A Taxonomy of Counseling Goals and Methods

Content analysis and multivariate taxonomic procedures were used to generate taxonomies of counseling methods and goals. Items within each taxonomy were taken from the works of 14 American theorists in counseling and psychotherapy. Seven goal clusters were generated: Transfer of Therapy Learning to Outside Situations, Awareness and Acceptance of Self in Conflict, Specific Symptom Removal, Strengthened Ego Functioning, Awareness of Positive Inner Resources, Learning to Respond to and Control the Environment, and Awareness of Negative Thoughts and Feelings. Six process clusters emerged: Client Acceptance, Active Critical Questioning, Recognition and Interpretation of Unconscious Material, Manipulation of Client Anxiety, Reeducation About Emotional Conflicts, and Support of Client Autonomy. The article discusses the implications of the taxonomies for practice.     

Continuum of Counseling Goals: A Framework for Differentiating Counseling Strategies

Counseling process goals are presented in a developmental continuum similar in concept to Maslow's hierarchy of needs with implications for counseling practice.     

Letter Therapy: A Model for Enhancing Counseling Intervention

Based on 15 letters between a counselor and a female client, this article outlines and discusses a unique letter therapy process, which is loosely adapted from the Morita Therapy approach to counseling. The five-step Letter therapy approach consists of 1) opening up, 2) focusing on life themes, 3) redirecting toward strengths, 4) reinforcing actions, and 5) affirming a positive attitude toward life. Letter writing has the potential of being used by counselors either in conjunction with face-to-face counseling or as a separate therapeutic method.     

Processes and Stages of Change: Counseling With the Transtheoretical Model of Change

Technical eclecticism and theoretical integration literature has typically examined how multiple approaches to counseling practice may lead to more comprehensive and functional outcomes. Few have proposed an integration of approaches from a scientist‐practitioner perspective; many others have neglected the richness found in the body of existing theory. The purpose of this synthesis is to highlight the contributions that the Transtheoretical Model of Change (J. O. Prochaska & C. C. DiClemente, 1984; J. O. Prochaska & J. C. Norcross, 1994) has for technical eclecticism and theoretical integration. The intervention implications of processes and stages of change are discussed.     

情绪调节目标的分类与优化

摘要：情绪调节目标决定人们是否调节情绪以及怎样调节情绪。基于情绪调节服务功能的类型差异,可分离出以下类型的调节目标：增加积极体验可满足享乐性需要,社会事务需使用情绪的工具效用,复杂体验的融合可优化自我成长,而情绪体验的文化精致可促进自我与世界的融合。这些目标既可能相互一致,也存在多种冲突,对幸福体验产生综合影响。拓展积极情绪最大化的暂时性适应角色,理解内隐层面的心理因素和文化价值正当性对调节目标的制约,是未来研究的方向。     

Eliciting Change in Maltreating Fathers: Goals, Processes, and Desired Outcomes

There has been a growing recognition of the need to provide appropriate intervention services to fathers who have been abusive in their families. This paper highlights four specific treatment goals for fathers who maltreat their children, along with therapeutic strategies necessary to accomplish desired outcomes. These goals were developed as part of the Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value Their Children program and include: (a) developing sufficient trust and motivation to engage men in the process of examining their fathering; (b) increasing men's awareness and application of child-centered fathering; (c) increasing men's awareness of, and responsibility for, abusive and neglectful fathering, including domestic violence; and (d) rebuilding trust with their children and planning for the future. The strategies include a range of approaches, such as motivational interviewing, psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral techniques, confrontation, and shame work. We describe each goal in terms of desired outcomes and primary therapeutic techniques used by the facilitators, and illustrate each with examples of exercises from the Caring Dads program. Implications for the training of therapists working with maltreating fathers are also highlighted.     

Reflections on Psychosynergy: A Model for Integrating Science,Theory, Classification,Assessment, and Therapy

The goal of resynthesizing that which has been disconnected in our field is what I have designated as psychosynergy. In addition to commenting on the previous articles, this article seeks to advance our shared interest in the subject matter of personology. Particularly noted in this article are efforts that have been made to reconnect the separate realms that comprise our field today, namely its undergirding scientific principles, its theoretically deduced personality styles and disorders, its classification model of psychic pathology, its empirically grounded assessment instruments, and its integration of diverse therapeutic modalities. This overall goal stems from my belief that a synthesis of these components is not only possible, but is one that will strengthen progress through mutual reinforcement and reciprocal enhancements.     

Case Report: Object Relations Family Therapy as a Model for Genetic Counseling

Object relations family therapy (ORFT) is a psychoanalytically based approach for the treatment of couples and families which stresses the importance of past relationships. The therapist assumes a parentlike role and provides a holding environment in which clients can explore unconscious motivations. This paper will discuss the applicability of this method to genetic counseling. The case of a couple seen for recurrent trisomies will be presented and used as an example to discuss how ORFT might serve as a framework in a genetic counseling session.     

Developmental Career Assessment and Counseling: The C-DAC Model

The C-DAC model seeks to implement current development theory and to use innovative assessment measures together with improved counseling methods to improve vocational and life career counseling. At this stage, the project pays more attention to assessment, partly because if one is to counsel with career maturity in mind, one must understand the developmental status of the counselee. In career counseling, facts as well as feelings are important. Therefore, in this article the authors deal with the assessment of career development in detail, treating interests (measured by the Strong) and expressed preferences as basic status data to be viewed in the light of career maturity, the salience of life roles, and the values sought in life as moderator variables. The instruments are described and their use shown in a sample profile for assessment and checking by the reader in another readily available published source.     

Interpersonal Goals and Close Relationship Processes: Potential Links to Health

A substantial body of empirical evidence suggests that social relationships buffer people from poor health. We review a program of research demonstrating how interpersonal goals create relationship processes that shape the quality of close relationships, which we argue may have consequences for own and others’ health. Self‐image goals to construct, maintain, and defend desired images of the self create negative interpersonal dynamics that undermine close relationships and mental health, while compassionate goals to support others’ well‐being create positive interpersonal dynamics that promote close relationships and mental health. We discuss the potential implications of social goals and close relationship processes for health. Finally, we suggest that exploring the independent benefits of giving and receiving in close relationships may inform how social relationships affect health and well‐being.     

Nuance, Complexity, and Context: Qualitative Methods in Genetic Counseling Research

Because of its potential for capturing complexity and process and its focus on communicating the meaning in human action, qualitative research is rapidly gaining acceptance in a wide variety of disciplines. Various qualitative approaches to research support its potential usefulness in genetic counseling research. Formulation of research questions and selection of appropriate qualitative methods are the first step. Interviewing, narrative analysis, focus groups, ethnography/participant observation, and participatory action research are only some of the most popular techniques that may be suitable in various situations. Processes of evaluation, analysis, and even ethical issues often differ somewhat from quantitative research. This article discusses these issues and the potential value of qualitative methods for research related to genetic counseling.     

Spiritual Assessment in Counseling: Methods and Practice

Given the widely expanding professional and empirical support for integrating spirituality into counseling, the authors present a practical discussion for raising counselors' general awareness and skill in the critical area of spiritual assessment. A discussion of rationale, measurement, and clinical practice is provided along with case examples. D. R. Hodge's (2001) spiritual life map is highlighted as an assessment tool. The authors also discuss the influence of counselor–client values and beliefs in therapy and the need to incorporate developmental and cultural influences in spiritual assessment.     

Group and Individual Decision Making for Task Performance Goals: Processes in the Establishment of Goals:in Groups1

The study examines the processes by which goals in groups are established. Performance goals and preferences for goals were stated by individuals acting alone, by groups deciding in unison, and by group members. All subjects performed a card-sorting task as individuals, and self-set goals were selected for expected levels of individual performance. Groups selected goals that were less difficult than individual goals on several occasions of goal setting. Analysis of the group goal decisions suggests that a success-based social comparison process occurs that implies groups select a goal slightly lower than the average of the member preferences so that the group members may appear successful. Analyses also indicated that the lower group goals arose quickly in the group interaction, and that group members readily adopted the lower goals as appropriate levels of performance. Discussion focuses on the observed differences among group, group member, and individual performance goals, and the ability of the success-based social comparison process to account for these differences.     

Rectifying the Mischaracterization of Logic by Mental Model Theorists

Khemlani et al. (2018) mischaracterize logic in the course of seeking to show that mental model theory (MMT) can accommodate a form of inference (, let us label it) they find in a high percentage of their subjects. We reveal their mischaracterization and, in so doing, lay a landscape for future modeling by cognitive scientists who may wonder whether human reasoning is consistent with, or perhaps even capturable by, reasoning in a logic or family thereof. Along the way, we note that the properties touted by Khemlani et al. as innovative aspects of MMT-based modeling (e.g., nonmonotonicity) have for decades been, in logic, acknowledged and rigorously specified by families of (implemented) logics. Khemlani et al. (2018) further declare that is “invalid in any modal logic.” We demonstrate this to be false by our introduction (Appendix A) of a new propositional modal logic (within a family of such logics) in which is provably valid, and by the implementation of this logic. A second appendix, B, partially answers the two-part question, “What is a formal logic, and what is it for one to capture empirical phenomena?”     

Career Counseling and Reality Therapy: A Conceptual Flowchart

Reality therapy is a cognitive behavioral approach but has not been developed for, nor associated with, career counseling. This article discusses the role of reality therapy in career counseling, with the aid of a flowchart model to present the particulars of the system.