Ideologies,Idols (and Graven Images?): Rejoinder to Gurman and Kniskern

Three major issues raised in Gurman and Kniskern's commentary are discussed. These are (a) the suitability of established research design criteria for studying the outcome of family therapy; (b) the impact of therapist relationship factors on therapy outcome; and (c) the place of concrete or objective change measures in psychotherapy outcome research. Areas of agreement and disagreement with Gurman and Kniskern's observations are identified.     

The Effects and Effectiveness of Marital Therapy A Review of Outcome Research

The literature on outcome research in marital therapy is reviewed. Issues considered include the nature of outcome criteria, the need to establish a base line against which to measure improvement, and therapeutic effectiveness as a function of treatment type and time-in-therapy. The overall improvement rate across a heterogeneous collection of patients, therapists, and treatment modalities was 66 per cent, suggesting, conservatively, at least a moderately positive therapeutic effect in light of the judgment that “spontaneous” rates appear to be much lower in marital than in individual therapy. Evidence of deterioration in marital therapy also was discovered. No support was found for the contention that co-therapy is more effective than treatment of the couple by a single therapist. The needs of future research in the outcome of marital therapy are discussed and possible fruitful directions for such investigations suggested.     

A student-operated crisis center

In this article we describe an attempt to meet a university community's needs for emergency mental health services through the establishment of a student-operated telephone emergency service. The service provides an interesting model for use of nonprofessionals in mental health services, in which the professional functions primarily as a trainer and consultant rather than offering direct services. We describe the structure of the center and then discuss further innovations and projects.     

Is Seasonal Stress a Career Choice of Professional Accountants?

Workload compression during the first quarter of each year (January-March) is hypothesized to involve additional job demands on auditors and tax professionals causing job strain (occupational stress). Using canonical correlation analysis to analyze the survey data, this study found that the strongest stressor-strain relationship was for the group surveyed in January, indicating that workload compression contributes to seasonal occupational stress. Seasonal stress will remain a very strong barrier to qualified individuals in making an accounting career their vocational choice and will put additional demands on Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counseling for accounting practitioners.     

Comparative study of the cognitive performance of Greek Australian and Greek national elderly: Implications for neuropsychological practice

In the area of dementia diagnosis and assessment of cognitive functioning of elderly culturally and linguistically diverse individuals (CALDI) little is known about cognitive test performance differences between migrants and peers from their country of origin. This study investigated whether community dwelling elderly Greek Australian (GA) performance on tests of cognition was comparable to that of elderly Greek national ‘normal’ individuals without a diagnosis of dementia (Gn). Based on available cross‐cultural literature it was hypothesised that GA would obtain lower scores on the Cambridge Cognitive Examination of the Elderly and the Mini‐Mental Status Examination compared to Gn due to issues relating to the migrant experience such as acculturation, reduced language fluency and proficiency. The results of the current study supported the hypothesis arguing for caution when interpreting CALDI performance on tests that have not been normed in that particular group because there may be a greater risk of false‐positive diagnoses.     

A New Multidimensional Measure of Spirituality‐Religiosity for Use in Diverse Substance Abuse Treatment Populations

Extant measures of spirituality‐religiosity, not developed specifically with substance abuse treatment populations in mind, may not be culturally appropriate in regard to either: (1) the 12‐step “culture” found in many treatment programs; or (2) racial‐ethnic minority populations overrepresented in publicly funded programs. A 40‐item four‐dimensional measure was developed, which differentiates “religiosity” (religious practices) from “spirituality” (an individual's relationships with God/higher power, others, and self). Instrument development involved: qualitative focus groups with individuals in seven diverse Texas treatment programs; quantitative exploratory and confirmatory (CFA) analyses to test the four‐factor model conducted using data from 237 diverse clients in treatment programs in Tennessee and Virginia. Confirmatory analyses indicate acceptable fit indices (>0.90) for the four‐factor model, and acceptable reliability estimates for all subdimensions (≥0.70) provide further support for the measures. Results support the potential usefulness of the measures.     

A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION OF CONCOMITANT CHANGES IN TEAM LEADERSHIP AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

For each of three 1‐year time periods, we examined the relationship between changes in the team leadership of branch managers (as measured by employee ratings) and concomitant changes in customer satisfaction for branches of a regional bank. Specifically, for the time period 2001–2002, we examined concomitant changes in team leadership and customer service satisfaction with 68 branch managers; between 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 we examined these relationships for 46 and 40 of the remaining 68 branch managers, respectively. We expected that improvements (declines) in team leadership ratings would be accompanied by concomitant changes (i.e., improvement or decline) in customer satisfaction ratings. We found that, in 2 of the 3 time periods we examined, improvements (declines) in team leadership were related to improvements (declines) in customer satisfaction. We interpret these findings using the service climate literature.     

LONELINESS,PARASOCIAL INTERACTION,AND LOCAL TELEVISION NEWS VIEWING

A conceptual model was developed predicting parasocial interaction from both a social interaction need due to loneliness and instrumental television news use. Questionnaires were completed by 329 persons. Pearson and partial correlations supported hypotheses linking loneliness with less interpersonal communication and both loneliness and parasocial interaction with more television reliance. Loneliness and parasocial interaction were not correlated. Canonical correlation analysis supported expectations that instrumental news viewing for information was related to more parasocial interaction and perceived news realism; viewing news for exciting entertainment, news affinity, and news viewing levels correlated positively with this pattern. Ritualized news viewing for time consumption was related to more television viewing, but to less news viewing, duration, and affinity. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis identified news affinity, perceived news realism, and information news viewing motives as salient predictors of parasocial interaction with a favorite local television news personality. Implications of results were discussed in light of uses and gratifications research and communication interaction.