Three Contributions of a Spiritual Perspective to Counseling,Psychotherapy, and Behavior Change

This article describes three areas that a spiritual approach can contribute to the modern applied science of behavior change. One of these is a modified conception of human nature that takes into account the spiritual dimension of experience. The second is a moral frame of reference. Because treatment is guided by goals, values must be invoked to determine what are good behavior changes. The third contribution is composed of techniques that are unique to a spiritual orientation. These consist of various methods, including the transitional person technique. Together, these contributions represent a growing orientation that complements what we already know and accept from our continuing commitments to empirical science and human welfare.     

Poetic Politics: How the Amazons Took the Acropolis

This paper explores the poetic politics of lesbian and feminist writing, the textual violence that writing exercises and the amazon intertext it creates. In this particular essay, Jeffner Alien takes as her point of departure the writing of Hélène Cixous and Monique Wittig.     

An Interdepartmental Self-Management Lab: A Self-Help Approach to Student Development

The authors describe a self-help information and referral center for students that provides pamphlets, files, books, audiocassettes, videotapes, and computer programs on more than 100 topics related to health, personal growth, and academic skills. The center is located in a university library and is jointly sponsored by three departments.     

Rethinking Power

This paper argues that feminists have yet to develop a satisfactory account of power. Existing feminist accounts of power tend to have a one-sided emphasis either on power as domination or on power as empowerment. This conceptual one-sided’ ness must be overcome if feminists are to develop an account complex enough to illuminate women's diverse experiences with power. Such an account is sketched here.     

Training Bartenders as Helpers on a College Campus

Student bartenders working in a college rathskeller are portrayed as “gatekeepers”: individuals at a strategic point of contact between mental health professionals and people in need of such service. This article describes a training program that sought to enhance the skills necessary to perform a variety of gatekeeping functions. The program, which took the form of a one-day workshop, included six major segments. The authors suggest that such a workshop is a potentially useful preventive mental health program for a college campus.     

EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE SURVEYS IN A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION: CONSIDERING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN ASSESSING MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE

The cross-cultural equivalence of a multinational employee opinion survey was examined using multiple-groups covariance structure analysis to examine 4 scales in 4 countries. Cultural and linguistic influences were considered by assessing equivalence across 2 pairs of countries having the same language but different cultures (U.S. and Australia, Mexico and Spain) and across countries differing in culture and language (U.S. and Mexico). The measure was equivalent across U.S. and Australian samples only. Analyses indicated items that were the source of lack of invariance. One cause explored was translation problems. Practical issues in assessing measurement equivalence in employee opinion surveys are discussed.     

The Effects of Early Religious Training: Implications for Counseling and Development

The simplistic conception of god commonly taught to children is distinguished from the God of theology and philosophy. There is evidence that children feel a considerable amount of anxiety in connection with their deity. A thorough analysis of the god of childhood reveals that many children believe in and internalize an authoritative being who is both good and evil, kind and abusive. Modeling of this being can continue into adulthood and may have a continuing effect on cognition and behavior. Implications for counseling and development are discussed.     

Protecting the Best Interests of Minors: A New Ethical Standard for Counselors

This article features a discussion concerning one of the revised ethical standards affecting counselors' work with minors.     

A Study of Explosive Rage in Male Spouses Counseled in an Appalachian Mental Health Clinic

A total of 51 cases of “explosive rage” were examined, which were culled from records at a rural mental health center in Appalachian (southeastern) Ohio. Some battering of the men's partners was involved, but a dichotomy was discovered between men who battered and men who destroyed or damaged property. A typology of the phenomenon is discussed along with implications for counseling and guiding these men back to temper control and more stable marital/interpersonal relationships. Se examinaron 51 casos de “violencia explosiva” que se tomaron de los archivos de una clínica rural de salud mental en Ohio apalache (en la parte sudeste del estado). Se incluyeron unos casos de violencia contra el elemento femenino de la pareja, pero se descubrió una diferencia entre hombres que golpean y hombres que destruyen propiedades. Se discute una tipología del fenomeno y las implicaciones para la consejería y la ayuda a estos hombres a controlar su violencia y mantener una relación matrimonial/interpersonal más estable.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HR PRACTICES AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: EXAMINING CAUSAL ORDER

Significant research attention has been devoted to examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, and research support has assumed HR as the causal variable. Using data from 45 business units (with 62 data points), this study examines how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance measures. The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all 3 times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR practices with future performance. Implications are discussed.