University Counselling Services in Australia and New Zealand: Activities,Changes, and Challenges

The high prevalence of stress and psychological distress in university students highlights the need for adequate support services to enable students to achieve their goals. This study aimed to describe counselling services available to university students in Australia and New Zealand and to benchmark them against international services. Participants were five Australian and three New Zealand Counselling Services. Results showed that counselling services are using a variety of formats and e‐technologies to deliver services to students, but are hampered by limited resources compared with their international counterparts. These include very high counsellor student ratios, lower average number of consultations per student, and lower mental health qualifications of counsellors. This has even greater implications in the context of higher education reform in Australia that may further widen the gap between needs of students and available counselling services. Inadequate counselling support can negatively impact on students, universities, and the community through lost potential.     

Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., Canada,and Australia: II. A DSM-III-R validation study

A study was conducted to validate our previous work on the DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia and to determine which specific mood, anxiety, and personality disorders were the most common in these patients. The earlier study consisted of three surveys of psychoanalytic practice that together obtained data on 1,718 patients, through extensive mail surveys to analysts in the three countries. In the validation study, 206 patients were diagnosed using a different technique. Analysts similar in important respects to those who participated in the original surveys rated patients diagnostically before and after DSM-III-R training. After training, no significant changes appeared in the rates for any of the specific mood disorders. For the thirty disorders examined, training effects decreased the identification of the generalized anxiety disorder, and increased the identification of three personality disorders: avoidant, dependent, and personality disorder not otherwise specified. Thus, analysts slightly underdiagnosed the number of personality disorders, and some "anxious" patients appear to have qualified for personality disorders. Some limitations of the DSM-III-R notion of narcissistic personality are discussed, as are the importance and stability of the self-defeating (masochistic) personality disorder. The most common Axis I disorder in psychoanalytic patients was dysthymia, followed by major depression, recurrent. This study reinforces the findings of the original three surveys. Minor corrections were developed to adjust the original three surveys.     

Racist Discourse in New Zealand and Australia: Reviewing the Last 20 Years

The discursive study of racism has developed considerably over the last 20 years, and the body of work that has emerged from Australia and New Zealand is reviewed. The historical significance and importance of studying racism is discussed. The increasingly subtle face of racism argues for methods that are sensitive to these changes. Critical, discursive approaches are introduced following which the colonial history of both countries is outlined. Race talk in New Zealand and Australia is reviewed with several key summary points being identified. The review concludes with the suggestion that this work has gone some way toward living up to the disciplinary responsibilities we have as social psychologists in seeking a better understanding of the production of racism.     

Relationship influences on teachers' perceptions of academic competence in academically at-risk minority and majority first grade students

This study examined the associations among child demographic variables, teacher perceptions of parent-teacher and student-teacher relationship quality, and teacher perceptions of children's academic abilities in an ethnically diverse sample of 607 academically at-risk first grade children. Relative to relationships with African American children and parents, teachers rated their relationships with White and Hispanic children and parents more positively. Measures of relationship quality added unique variance to teachers' perceptions of children's abilities, controlling for parent educational level and measured ability. Relationship variables fully mediated the association between African American status and teachers' perceptions of children's abilities. Implications of the findings for teacher in-service and professional development and for parent involvement programs are discussed.     

Contextual influences on acculturation processes: The roles of family,community and society

The paper outlines the major approaches to the psychological study of acculturation, drawing particular attention to the importance of context. Three significant contexts are highlighted: family, ethnic community, and society/nation. New perspectives from our evolving program of acculturation research are introduced to illustrate contextual influences on acculturation, and future directions for empirical work are recommended.     

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.     

Bullying in Psychoanalytic Life: A Few Episodes,and Some Thoughts

This article explores several examples of bullying in psychoanalytic training (often candidates bullied by faculty, but at times faculty bullied by candidates, or mutual bullying among candidates) and within psychoanalytic societies. It proposes that this may happen both in homogeneous groups (where individuals seen as disloyal to the common views may be harassed) and in heterogeneous groups (where theoretical disagreements and competition may deteriorate). Interpretations outside the consulting room (and in some instances even within an analytic setting) may become a subtle form of bullying. Although many professional and political groups may exhibit subtle and rationalized forms of bullying, their impact is more powerful in psychoanalytic groups on the background of transference–countertransference feelings originating in members' personal analyses with other members. A readiness to expose and discuss such episodes is crucial if we wish to reduce their destructive influence in training and in subsequent relations among analytic colleagues.     

Big-fish-little-pond effect on academic self-concept. A cross-cultural (26-country) test of the negative effects of academically selective schools

Academically selective schools are intended to affect academic self-concept positively, but theoretical and empirical research demonstrates that the effects are negative. The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), an application of social comparison theory to educational settings, posits that a student will have a lower academic self-concept in an academically selective school than in a nonselective school. This study, the largest cross-cultural study of the BFLPE ever undertaken, tested theoretical predictions for nationally representative samples of approximately 4,000 15-year-olds from each of 26 countries (N = 103,558) who completed the same self-concept instrument and achievement tests. Consistent with the BFLPE, the effects of school-average achievement were negative in all 26 countries (M beta = -.20, SD = .08), demonstrating the BFLPE's cross-cultural generalizability.     

The first year: influences on the satisfaction, involvement, and persistence of new community volunteers

This investigation tests an elaborated form of Omoto and Snyder's volunteer process model, which explains how the helping behavior of volunteers is influenced by antecedent factors and by subjective experiences while volunteering. Two-hundred-thirty-eight community volunteers from nine different organizations were recruited at the time of initial orientation and completed measures of personality and motivation. They were contacted at four times during their first year of volunteering and queried regarding their emotional reactions (sympathy, distress), satisfaction, and degree to which their motivations for volunteering were being fulfilled. Consistent with the elaborated model, feelings of sympathy, distress, and motive fulfillment were substantially predicted by antecedent factors, and satisfaction with the volunteer work was substantially predicted by these subjective experiences. Also consistent with the elaborated model, volunteer involvement (hours per week volunteered) was predicted by satisfaction, although volunteer persistence over time was not. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Staying or returning: Pre‐migration influences on the migration process of German migrants to New Zealand

Changes in migrants' backgrounds and societies sending and receiving migrants might increase adaptation issues and reduce retention. To enhance migrants' well‐being/health and their likelihood of staying it is necessary to gain an understanding of psychological and social factors that contribute to resilience and adaptation. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that investigated the experiences, interpretations and actions of German migrant couples to New Zealand throughout the whole migration process to identify these factors. In depth, episodic interviews were conducted with four couples who decided to stay in New Zealand and four couples who decided to return to Germany. Interview data were complemented with participant observation. This paper provides insights into how the pre‐migration experiences, interpretations and actions of German migrants to New Zealand influenced their establishment, their interpretations and actions and consequently adaptation, well‐being/health and the decision whether to stay in New Zealand or to return to Germany. The findings illuminate the influence of psychological and social factors on migration experiences, interpretations and actions throughout the migration process. The paper offers some solutions for addressing the identified barriers to successful migration and integration into host societies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depression and self-esteem in academically gifted and nongifted children: A comparison study

The present investigation examined depression and self-esteem in a sample of 145 gifted and nongifted fourth and fifth grade children. Self-esteem was assessed by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Depression was measured by Kovacs' Children's Depression Inventory, the Reynolds' Child Depression Scale, and teachers' global ratings of depression. As a group, gifted children did not differ on levels of self-esteem or depression from their nongifted peers. However, when grade and gender differences were examined, it was found that gifted boys tended to report lower levels of self-esteem and more depression than gifted girls. Teachers also judged boys to be more depressed than girls. Furthermore, fifth-graders were rated by teachers to be more depressed than fourth-graders. Overall, this investigation did not find major differences in affective characteristics between gifted and nongifted children.     

Psychoanalytic Ideals,New Technologies,and the Expropriations of the Corporate Self: Commentary on Paper by Stephen Hartman

Seligman admires Stephen Hartman's ability to enter and empathize with the emerging psychosocial ambience of the new social media while maintaining his focus as a psychoanalytic clinician and theorist. He then delineates how the new modes of constructing what constitutes “reality” and the aesthetics of subjectivity may mark a departure from ideals of authenticity and privacy, which are at the center of the psychoanalytic project. Finally, he worries that these shifts are linked to an overall concentration of corporate power and ownership of media and other ideological apparatuses supporting an alienated, fetishized culture of consumption and market-minded vacuity.     

Psychoanalytic treatments and empirical research on their efficacy: A commentary

Abstract

The author summarizes the problems inherent in nomological approaches examining the efficacy of psychoanalysis as a form of treatment. He argues that nomologically oriented research operates with assumptions lacking empirical foundation and, moreover, that studies of this type merely give the impression of the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapies while overlooking the specificity of the psychoanalytic method. He suggests that research into psychoanalytic treatments should not be subjected to a nomological conception of science, and that structural analysis of treatment courses should be examined and systematized within the frame of psychoanalytic treatment theory relative to their outcome. Given this approach, and provided that the theory of treatment is based on conceptual common ground, such studies would enable a prognostic conclusion that psychoanalytic treatments are successful, providing that the sequences generalized in the treatment theory do actually take place in treatments that take patients’ individuality into account.