Multiracial and Biracial Individuals: A Content Analysis of Counseling Journals, 1991–2013

This content analysis examines the counseling literature on multiracial individuals using the top journals. The authors conducted an exhaustive search for research articles and identified 10 published articles that addressed biracial and multiracial individuals from the years 1991 to 2013 in top‐tier counseling journals. Of the 10 counseling journals, 4 journals addressed multiracial individuals (Journal of Counseling & Development, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, Journal of Humanistic Counseling, and Journal of College Counseling). Recommendations for counselors and researchers are provided. Este análisis de contenido examina las investigaciones en el campo de la consejería sobre individuos multirraciales publicadas en las revistas académicas más importantes. Los autores llevaron a cabo una búsqueda exhaustiva de artículos de investigación e identificaron 10 artículos publicados en revistas académicas de consejería de alto nivel que trataban sobre individuos birraciales y multirraciales entre los años 1991 y 2013. Cuatro de las 10 revistas académicas de consejería trataban sobre individuos multirraciales (Journal of Counseling & Development, Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, Journal of Humanistic Counseling y Journal of College Counseling). Se ofrecen recomendaciones para consejeros e investigadores.     

‘In Some Eyes It's Still Oooh,Gloucester, Yeah Fred West’: Spatial Stigma and the Impact of a High‐profile Crime on Community Identity

The question of how crime impacts on others has generated a wealth of research over the past few decades. However, there is surprisingly little knowledge about how ‘high‐profile’ crimes impact on community members who live in a town that has become synonymous with the crime itself. This study involves interviews with community members who lived or worked in the town of Gloucester when the serial killings perpetrated by Fred and Rosemary West were discovered in 1994. An interpretative phenomenological analysis explores the lived experiences and meaning‐making processes engaged in by the participants. Findings highlight their attempts to make sense of a high‐profile case that stigmatised their own community and the practices of identity management that continue to operate some 20 years later. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why the body comes first: effects of experimenter touch on infants' word finding

The lexicon of 6‐month‐olds is comprised of names and body part words. Unlike names, body part words do not often occur in isolation in the input. This presents a puzzle: How have infants been able to pull out these words from the continuous stream of speech at such a young age? We hypothesize that caregivers' interactions directed at and on the infant's body may be at the root of their early acquisition of body part words. An artificial language segmentation study shows that experimenter‐provided synchronous tactile cues help 4‐month‐olds to find words in continuous speech. A follow‐up study suggests that this facilitation cannot be reduced to the highly social situation in which the directed interaction occurs. Taken together, these studies suggest that direct caregiver–infant interaction, exemplified in this study by touch cues, may play a key role in infants' ability to find word boundaries, and suggests that early vocabulary items may consist of words often linked with caregiver touches. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://youtu.be/NfCj5ipatyE     

Exploring the relationship between secondary traumatic stress,professional identity and career factors for counsellors

This study used a correlational research design to explore the relationship between secondary traumatic stress, counsellor professional identity and career factors, including work setting and amount of counselling experience, among counsellor practitioners. A sample of 1,218 counsellors completed an online survey including the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), Professional Identity Scale in Counseling and career factors. Career factors included context of work environments including years of experience, licence status, type of practice and work setting. Multiple regression analysis with forward selection demonstrated that, out of all the variables, professional identity emerged as the best predictor of secondary traumatic stress. One-way ANOVA showed significant group differences in the level of counsellors' secondary traumatic stress based on work setting, level of experience, type of practice and gender. Discussion explores how career and personal factors impact counsellor experiences of professional identity and secondary trauma in mental health settings.     

Odour and Proustian memory: reduction of context‐dependent forgetting and multiple forms of memory

In Experiment 1, the reintroduction of the same ambient odour (lemon or lavender) improved performance four weeks later in both free recall and recognition of a word list. This was a cross‐over design that allowed direct comparison between congruent and incongruent odour conditions. A further comparison with an additional group showed that memory was not improved by the presence of a different odour. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of two odour cues (lemon and lavender) in the same cross‐over design using three learning and memory tests: (1) free recall of a word list; (2) problem solving; and (3) spatial learning. While recall of the word list and spatial learning were best when the same odour was present at both learning and test, there was no such context‐dependent effect for the problem‐solving task. However, the presence of the lavender odour at test improved performance in the problem‐solving task, irrespective of the odour present at the first exposure. Thus although lavender had some effect on problem solving, we saw context‐dependent retrieval only in free recall and spatial learning. We discuss the implications of this dissociation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do We Know Where We Stand? Neighborhood Relative Income,Subjective Social Status,and Health

Bridging research on relative income and subjective social status (SSS), this study examines how neighborhood relative income is related to ones' SSS, and in turn, physical and mental health. Using a survey sample of 1807 U.S. adults, we find that neighborhood median income significantly moderates the relationship between household income and self‐reported physical and mental health. Low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) report better physical and mental health than low‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods. In addition, high‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative advantage) report higher SSS (relative to neighbors), whereas low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) also report higher SSS. We draw from social comparison theory to interpret these results positing that downward comparisons may serve an evaluative function while upward comparisons may result in affiliation with better‐off others. Finally, we demonstrate that SSS explains the relationship between neighborhood relative income and health outcomes, providing empirical support for the underlying influence of perceived social position.     

Emergent verbal behavior in preschool children learning a second language

We evaluated the emergence of untaught second‐language skills following directly taught listener and intraverbal responses. Three preschool children were taught first‐language (English) listener responses (e.g., “Point to the horse”) and second‐language (Welsh) intraverbal responses (e.g., “What is horse in Welsh?” [ceffyl]). After intervention, increases in untaught second‐language tacts (e.g., “What is this in Welsh?” [ceffyl]) and listener responses (e.g., “Point to the ceffyl”) were observed for all 3 participants.     

A comparison of preference‐assessment methods

In Study 1, we evaluated preference stability across 4 preference‐assessment methods for 6 individuals, 5 of whom had autism spectrum disorder and 1 of whom had traumatic brain injury. We also measured participants’ problem behavior as a corollary measure during all assessment methods. The highest mean correlation coefficients and Kendall rank coefficients of concordance across administrations were observed for the paired‐stimulus and multiple‐stimulus‐without‐replacement methods. Lower correspondence across administrations was observed for the free‐operant and response‐restriction methods. Although differentially higher levels of problem behavior did not occur with a single method, lower levels were consistently observed with the free‐operant method. During Study 2, we evaluated the implications of lower coefficients on reinforcer efficacy by comparing an initially identified and an immediately identified high‐preference stimulus in a reinforcer assessment. Initially identified and immediately identified high‐preference stimuli were equally effective reinforcers, suggesting that fluctuations in preference do not necessarily affect reinforcer efficacy in practice.