Having Our Say: African American Women,Diversity, and Counseling

African American female counseling professionals contribute greatly to the multicultural growth of the counseling profession by spurring the profession's evolution and defining new paradigms and counseling activities. Despite their contributions, they face serious organizational, intrapersonal, and interpersonal challenges to their success in academia. This article seeks to elucidate the challenges to African American female counseling professionals and offers systemic and personal strategies that will facilitate the profession's evolution to culturally competent, ethical, and intentional helping orientations and worldviews.     

Effects of COMT genotype on behavioral symptomatology in the 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome.

The 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (DiGeorge/velocardiofacial syndrome) is associated with elevated rates of psychosis, and is also characterized by severe attentional difficulties and executive dysfunction. Behavioral manifestations of this syndrome could result from haploinsufficiency of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene, located within the 22q11 region. The goal of the present study was to examine COMT genotype in relation to behavioral symptomatology in this syndrome. Val158/108Met was genotyped in 38 patients (16 Met/-, 22 Val/-) with confirmed 22q11.2 deletions who had received the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) as part of a comprehensive evaluation. Results indicated that the Val genotype was associated with significantly greater internalizing and externalizing behavioral symptomatology in children with 22q11.2 deletions. Val allele status was associated with a greater-than-four-fold increase in risk for clinically significant behavior problems in children with this syndrome. These data are consistent with previous findings of increased psychopathology associated with the Val genotype in normal individuals and suggest that a functional genetic polymorphism in the 22q11 region may influence behavior in individuals with COMT haploinsufficiency.     

Gender and motivation

The role of gender in shaping achievement motivation has a long history in psychological and educational research. In this review, gender differences in motivation are examined using four contemporary theories of achievement motivation, including attribution, expectancy-value, self-efficacy, and achievement goal perspectives. Across all theories, findings indicate girls' and boys' motivation-related beliefs and behaviors continue to follow gender role stereotypes. Boys report stronger ability and interest beliefs in mathematics and science, whereas girls have more confidence and interest in language arts and writing. Gender effects are moderated by ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and classroom context. Additionally, developmental research indicates that gender differences in motivation are evident early in school, and increase for reading and language arts over the course of school. The role of the home and school environment in the development of these gender patterns is examined. Important implications for school professionals are highlighted.     

Predicting the acceptability and likelihood of lying: The interaction of personality with type of lie

The present study investigated the role of individual differences in the perceived acceptability and likelihood of different types of lies. Two-hundred and eighty seven college students completed scales assessing six personality variables (honesty, kindness, assertiveness, approval motivation, self-monitoring, and Machiavellianism) and rated 16 scenarios involving lies told for four different motives (altruistic, conflict avoidance, social acceptance, and self-gain lies). Our central hypothesis that the perceived acceptability and likelihood of lying would be predicted by interactions between personality characteristics of the rater and the type of lie being considered was supported. For each type of lie, a unique set of personality variables significantly predicted lying acceptability and likelihood.     

What Prevents Adolescents from Seeking Help After a Suicide Education Program?

Perceived barriers to help-seeking among adolescents attending a suicide education program were examined. A total of 854 high school students in Colorado completed one of two questionnaires, measuring barriers to help-seeking for self or friend. The most prominent barriers for self were: inability to discuss problems with adults, self-overconfidence, fear of hospitalization, and lack of closeness to school adults. The most prominent barriers for troubled friends were: friendship concerns, unapproachability of school adults, fear of friend's hospitalization, and underestimating friend's problems. Results reveal multiple constraints limiting the program's utilization, supporting the need for comprehensive system approaches to suicide prevention.     

Changes in Clients' Images of God Over the Course of Outpatient Therapy

The authors examined the impact of outpatient counseling on clients' psychological symptoms and on their image of God. Thirty participants in a counseling treatment group and 68 participants in a no‐treatment control group completed the Brief Symptom Inventory and the Adjective Checklist at 2 separate times. Counseled participants experienced significant reductions of psychological symptoms over the course of treatment whereas the control group showed no changes. Furthermore, ratings of God's agreeableness significantly increased (toward compassion) for clients in the treatment group, whereas no such changes were noted for the control group.     

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of psychological treatments for chronic pain: relevance to an evidence-based practice.

As evidence-based practitioners become more reliant on systematic reviews to inform treatment, it becomes important to systematize reporting details as well as improve the quality of the primary studies that will later be incorporated into this secondary literature. In this article, the authors consider several specific factors that can serve this function in the area of chronic pain: (a) adhering to a standardized set of reporting standards; (b) measuring a standardized set of short- and long-term outcome variables; (c) providing information about individual differences; and (d) providing detailed, easily accessible documentation of the treatment program (or progams). The article also highlights ways that practitioners and researchers can collaborate on treatment outcome research, thereby improving the ability to discover and disseminate effective treatments for patients who suffer from chronic pain.     

Qualities Underlying the Definitions of Gender

Dimensions underlying the definition of items as feminine and masculine were examined in a set of three studies. Items chosen by children as belonging to males or females were used as the initial stimuli. These included traditionally stereotyped items such as a hammer and an iron, as well as more metaphorically related items such as bears and flowers. The raters in all three studies were undergraduates (70% White, 30% minorities). In Study 1, the items were rated using a set of 40 common adjectives. Three factors resulted: two related to masculine items and one to feminine items. In Study 2, a subset of the adjectives were used to rate abstract paintings that had been designated feminine or masculine by another group of adults. In Study 3, a set of stimuli were developed using the adjectives from the previous two studies. The items were rated as feminine or masculine and matched the initial coding of the adjective. The new items were also rated on the same adjectives by another set of adults. Again, the masculine adjectives were assigned to masculine items and feminine to feminine items. There was excellent agreement across three different sets of stimuli on the underlying dimensions of gender definition, even using items that were not traditionally stereotyped.