Teaching counselling in universities: Match or mismatch?

University courses in counsellor training have mushroomed over the past decade. Questions are raised about the match between the culture of counselling and the culture of universities. A comparison is drawn between traditional university styles of pedagogy and the learning requirements of trainee counsellors. Issues relating to teaching methods and assessment procedures are examined. Kolb's model of experiential learning is offered as a framework for this comparison. Attention is drawn to the effect of moves towards the accreditation of prior learning upon the cohesion of student groups, and to the changes in curriculum occasioned by the move towards credit rating of university courses. On the other side of the coin, the niche which counselling has forged for itself in universities is seen as a vehicle for professional legitimation. It is concluded that the challenge faced by university counselling teachers is to find ways to resolve the tension between the two cultures     

Constructing and Expanding a Framework: Opportunities for Developing Acculturation Research

Reading the seven commentaries has provided me with an opportunity to reflect further on many of the issues confronting researchers and practioners in the field of migration studies. Because the area is so complex, it is not surprising that there is great diversity in coverage and in perspectives. However, many of the points made are similar in that they all suggest emphasis, elaboration, or addition to the text and figures that I presented. My reply is that no text (no matter how generous the word allocation), nor figure (no matter how complicated), can represent every aspect of the realities of the acculturation process. I (and others) have previously written on many of the points made, and I will take this opportunity to refer to them, and to link them to what I presented in the lead article.     

Religious traditions as contexts of historical creativity: patterns of scientific and artistic achievement and their stability

Because fragmentary evidence linking outstanding intellectual achievement to Protestant and Jewish family background has left unclear how far any general relationship between religious background and historical creativity holds across arts and sciences, the relative fruitfulness of western religious traditions was explored by regression analysis on a data-base of nearly 1,400 notable 19th and 20th century achievers in six science-related and three arts domains.It was hypothesized that (1) religious traditions are each equipotential across countries, national totals of exceptional achievers in any domain depending simply on the numerical strength of each tradition; (2) Protestant fruitfulness is greater in the sciences, Catholic in the arts and (3) differences will have declined over time.The first two hypotheses were confirmed. More variance was explained by Protestant and Catholic totals separately than by overall population size and Protestant fractions were more productive in all sciences than Catholic, which fared better in the arts. However, no reduction was found in these differences over time. Jewish fractions showed the highest incidence of creativity, but less equipotentiality and no general arts–science difference.It is concluded that creativity in arts and sciences depends strongly on increasingly hidden cultural roots in western society.     

An algorithm to generate discrete probability distributions: Binomial,hypergeometric, negative binomial,inverse hypergeometric,and Poisson

A recursion procedure for generating point probability values, cumulative probability values, and interval probability values of discrete distributions is described. Algorithms and associated FORTRAN functions for five representative discrete probability distributions are presented : binomial, hypergeometric, negative binomial, inverse hypergeometric, and Poisson. The joint use of recursion and a small arbitrary initial value ensures computational efficiency.     

Perception of rate-altered sentential approximations by normal and aphasic children.

25 4-word, first, and second-order sentential approximations were presented to 18 aphasic and 18 normal children. The material was taped and altered to represent 5 speaking rates: 140 (normal); 75 and 105 (expanded); and 180 and 205 (compressed) words per minute. Order of presentation was randomized. The major difference between the children was that the second-order material was perceived best by normals regardless of rate, while the aphasics showed this preference only at the normal rate.     

ECOLOGY,CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION

A model which examined interrelationships among ecological setting, cultural adaptation and psychological differentiation was proposed. Details of each element of the model were discussed, and behavioural predictions were made. Specifically, hunters and gatherers, who were migratory and low in population density and food accumulation were expected to exhibit high levels of psychological differentiation in perceptual, social and affective areas of psychological differentiation. Conversely, sedentary peoples who were higher in population density and food accumulation were expected to exhibit lower levels of differentiation, while those peoples who were ecologically intermediate were expected to exhibit moderate levels. Sampling in Amerindian communities, and comparing these new data to previous African, Australian, and Eskimo data, led to the conclusion that higher levels of differentiation in perceptual, social and affective domains do indeed characterize hunters and gatherers. However, such differences within a single culture area were minimal. An examination of the cross-cultural stability of the concept of psychological differentiation suggested greatest internal consistency for hunters and gatherers, and less for sedentary peoples; constant relationships with socialization emphases were found, while variations in sex differences were related to features of socio-cultural stratification.     

Paired-associate learning by normal children and retardates with relevant redundant compound stimuli

During daily sessions four first-grade boys each played a two-choice marble dropping game. When one colored light was presented a plain token was dispensed as soon as S dropped a marble, and when another light was on a token with a hole in its center was delivered. During choice trials that were interspersed among single-color trials S had to choose one of the two different colored holes. At the end of each session S traded tokens with holes for pennies and then turned in the remaining plain tokens which were not exchanged for money. After S had developed a preference for the response that earned the tokens with holes (tokens that were backed up with pennies) E instructed S to try to get as many plain tokens (unexchangeable tokens) as he could. All Ss immediately switched to the response that earned unexchangeable tokens but as soon as E left they returned to choosing the backed up response. When the adult reentered, Ss again chose to work for unexchangeable tokens. Two different Es (male and female) served and the instructions of each were effective in controlling responding as long as the adult was present, except for one S who did not respond to one E, but did respond as described for the other.     

Person-Placement Congruence: A Framework for Vocational Counselors

A common guideline for vocational counseling is the rule requiring congruence between a man and his job. The issue of person-placement congruence was studied utilizing 159 patients referred for vocational rehabilitation to the Mental Health and Manpower Project from the Fort Logan Mental Health Center. A 13-item scale devised by project research staff and completed by vocational counselors was shown to predict later job success. By separating the scale into two categories, those items dealing with abilities and those related to needs, it was possible to predict the nature of job termination, i.e., quit or was fired. There was demonstrated considerable validity for the man-job fit approach to counseling, and this research served as an initial step toward detailing this rather simple rule.     

Effects of text structure on the impact of heard news

In two experiments, audio re-recordings of texts transcribed from television newscasts were presented to independent groups, one group in each case hearing a ‘bulletin’ with original text structures (as broadcast), the other with key stories revised in accord with story-grammar notions and restoring chronological sequence in the narrative. In Experiment 1 the middle item in a three-story bulletin was subjected to text structure manipulation. After hearing the bulletin, subjects were questioned on information in the texts. In Experiment 2, subjects heard two stories with original or restructured text. In addition to being tested for retention they also rated for bias and quality of writing. Text restructuring improved learning in both studies, especially of information central to the main points of stories. In Experiment 2, such text revision also affected judgements of bias without altering assessment of writing quality. It is suggested that attention to assuring more coherent story structures in newscast texts could counter the problems of poor comprehension and perceived bias on the part of audiences which result from current production priorities and practices.     

Accuracy in Face Perception: A View from Ecological Psychology

ABSTRACT It is well documented that people form reliable and robust impressions of a stranger's personality traits on the basis of facial appearance. The propensity to judge character from the face is typically thought to reflect cultural beliefs about mythical relations between aspects of facial appearance and personality. However, recent cross-cultural and developmental research does not support the mythical, cultural stereotype hypothesis. An alternative explanation of the data is that consensus in face-based impressions exists because those judgments are partially accurate. In this article, we explore the theoretical rationale for this “kernel-of-truth” hypothesis, review research that indicates that first impressions based on facial appearance are partially accurate, and discuss the potential mechanisms that may yield links between aspects of facial appearance and personality.