attributions, somatic focus, and sense of control over symptoms. Pre-treatment physical activity level was measured with an actometer. At baseline, post-treatment and 6-month follow-up individual strength, subjective fatigue and physical impairment, were reassessed. Large effect sizes were found on subjective fatigue (1.2 post-treatment; 1.2 follow-up) and physical impairment (−.9 post-treatment; −.9 follow-up), Clinically significant improvement was found in 33.8% of the participants at post-treatment and 30.6% at follow-up. Individual strength at post-treatment was predicted by level of physical activity before treatment, and by sense of control over symptoms and physical activity at follow-up. Clinically significant improvement in subjective fatigue was predicted by not receiving a disablement insurance benefit, shorter duration of fatigue, higher sense of control over symptoms and, at follow-up by more pre-treatment physical activity. In conclusion, the intervention was effective for CFS patients. Cognitive behavioural factors that perpetuate fatigue symptoms are also predictors of treatment outcome.     

Psychological and social predictors of changes in fruit and vegetable consumption over 12 months following behavioral and nutrition education counseling.

This study assessed psychological and social factors predicting 12-month changes in fruit and vegetable consumption achieved by 271 men and women from a low-income population randomized to brief behavioral and nutrition education counseling. Greater increases in fruit and vegetable intake were achieved in the behavioral than in the nutrition education condition (1.49 vs. 0.87 portions per day, p=.021). Increases were predicted by baseline social support for dietary change but not by baseline psychological measures. However, short-term (8-week) changes in dietary self-efficacy, encouragement, anticipated regret, perceived benefits, and knowledge of recommended intake predicted 12-month changes in fruit and vegetable consumption independently of gender, age, ethnicity, income, and baseline intake. These factors accounted for 51% of the superiority of behavioral counseling over nutrition education.     

Group counseling

This article reviews the major concerns of group counseling and differentiates among group guidance, group counseling, and group therapy. It also evaluates the research status of group counseling. Finally, the author presents implications for the future of this approach.     

Parental representations and attachment style as predictors of support‐seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in an academic counseling relationship

The role of parental representations and attachment style as predictors of support‐seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in the context of an academic counseling relationship was investigated. Prior to participation in a 10‐hour academic counseling program in college, 91 students completed scales assessing perceptions of their current relationship with their parents and their attachment style. Students' support‐seeking behaviors and counselors' sensitivity, as reported by both participants (students and counselors), were evaluated twice during the counseling process, and general feelings of support were evaluated at the end of the program. Parental representations and attachment style both predicted students' support‐seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in counseling. The strength of the prediction differed as a function of time of measurement and source of evaluation. In addition, student‐perceived counselor sensitivity was found to mediate the relation between parental representations and support‐seeking behaviors in counseling