The contract as a counseling technique

The contract system has been successfully employed in recent years as a method of conducting individual academic study. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how an adaptation of this system may be used to provide an innovative approach not only to counseling but also to other segments of the school guidance program. Besides providing a logical, self-directed approach to problem solving, the contract system forces the student to assume responsibility for his own behavior. The rewards and punishments inherent in this system are only those the individual metes out to himself.     

The initiation ritual as a model for oncology counseling

This article examines the use of the initiation ritual of primitive people, described in the works of Mircea Eliade, as a model for counseling cancer patients, giving both meaning and structure to the interactions between patient and counselor. Within this model the patient's encounter with death, whether feared or actualized, can be used as impetus toward personal growth, whatever the stage of the person's disease process. Case examples are given to illustrate how the model can be used in practice. Comparison is also made between stages and components of the initiation ritual and other techniques used to alter a person's consciousness.     

The potential of medicine as a resource for philosophy

In addition to the neglect of philosophy by medicine, emphasized in a recent editorial in this journal, there has been an equally important neglect of medicine by philosophy. Philosophy stands to gain from medicine in three respects: in materials, the conceptual difficulties arising in the practice of medicine being key data for philosophical enquiry; in methods, these data, through their problematic character, being ideally suited to the technique of linguistic analysis; and in results, the practical requirements of medicine placing a direct demand for progress on philosophical theory. The future of the relationship between philosophy and medicine depends on the development of a positive two-way trade between them.     

Death as a counseling concern

Both the professional and the popular attention now given to the topic of death and issues reflecting a death theme indicate that these areas can be of great concern to many of the individuals served by counselors. If counselors are going to respond to these concerns, they must prepare by investigating the available information on death and related topics, exploring their own feelings and beliefs about these same areas, and developing an initial foundation for providing service to clients who are manifesting a problem that is death-related.     

Religion as a resource for bereaved parents

This paper addresses the relationship between bereavement and religious beliefs for parents. In-depth, qualitative interviews of twenty-seven couples were used to address the question of the relative value of religion as a coping resource during grief. Also addressed were ways in which religion was a positive resource (enhancing recovery), a neutral resource (having no impact), or a negative resource (retarding recovery). Conclusions are presented regarding the resource value of religion and ways in which others, primarily clergy, family, and friends, can enhance positive and minimize negative impact of religion during bereavement.This is a revision of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the national Council on Family Relations in Nuvember 1989 in new Orleans.     

Culture as a resource for mental health

This article is based on the author's address at the National Multicultural Conference and Summit III in Los Angeles, California, in January 2003. The author focuses on culture as a resource--a resource for theories that can inform one's understanding of human behavior; a resource for healing, self-help, and positive emotions; a resource for clinical practice; and a resource for mental health and wellness. The author uses a healing story from native culture to describe the essence of his relational worldview and to reframe the professional thinking about culture as one of the greatest assets for healing and mental wellness rather than as a problem to solve.     

Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: Job Ambivalence as a Moderator

Based on research regarding the role of attitudinal ambivalence in the validity of attitudes in predicting behavior, we propose job ambivalence as a promising concept for job satisfaction research. In particular, we argue that job ambivalence (i.e., coexistence of positive and negative evaluations of one's job) may moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Results of a study conducted with managers of an IT company show, as predicted, that job satisfaction is a better predictor of job performance (i.e., higher satisfaction related to higher performance) when individuals experience low job ambivalence, as compared to when individuals experience high job ambivalence. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The parish clergy as a mental health resource

Summary This paper presents observations on the assets and liabilities of the parish clergy as a mental health resource within the community. These observations are drawn from a ten-year program of continuing education for cleargy in mental health, which focuses on daily pastoral experience. The parish setting is similar in many respects to the service area of a community mental health center. The clergy's assets often include availability, experience, tradition, and the special significance of the religious leader. Inadequate training in mental health skills and the complex demands of parish life are among the problems confronting the clergy in this area. On the whole, the pastoral role offers a unique and highly useful opportunity for positive psychological intervention.The work described in this paper has been supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health grant no. MH-11929-01 and by grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the Grant Foundation, Inc., and the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.     

The Relation of Job Knowledge,Job Performance,and Supervisory Ratings as a Function of Ratee Race

Racial bias in performance ratings may be inferred when ratings hold differ- ent meanings for different racial subgroups. Operationally, this would be indi- cated by differences (by ratee race) in the correlation between performance ratings and objective indices of performance. In this study, the effects of rate race on the relations between supervisory ratings and more objective criteria of job knowledge and work performance were examined by aggregating corre- lations across 25 studies. The results indicated that supervisory ratings were more highly related to work-performance measures-and to a lesser extent to job-knowledge measures-for Black than for White ratees. Tivo theories were proposed that could account for such differences.     

The communion of saints as a paradigm for pastoral counseling: a revised look at an ancient symbol

The Christian symbol of the Communion of Saints has stood for centuries as a call to celebrate relationships. From the ancient doctrine of calling out those honored among the faithful for their holiness, the symbol evolved into a more formal ecclesial process involving procedures and miraculous proof. Reaching back to the early roots, the author draws on theologian Elizabeth Johnson's revisioning of saints as "friends and prophets" to explore a paradigm for the pastoral counselor. Such pastoral characteristics as presence, transforming vision, and creative hope are explored for the richness of growth within the counseling relationship for all who enter into it.     

The power of the past: nostalgia as a meaning-making resource

In three experiments we tested whether nostalgia bolsters meaning in life relative to two other modes of autobiographical thought: imagining a desired future experience and recalling a positive past experience. In Experiment 1 participants thought about a nostalgic or desired future experience and then completed a presence of meaning scale. Thinking about a nostalgic (compared to desired future) experience increased perceived presence of meaning. In Experiment 2 we examined whether nostalgia can additionally reduce the search for meaning. Participants thought about a nostalgic, desired future or recent positive experience, and then completed a search for meaning scale. Nostalgia, relative to both comparison conditions, decreased the search for meaning. Finally we tested whether, by virtue of its capacity to increase meaning, nostalgia can mitigate threats to meaning. In Experiment 3 participants were exposed to either absurd or representational art, under the guise that they would later have to interpret its meaning, and then thought about either a nostalgic or a recent positive experience. Meaning was subsequently measured. The absurd art interpretation condition decreased the perceived presence of meaning but nostalgic reflection attenuated this effect.     

Job Importance as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction

Moderated regression analyses are used to assess the degree to which indirect indicators of job importance moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. The 1971 Quality of American Life Survey (N = 2,164) and the 1972-1973 Quality of Employment Survey (N = 1,496) provide two large nationwide probability sample data sets for these secondary analyses. It is hypothesized that the strength of the job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationship is positively related to job importance. Contrary to this hypothesis, respondents whose jobs were expected to be more important do not have substantially stronger job satisfaction-life satisfaction relationships than respondents whose jobs were expected to be less important. The zero-order job satisfaction–life satisfaction correlations in both samples are stronger than expected (r = .48 and r = .49). Discussion focuses on the conceptual implications of the failure to find substantial moderator effects. Locke's (1969) theory of the implicit role of importance in determining satisfaction is invoked to explain the obtained pattern of results.     

员工工作压力感问卷的初步编制

通过访谈和文献阅读,编制中国员工工作压力感问卷,为企业提供简便的了解员工压力的工具。在两家企业中的293名员工中进行问卷调查,同时要求被试完成工作压力调查问卷、职业紧张量表和自我效能测验。结果表明,有16个项目符合测量学要求;问卷的内部一致性信度α系数为0.8260;问卷有较好的效标关联效度,员工工作压力感得分与工作压力调查问卷和职业紧张量表得分呈显著正相关,与自我效能分数呈显著负相关;探索性因素分析显示问卷包含三个主要因子。