The Desk or the Bed?

Assertions that studying is done best at a desk rather than on a bed are largely untested. In the present study the GPA of students working at their desks was compared with that of students studying on their beds. There was no difference in the GPA's of the two groups. The assumption that there is a single type of study environment optimal for all students appears unwarranted. Since a sizable number of college students use their beds and even the floor for studying, the use of softer and more comfortable furniture in libraries and study halls deserves consideration.     

Aspirations and Expectations of Physically Impaired High School Seniors

Physically disabled and non-disabled high school seniors' educational and vocational aspiration-expectation discrepancies were compared. No significant differences were found when the two groups were matched for cumulative GPA and level of father's occupation. GPA's and father's job levels of disabled students were significantly lower than those of the non-disabled. When not matched, disabled students' vocational aspiration-expectation discrepancies were significantly higher than those of the non-disabled. Higher aspiration than expectation for the highest vocational and educational levels, professional training, and employment were the major sources of differences expressed by seniors.     

Selection,Function, and Assessment of Residence Hall Counselors

Two studies are reported which are concerned with the program of counseling in the women's residence halls of the University of Illinois. The first study demonstrated the inadequacy of the MMPI as a selection instrument for graduate assistants (G.A.'s) serving as residence hall counselors. The second study demonstrated: that students, G.A.'s, head residents, deans, and professional psychologists differ significantly in their definition of the G.A.'s function; that they differ less in defining the attributes of an ideal G.A.; that head residents and students do not differ significantly in their rating of a real G.A.; that the less experienced and the less able students ask more of a G.A. and value her more highly; that the program is functioning well as judged by student endorsement; and that neither the Strong, the Edwards, nor the CPI discriminate between the better and poorer G.A.'s. The data also suggest caution in generalizing results from one institution to another.     

Addressing disparities: The impact of a lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender graduate counselling course

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience serious mental health disparities and treatment inequities. Counsellor education has been identified as both a contributing factor to these problems as well as an ameliorating mechanism to address these inequalities. Aim: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the impact of an LGBT‐affirmative counselling course. Method: A total of 23 students enrolled in a graduate LGBT counselling course were administered the Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS, Bidell, 2005) and the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Affirmative Counseling Self‐Efficacy Inventory (LGB‐CSI, Dillon & Worthington, 2003) pre‐ and post‐course. In addition, a comparison group of 23 matched counselling students was obtained from an existing data source in order to make further assessments of the course's effectiveness. Those in the comparison group were not enrolled in the LGBT course, but were administered the SOCCS at analogous time intervals. Results: After completing the LGBT course, enrolled students demonstrated significant improvements regarding their sexual orientation counsellor competency and self‐efficacy. In addition, these students showed significant gains in SOCCS scores versus those in the comparison group. Implications: Results from this study show the positive effect a full‐credit LGBT psychotherapy course can have on graduate counselling students' sexual orientation counsellor competency and self‐efficacy. The findings also indicate that such a course can significantly impact counselling skills, a facet of LGBT cultural competency found to be the most attenuated. Findings are discussed in conjunction with LGBT‐affirmative counsellor training and clinical practice.     

Worldview Differences Between College Students and Graduate Counseling Trainees

The purpose of this study was to examine whether graduate students in counseling (n = 95) have different worldviews than undergraduate students (n = 177) who might be potential clients. Students in both groups completed the Scale to Assess World Views (Ibrahim & Kahn, 1987). Results indicated that undergraduate students' worldviews were significantly different from graduate counseling students'. In comparison, undergraduates were more likely than graduate counseling students to focus on the past, to perceive human nature as evil, human relationships as linear-hierarchical and collateral-mutual, and nature as powerful. Graduate counseling trainees, on average, were more likely than undergraduates to perceive human nature as good. Men were more likely than women to perceive human nature as evil, human relationships as linear-hierarchical and individualistic, and nature as controllable. Women, in contrast, preferred the being-in-becoming modality. Implications and limited generalizability of these findings for counseling are discussed.     

Counseling Counselors: A Survey of Values

This study surveyed counselors' rates of involvement in counseling, explored whether counselors value seeing therapists of a similar theoretical orientation to their own, and examined which characteristics were important in choosing one's therapist. Of 2,000 randomly selected ACA members, with a 38% return rate, 80% were found to have attended counseling, with women seeking counseling at significantly higher rates than men. Having been in counseling varied as a function of division affiliation as well as counselor's theoretical orientation. Finally, this study also explored the characteristics deemed important in choosing one's counselor and the values counselors hold regarding involvement in their own therapy.     

Transitional Adolescents,Anxiety, and Group Counseling

One hundred-eighty college-bound high school seniors were studied to determine whether small group counseling would affect their anxiety level. 60 students comprised the experimental group and 60 students each the 2 control groups. 6 small group counseling sessions were conducted during the spring just prior to high school graduation and 6 more in the fall, following college enrollment. Comparison of anxiety levels was made at the conclusion of each series of counseling sessions. The students of the experimental group showed significantly lower anxiety scores than did those of the control groups, both in the spring and in the fall. The conclusion was drawn that experience in small group counseling was followed by significantly lower levels of anxiety in transitional adolescents.     

Effects of Culturally Consistent Counseling Tasks on American and International Student Observers' Perception of Counselor Credibility: A Preliminary Investigation

The researcher investigated the causes of international students' perception of counselor credibility. Student observers viewed two videotapes of simulated counseling that were determined to be significantly different: Tape A was consistent with the Asian lndian client's cultural values; Tape B, with mainstream counseling. The observers, White American students and Asian Indian and South Korean international students, were asked to view Tape A or Tape B and answer Barak and LaCrosse's Counselor Rating Form (CRF). The Asian Indians found the culturally consistent counselor significantly more expert-like and trustworthy than the culturally discrepant counselor. The Asian Indians differed from the Americans on their perceptions of the culturally discrepant counselor.     

Contextual Themes in Career Decision Making of Female Clients Who Indicate Depression

Difficulties concerning female counseling center clients' career decision making were explored in this qualitative study. The authors reviewed counseling intake and progress notes of 18 female students who sought counseling services at a university counseling center and who presented career concerns and reported feeling depressed. Most women in this study described their career decision‐making difficulties in the context of relationships with their parents or significant others. Both external (i.e., family relationships, family and culture, and relationships with significant others) and internal (i.e., developmental, developmental and mental health issues, and skill deficits) conditions emerged as significantly affecting these women's career decision‐making process.     

Counseling Chinese-Americans

The Chinese-American student's cultural background plays an important part in his expression of personality traits and the manifestation of his problems. This article presents an analysis of Chinese values and suggests that the counseling situation may arouse intense conflicts for many Chinese-American students. It also suggests a modified counseling approach that can be used in working with these students.     

叙事取向团体辅导对大学生自我认同的干预研究

自我认同的发展与大学生心理健康水平及其今后的社会适应关系密切。本研究用叙事取向团体辅导对大学生自我认同进行干预。结果发现,叙事治疗强调的好奇、尊重、珍惜的态度,为成员创设了安全、温暖、支持的团体氛围;外化和解构使成员与问题拉开距离,探讨问题的影响力;寻找并丰厚特殊意义事件,让成员看到自身的正向力量和资源;局外见证人团队,进一步巩固成员身上的正向力量。结论：叙事取向团体辅导是促进大学生自我认同发展的有效途径。     

The changing attitudes of black students

The racial attitudes of black college students were examined to determine changes in the acceptance or rejection of negative racial stereotypes. The results indicate that black students as a group accept more anti-white ideology and less anti-Negro ideology than a comparable group of students sampled in 1957. Students sampled in 1968 were significantly less authoritarian than the earlier group. The trend is explored in the context of the changing social and psychological milieu of today's black college student. Implications to the counseling and student personnel profession are obvious and perhaps ominous.     

The effects of functional group counseling on inspiring low-achieving students' self-worth and self-efficacy in Taiwan

In this study, we investigated the effects of functional group counseling on inspiring low achievers' self-worth and self-efficacy in Taiwan. Forty-three 10th grade low-achieving students volunteered as the Experimental Group to join a 24-week intervention, which integrated and utilized functional group counseling; another 51 10th grade low-achieving students volunteered to be Comparison Group I. In addition, 43 10th grade moderate or high academic achieving students volunteered to be Comparison Group II. All participants completed the Vocational School Student Questionnaire at the beginning and end of this study to measure their self-worth and self-efficacy. In addition, six target students (two boys and four girls) with the lowest total scores on self-worth or self-efficacy in the pretest were selected from the Experimental Group to be interviewed at the end of the intervention and observed weekly. Analyses of variance, analyses of covariance, and paired t-tests assessed the similarity and differences among groups. The initial findings were as follows: Experimental group students had significantly higher scores on self-efficacy and self-worth than both Comparison Group I and Group II students and functional group counseling was shown to significantly affect the low-achieving students. Qualitative results from interviews and observations were used for triangulation and consolidation of quantitative results. Implications of the study included the recommended use of functional group counseling with low-achieving students.     

Worldview and Counseling Preference: An Analogue Study

A 2 × 3 mixed factorial design was used to study the relationship between a person's dominant worldview (mechanism or organicism) and preference for three counseling approaches (behavioral, rationalist, and constructivist). A total of 90 undergraduate participants completed the Organicism-Mechanism Paradigm Inventory and subsequently evaluated three audiotaped presentations designed to depict counselors who were introducing their counseling approaches to a new client. Results revealed a significant interaction between worldview and counseling approach—organicists exhibited a significant self-preference for constructivist counseling, whereas mechanists significantly preferred behavioral counseling for themselves and others. Implications of these findings for counseling and psychotherapy are discussed.     

Elementary School Counseling and Peer Relations

It was the purpose of this study to compare the effects of counseling and selected guidance techniques upon 5th and 6th grade elementary school students' peer relationships. Sociometric status and teacher ratings of their students' social skills were selected as criteria. Subjects were selected from students who were in the lower half of their classes in sociometric status and who indicated that they wanted to get along better with their peers. From each of 7 classrooms an equal number of subjects was randomly assigned to each of 3 treatment conditions: (1) counseling, (2) teacher-guidance, and (3) control. When the treatment conditions were compared, no statistically significant differences were found among them.     

Loneliness,Learned Resourcefulness,and Self-Esteem in College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among types of loneliness and learned resourcefulness, self-esteem, and gender among a sample of college students. The Revised University of California, Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA), Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule, a measure of learned resourcefulness, and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale were administered to 625 college students. Previous factor analyses of the R-UCLA revealed that it measures 2 distinct types of loneliness: intimate loneliness and social loneliness. Results of multiple regression analyses revealed that self-esteem and gender significantly predicted the experience of global loneliness (as measured by the full-scale R-UCLA), intimate loneliness, and social loneliness. Learned resourcefulness significantly predicted social loneliness only. Implications for college student counseling and future research are discussed.     

Relationships Among Dogmatism,Family Ideology,and Religiosity in Master's-Level Counseling Students

This paper presents the results of a survey of the perceptions of master's-level counseling students in the areas of dogmatism, family ideology, and religiosity. Participants in the study consisted of 331 master's-level counseling students from 7 master's-level counselor education programs in northern, southern, and eastern regions of the United States. A total of 142 participants were classified as beginning participants, and 123 were classified as graduating participants. Findings indicated that graduating participants were significantly lower in levels of dogmatism than were beginning participants. Bivariate and multivariate data analyses also revealed that family ideology was more strongly related to dogmatism than religiosity.     

Relationship Between a Feminist Approach to Career Counseling and Career Self-Efficacy Beliefs

To determine whether liberal feminist and conventional approaches to career counseling might differentially affect women's career self-efficacy beliefs, 40 college women heard audiotapes of career counseling and provided ratings of their own career self-efficacy. Analysis supported the suggestion that a feminist approach to career counseling can have a significantly more positive effect on career self-efficacy than a conventional approach. This was true for ratings on the category of nontraditional careers as well as for overall career self-efficacy ratings.     

Evaluating cognitive–behavioral group counseling to improve elementary school students' self‐esteem,self‐control,and classroom behavior

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral group counseling provided to behaviorally disruptive elementary school children. Fifty‐two referred children received protocol‐based cognitive–behavioral group counseling provided by the first author, a school social worker. Students were randomly assigned to receive either immediate (IT) group counseling or delayed treatment (DT). The two groups were roughly equivalent on most demographic and outcome measures at the first assessment. Following group counseling, the IT groups' self‐esteem, perceived self‐control, teacher, and teacher aide grades of classroom comportment significantly improved, while similar measures of the DT children did not appreciably change. The DT children then received the same group program the IT group was exposed to three months earlier, and when group counseling was completed (third assessment) the IT groups' gains had been maintained, and the DT group gained improvements similar to those obtained by the IT group. In conclusion, cognitive–behavioral group work can be an effective intervention with behaviorally disruptive elementary school students. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.