PEP: An Enabling Program for CETA-zen Employment

The “Personal Employment Program” (PEP) is a 4 week training and development experience that enables CETA participants to secure unsubsidized employment.     

Job Link: An Employment Counseling Program for Immigrants

A group employment counseling program for counseling immigrants is described. Evaluation results from the project are also presented.     

An Effective Career Development Program for Parents

This article is a comparative review of career development programs in Switzerland and the United States, with emphasis on the degree of parental involvement. Investigators visited schools and interviewed parents in both countries. This article offers ideas for improving the effectiveness of career development programs in the United States. Among the useful ideas from Switzerland are greater use of community resources such as departments of employment services, specific career training in schools, and school-based job placement programs.     

The U.S. Employment Service Occupational Test-Development Program

The U. S. Employment Service conducts a test-research program for developing testing tools useful in vocational counseling. This article outlines the organization, underlying concepts, accomplishments, and current efforts of the test-research program.     

The Life Skills Training Program as a Health Promotion Strategy:

Life skills training can be considered an essential kind of school health promotion effort. In this article, the theoretical foundations of the Life Skills Training Program are described. Then, the components of the intervention program are presented, including: (1) cognitive component; (2) decision making component; (3) techniques for coping with anxiety; (4) social skills training component; and (5) self-improvement component. Selected evaluation studies of the Life Skills Training Program are summarized to show effects on student health risk factors. Finally, general implications of school health promotion are discussed.     

The Child Development Specialist: A Prevention Program

The Child Development Specialist Program makes use of a new professional specialist and is designed to provide intervention before the child develops personal or learning problems.     

The Life Skills Development Program

In 1974the Occupational Therapy Section at Dwight Eisenhower Army Medical Center established a Life Skills Development Program for the treatment of the hospitalized acutely ill psychiatric patient. The program used a process which moved the patient through specifically prescribed tasks designed to initiate the development of adaptive behavior. Three basic group areas were formulated. These were values clarification, competency training, and information class. Values clarification was designed as an introductory phase of treatment and was important in building initial rapport and implementing patient involvement. Through carefully selected tasks, the patient was relieved of the burden of initiating the group process and was quickly involved in the discussion of life-related topics leading to the establishment of his own priorities. Competency training included a wide range of material allowing the therapist to teach and the patient to practice skills related to work, socialization, use of free time, and self-maintenace. These groups were experiential in nature, encouraging the patient to practice adaptive behaviors in role play settings in the hospital as well as in the surrounding community. Information class was scheduled whenever facts were needed to increase clarity and to facilitate selection of alternative and adaptive behavior. Guest lecturing, "experts" were invited to speak to the group. Also, information based on authoritative sources was prepared and presented by the therapist. The program concept and specifically prepared life skills development material was shared with Army Occupational Therapists. The Life Skills Development Program was presented as an evolving treatment approach in Army Occupational Therapy at the 1975 AOTA Conference in Milwaukee, WI. This treatment approach has continued in Army Occupational Therapy since its introduction. Until recently no collective information was available about programs. A survey of questionnaire was conducted in June 1981 of all Army Occupational Clinics. The results of this survey indicated that not only was the Life Skills Development Program still in use in Army Hospitals, but its application and target population has expanded to become broader than initially proposed. The intent of this paper is to retrace the thought and steps leading to the introduction of the Life Skills Development Program, to describe the structure and rationale of its organization and to report on its current use in Army Occupational Therapy.     

THE PACE OF LIFE: REVISITED

Ambulation is one routine aspect of the pace of life. In Western societies at least, human ambulation varies in a linear fashion with the size of the local population. This relation can be described adequately by the formula, Velocity = 0.86 log Population + 0.05. Ergonomical, cognitive, social, and economic explanations for this result are examined, and hypotheses for further cross-cultural investigation of urban-rural differences in pace of life are proposed.     

Sage Advocate Employment Service—WHEEE: A Program Description

Nonprofit employment services for older adults have been established throughout the country in the past 10 years. Some have thrived, others have dissolved. In New Haven, Connecticut, a service within unique origins is now in its eighth year, serving a diverse population in the greater metropolitan area. This article reviews how the service developed and the factors that contribute to its continued growth.     

The Islamic Careline Ladies Lifeskills Program: An Empowerment Initiative

The Islamic Careline established a Ladies Lifeskills program in response to a shared view by clients, volunteers and management at the Careline that females within the community were experiencing feelings of disempowerment and low self esteem. In practice, the program consisted of a series of ten sessions, aimed at empowering women by building self-worth and improving their quality of life via the transmission of knowledge on core life skills. This study was commissioned to assess the appropriateness and efficacy of the Lifeskills programme. Working within a qualitative paradigm, interviews were conducted with 10 participants who completed the programme using a semi-structured interview schedule developed by the researcher. The schedule was developed based on a review of all the material (course notes, overheads, exercises) associated with the program as well as previous evaluations of the program completed by participants. Results indicated that while the content of the course was useful and informative, it was not always easy to transfer the content into practice. Furthermore it was evident that the program was effective in terms of meeting lower order needs as defined by Maslow (1987) but needed to be revised for higher order needs.     

Student Changes, Program Influences, and Adult Development in One Program of Counselor Training: An Exploratory Inductive Inquiry

This qualitative study explored how students in 1 program changed as a result of their professional preparation experience. We interviewed 15 counseling students via one-to-one interviews and a focus group. Students were asked how they had changed and what had influenced those changes in their educational experience. Responses were clustered with the assistance of a text analysis computer program. Three broad change themes were named (1) increased reflexivity, (2) increased autonomy, and (3) capacity for dialogue. Four program influences were also identified. They are providing students with (1) experiences in social construction of knowledge, (2) experiential learning, (3) opportunities for independent thinking, and (4) a supportive environment. Connections to adult-development themes and specific instructional strategies that are suggested by the data are named.     

The Life of Leaders: An Intensive Health Program for Clergy

Clergy suffer from chronic disease rates that are higher than those of non-clergy. Health interventions for clergy are needed, and some exist, although none to date have been described in the literature. Life of Leaders is a clergy health intervention designed with particular attention to the lifestyle and beliefs of United Methodist clergy, directed by Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare Center of Excellence in Faith and Health. It consists of a two-day retreat of a comprehensive executive physical and leadership development process. Its guiding principles include a focus on personal assets, multi-disciplinary, integrated care, and an emphasis on the contexts of ministry for the poor and community leadership. Consistent with calls to intervene on clergy health across multiple ecological levels, Life of Leaders intervenes at the individual and interpersonal levels, with potential for congregational and religious denominational change. Persons wishing to improve the health of clergy may wish to implement Life of Leaders or borrow from its guiding principles.     

Mutual Grooming in Human Dyadic Relationships: An Ethological Perspective

Despite its widespread practice among primates writ large, social scientists have given mutual grooming among humans little attention. This research provides an important first step in describing mutual grooming among humans. A scale was developed to measure self-reported giving and receiving of grooming. In Study 1, 184 female and 94 male participants first indicated their closest emotional relationship (for example, romantic partner, best friend, etcetera). They then completed the grooming measure pertaining to that emotionally close target person. Finally, they completed indices of relationship trust, relationship satisfaction, and parental/familial affection. Individuals who focused on their romantic partners (N = 134) reported more mutual grooming than individuals who focused on other types of relationships. Relationship satisfaction, previous experience of familial affection, and trust were positively correlated with mutual grooming for romantically involved individuals. Study 2 (N = 71 heterosexual couples) explored psychological correlates of mutual grooming within romantic dyads. Individuals with more promiscuous attitudes and those who scored high on the anxiety subscale of an adult attachment style measure reported grooming their partners most frequently. Findings were consistent with several proposed functions of grooming: (a) potential parental-investment indicator, (b) developing trust, and (c) courtship/flirtation—all of which play roles in pair-bonding. At first glance, humans may not appear to groom each other with the same fervor as other primates. However, we posit that humans are, in actuality, groomers par excellence.     

Mutual Grooming in Human Dyadic Relationships: An Ethological Perspective

Despite its widespread practice among primates writ large, social scientists have given mutual grooming among humans little attention. This research provides an important first step in describing mutual grooming among humans. A scale was developed to measure self-reported giving and receiving of grooming. In Study 1, 184 female and 94 male participants first indicated their closest emotional relationship (for example, romantic partner, best friend, etcetera). They then completed the grooming measure pertaining to that emotionally close target person. Finally, they completed indices of relationship trust, relationship satisfaction, and parental/familial affection. Individuals who focused on their romantic partners (N = 134) reported more mutual grooming than individuals who focused on other types of relationships. Relationship satisfaction, previous experience of familial affection, and trust were positively correlated with mutual grooming for romantically involved individuals. Study 2 (N = 71 heterosexual couples) explored psychological correlates of mutual grooming within romantic dyads. Individuals with more promiscuous attitudes and those who scored high on the anxiety subscale of an adult attachment style measure reported grooming their partners most frequently. Findings were consistent with several proposed functions of grooming: (a) potential parental-investment indicator, (b) developing trust, and (c) courtship/flirtation—all of which play roles in pair-bonding. At first glance, humans may not appear to groom each other with the same fervor as other primates. However, we posit that humans are, in actuality, groomers par excellence.