Investigating biases in trainee counsellors' attitudes to clients from different cultures

Two studies were conducted to explore the assumption that trainee counsellors who are members of the indigenous population will exhibit biased attitudes when they are confronted with the case-history of clients from other ethnic groups. Dependent measures included a structured methodology and free-response methods. This evidence indicates that respondents showed more favourable patterns of attribution for White clients than for clients from three other ethnic groups (Asian, Jewish and West Indian). There appeared to be discrimination in the biased attributions for particular out-group clients.     

Person‐centred counsellors' experiences of working with clients in crisis: A qualitative interview study

Aims: This study aims to explore and understand person‐centred therapists’ experiences and work with clients at the pivotal point of crisis. Specifically: how do person‐centred therapists experience working with clients in crisis? Do they identify differences in crisis intervention compared to non‐crisis work? What do they perceive as helpful to crisis clients? How relevant are therapists' own experiences of crisis? Method: Participants were all experienced person‐centred therapists. Qualitative, semi‐structured interviews were conducted and the data were analysed qualitatively using person‐centred/phenomenological methodology. Results: Respondents identified differences in their experiences. Typically, therapists described polarity in their experience of danger and opportunity, also heightened energy levels within themselves, perceived higher levels of engagement, faster pace of work, experiences of reaching ‘relational depth’ earlier, and the importance of assisting symbolisation of clients' experience in awareness. Clients were experienced as vulnerable, unable to access previous coping mechanisms, in a state of breakdown and disintegration, but also as wide open, having dropped their usual defences, and more available to engage in therapy and enter the process of change and potential post‐crisis growth. Discussion: The findings are discussed in relation to prevailing models of crisis intervention, person‐centred theory and theoretical developments in post‐traumatic growth in the aftermath of crisis.     

Christian counsellors' views on working with gay and lesbian clients: Integrating religious beliefs with counselling ethics

Thirty‐one counsellors who identified themselves as practising, committed Christians, returned completed questionnaires that investigated how they integrate their Christian beliefs with their professional ethical code when counselling gay and lesbian clients. It was found that although most respondents believed that they were able to accept gay and lesbian clients, a minority demonstrated incongruence in relation to members of this client group, and were judgmental about perceived gay/lesbian behavious. Counsellors who took a rational stance in their understanding of the Bible and Christianity expressed more open and accepting views. Counsellors with a literalist approach to the Bible appeared to be lacking in acceptance and were unaware that they may not be offering the core condition of respect to their gay or lesbian clients. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for supervision, research and practice.     

What we talk about when we talk about pediatric suffering

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - In this paper I aim to show why pediatric suffering must be understood as a judgment or evaluation, rather than a mental state. To accomplish this task, first I...     

What we talk about when we talk about epistemic justification

Stewart Cohen argues that much contemporary epistemological theorizing is hampered by the fact that ‘epistemic justification’ is a term of art (rather than something we all pretheoretically understand) and one that is never given any serious explication in a non-tendentious, theory-neutral way. He suggests that epistemologists are therefore better off theorizing in terms of rationality, rather than in terms of ‘epistemic justification’. Against this, I argue that even if the term ‘epistemic justification’ is not broadly known, the concept it picks out is quite familiar, and partly because it’s a term of art, justification talk is a better vehicle for philosophical theorizing. ‘Rational’ is too unclear for our philosophical purposes, and the fact that ‘epistemic justification’ gets fleshed out by appeal to substantive, controversial theses is no obstacle to its playing the needed role in epistemological theorizing.     

Children talk about work

To provide background for an elementary-level program of occupational information, 180 children in grades 3 through 8 were individually interviewed to learn their concepts of the world of work. The children disclosed their knowledge, interests, and attitudes related to various occupations and reasons for working. Some children were well informed and had specific vocational goals, while others were quite unaware of work. The data from the study were used to develop telecasts and other modes of presentation for occupational information.     

What do we talk about when we talk about mentoring? Blooms and thorns

The dialogue in the field of mentoring has changed over time. In the early days mentoring was a straightforward and pragmatic means to an end: developing others. The blooms of mentoring flowered everywhere. Then thorny issues started to be encountered, both in theory and in practice. Case studies are used here to illustrate the mixed fortunes experienced in contemporary times in three different organisations. A balance between mentoring blooms and mentoring thorns is evident in each case. Three major themes are then identified from these case studies that raise questions for the mentoring discourse. These are: different views of systems thinking, different value bases for evaluating mentoring, and different ideas about the kind of relationship mentoring ought to be. In conclusion, there is a need for a balance: between on the one hand understanding these different positions to promote dialogue and on the other hand developing rivalries to animate dialogue in the first place.     

How eyewitnesses talk about events: implications for memory

Eyewitnesses to traumatic events typically talk about them, and they may do so for different reasons. Of interest was whether qualitatively different retellings would lead to differences in later memory. All participants watched a violent film scene; one third talked about their emotional reactions to the film (as one might do when talking to a friend), one third described the events of the film (as the police might request), and one third did unrelated tasks. Following a delay, all participants were tested on their memories for the clip. Talking about emotions led to better memory for one's emotions, but also led to subjectivity and a greater proportion of major errors in free recall. Differences were minimized on tests providing more retrieval cues, suggesting that retellings' consequences for memory are greater when retellers have to generate their own retrieval structures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Somatic and social: Chinese Americans talk about emotion

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.     

Young adults talk about their problems

This study aims to explore how young adults in psychotherapy and young adults in general describe their problems and how their problem formulations change over time. Two matched samples from longitudinal prospective studies were compared using thematic analysis. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted at baseline, 1.5 years after termination of psychotherapy (N=12) in the clinical sample and 3 years after baseline in the non clinical sample (N=12). Inductive thematic analysis revealed six themes: problems associated with oneself, family, intimate relationships, sense of belonging, occupation, and social roles. The psychotherapy sample was characterized by problems with oneself closely related to other problematic areas, at both pre-treatment and at follow-up 1.5 years after termination, while problematic sense of belonging was a general theme only prior to psychotherapy. However, they were less troubled by their problems after psychotherapy. Problems with oneself decreased considerably in the non-clinical sample, while problems with intimate relationships were twice as frequent at follow-up. In the psychotherapy sample, the initial experience of being passively trapped within their problems was transformed into an experience of being an active agent in their own life. However, considerable differences between the psychotherapy sample and non-clinical sample still persisted at follow-up.     

Let us talk about sex: Prototype and personal templates

Among laypersons and even among scientists, little agreement exists about the definition of sex. Using the prototype approach, the current research explored the prototypical structure of sex. Further, it examined important intersexual and intrasexual personal templates. In Study 1, 122 participants produced a list of 80 features for the concept sex, which were rated for typicality by 251 participants in Study 2. Important sex differences with respect to the prototype of sex and correlations with sociosexual orientation were also revealed in Study 2. Study 3 (n = 98) extended these findings by showing that response latencies differ for central versus peripheral features, women versus men, and depend on the sociosexual orientation of the participants.