A critique of the microcounselling approach to problem understanding

Microcounselling approaches involve teaching the component behaviours of effective counselling or interviewing within a problem-solving framework. Egan, Ivey and Carkhuff, as proponents of this view, stress that later action stages of the problem-solving cycle should be based on an adequate understanding of the client's problem. The relationship between the skills which comprise the microcounselling approach and the goal of problem understanding is examined. It is argued that the approach lacks any explanation of how problem understanding is reached, and that it concentrates instead on the communication techniques involved in the discovery and modification of the client's understanding. This omission leaves counsellors without a rationale for the modification of their clients' views and without a means to regulate their use of the various microskills. Information theory and recent research on complex problem-solving are introduced to explain the skills involved in reaching a high-quality understanding of a client's problem. Given that these complex cognitive processes are not addressed in the microcounselling approach, suggestions are made for its modification.     

The working mother: A critique of the research

This article provides a critique of the research on the working mother. Three major areas of research are reviewed: (1) the effects of maternal employment on preschoolers; (2) the working mother and school age children; and (3) working mothers, identity development, and life satisfaction. It was concluded that the research on maternal employment provided very few definitive answers regarding the effects of a mother's working on her family, children, and herself. Guidelines for conducting future research on maternal employment are presented.     

The cultural approach of ethnopsychiatry: A review and critique

Ethnopsychiatrists have consistently maintained that the perceptions, inclinations, and behavior of mentally ill persons are never a simple reflection of their illness: the mentally ill tend to behave in some ways in some cultural contexts and in other ways in others. This pathoplasticity shows, we are told, that abnormality is, primarily, the manifestation of a phenotype, not a genotype. Hence, any diagnosis and treatment of the affected individual must be grounded in some knowledge of the environment within which he or she functions. Postulating the existence of such an intimate and harmonious connection between psychopathology and social conditions, however, overlooks a pivotal distinction: while it is true that local norms and values can and do affect most neurotic presentations, those same standards have at best a marginal influence on psychotic reactions. Some pathogenic features are so overwhelming that they will be expressed in any environment. Accordingly, I conclude, we shall have progressed significantly in our understanding of the nature of mental disorders once we begin to associate neuroses with culture and psychoses with biology.     

A review and critique of honesty test research

This paper reviews and critiques research pertaining to the three most commonly used honesty tests. Honesty tests, sometimes called integrity tests, purportedly predict theft by employees. Secondary analyses were performed to remove the effect of faking good from validity coefficients with various self-report criteria, and to supplement other analyses. The honesty tests were found to have: (a) virtually no foundation in personality or attitude theory, (b) a corrected average correlation of 0.08 with objective indices of theft (95′/0 confidence interval: 0.03 < r < 0.14), (c) a Taylor-Russell utility of approximately 1% above base rate of success, and (d) a false positive rate of 0.44 if only nontrivial thefts are considered. The honesty tests reviewed are of such marginal validity (less than 1% of the criterion variance accounted for) that their continued use in preemployment settings is seriously questioned. The comparability of these review results with those of other reviewers is discussed along with the social and legal implications of honesty testing.     

A review and critique of the process approach in neuropsychological assessment

This paper surveys the process approach literature with an emphasis on higher level cognitive functions like attention and concentration, learning and memory, and problem solving and executive functioning. In particular, it discusses organizational strategies and kinds of errors found on a variety of tests as well as behavioral, situational, and interpersonal issues as they relate to test procedures. It critiques the process approach and suggests future directions.     

Appropriateness measurement: Review,critique and validating studies

The test-taking behaviour of some examinees may be so unusual that their test scores cannot be regarded as appropriate measures of their ability. Appropriateness measurement is a model-based approach to the problem of identifying these test scores. The intuitions and basic theory supporting appropriateness measurement are presented together with a critical review of earlier work and a series of interrelated experiments. We conclude that appropriateness measurement techniques are robust to errors in parameter estimation and robust to the presence of unidentified aberrant examinees in the test norming sample. In addition, the frequently criticized ‘three-parameter logistic’ latent trait model was found to be adequate for the detection of spuriously low scores in actual test data.     

Maternal depression and developmental disability: research critique

Maternal depression in families having a child with a disability has been the subject of considerable research over the past 25 years. This review was designed to describe the literature on maternal depression, critique its research methodology, identify consensus findings across studies, and make recommendations for future research. A particular emphasis is on the distinction between exhibiting depressive symptoms and meeting clinical criteria for a depressive disorder, how or whether research studies made this distinction, and implications for our understanding of maternal adaptation to disability in a family member. Of the 42 articles reviewed, only eight were clinically diagnosed depression; most of them used a scale rating depressive symptoms. Across the studies, mothers of children with disabilities generally exhibited a higher than average rate of depressive symptoms and are more at risk for clinical depression, but the incidence may be lower than reported in previous literature. Child behavior problems, maternal stress, coping style, and support were consistently associated with depressive symptoms. We conclude that we know relatively little about clinical depression in mothers of children with disabilities. The distinction between clinical depression and depressive symptoms may be important in conceptualizing how a child with a disability can influence family members and the nature of support that may need to be provided. Future research should incorporate gold standard diagnostic tools and assess history, severity, and type of depression. Research is also needed to study treatments to reduce the occurrence of both depressive symptoms and clinical depression.     

The battle within the self,II: An existential approach to psychotherapy with personality disorders

Individuals who suffer from personality disorders are dominated by an internalized self-attacking mechanism which is labeled here as the enemy. This force is the incorporated voice of the parent incessantly operating and producing the psychological pain which very much characterizes the patient's existence. By anthropomorphizing this destructive aspect of the personality structure, the therapist is better able to become an ally with the healthy parts of the patient against this critical internal enemy. As patients more fully comprehend the wide extent of the ongoing battle within the self, they begin to develop the necessary resources to effect significant behavioral changes.     

A conjoint measurement approach to color harmony

The aim of this study was to find a rule in color harmony that could reveal the mutual influences of the three basic harmonies, those of hue, lightness, and saturation. One hundred and four color pairs were judged for harmony by five subjects five times. The results were analyzed by the conjoint measurement algorithm of Krantz and Tversky (1971). It was concluded that there is an interaction between saturation harmony and hue and lightness harmony together, and an additivity between hue harmony and lightness harmony. This implies the rule: color harmony = saturation harmony * (hue harmony + lightness harmony).     

Hardiness and health: a critique and alternative approach

Recent research has suggested that individual differences in the personality variable of hardiness are related to health and illness. Despite some success at predicting health outcomes, there are several theoretical and empirical problems that must be addressed before research on this topic can proceed. Most critical are (a) how hardiness is to be measured; (b) whether hardiness should be treated as a unitary phenomenon or as three separate phenomena associated with commitment, control, and challenge; and (c) whether hardiness has direct effects on health or indirect effects by virtue of buffering the impact of stressful life events. After reviewing the literature and presenting our own study of the psychometric properties of the Hardiness Scale and its subcomponents, we draw the following conclusions: (a) Hardiness is not a unitary phenomenon, but should be treated as involving three separate phenomena; (b) of the three subcomponents of hardiness, only commitment and control have adequate psychometric properties and are systematically related to health outcomes; (c) lack of control and lack of commitment have direct effects on health because they are psychologically stressful; and (d) if there are buffering effects of commitment and control, they are in addition to these direct effects and are situation specific. Such a systematic consideration of the problems and prospects of the hardiness literature should facilitate research on this important topic.     

Minor physical anomalies in exceptional children: A review and critique of research

The study of the relationship between physical characteristics and behavior is placed in historical context. Current research concerned with the implications of minor physical anomalies is reviewed. Anomalies, measurement considerations, relationship between anomalies and selected characteristics, methodological issues, and underlying assumptions are examined. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Adolescent identity--a qualitative approach: self-concept, existential questions and adult contacts

In-depth interviews were performed with 12 adolescents (Swedish students, 16-19 years). Three questions were probed; what do adolescents say on the subjects of (a) themselves, (b) their existential questions, and (c) their adult contacts. The first two questions were aimed at elucidating the process of identity development, the last one at factors that may be influencing this process. The results showed that (a) balancing and controlling one's own needs and wishes in relation to others' was a central issue, (b) existential questions mainly concerned the personal future, (c) adult contacts outside the family were scarce and (d) all respondents expressed a need for adult contacts as sources of knowledge and experience. The conclusions are that identity formation during late adolescence consists of integrative issues where adults play a specific and important role.     

A common sense approach to value inquiry

The Journal of Value Inquiry -