Assessing Multicultural Counseling Competence: A Review of Instrumentation

The authors review four new instruments designed to assess multicultural counseling competence in trainees and practicing professionals. The Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory—Revised (CCCI-R), the Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale—Form B (MCAS:B), the Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI), and the Multicultural Awareness-Knowledge-and Skills Survey (MAKSS) were each critically reviewed in terms of item development, psychometric properties, and pragmatic utility. Specific research suggestions for continued empirical validation on the instruments are posited, and strong cautions regarding their current use in training are leveled.     

Extra-legal factors and product liability: The influence of mock jurors' demographic characteristics and intuitions about the cause of an injury

Two experiments were performed to investigate the role of extra-legal factors in a simulated product liability trial. In cases where the factual evidence was identical, subjects' liability judgments varied as a function of the case-specific factor of the alleged source of the plaintiffs injury. In deciding cases differently depending on the alleged cause, subjects relied on intuitions about what injury sources are more or less likely to cause a certain kind of injury. Juror-specific factors also influenced subjects' verdicts. There was no difference between students and non-students, but race and SEC—factors that are often correlated with student status—did affect subjects' verdicts. Low-SES and minority subjects were more likely to find the defendant liable than high-SES and white subjects. The results are considered in terms of general decision-making processes, and the implications for jury selection and mock jury research are discussed.     

BEHAVIORAL PERSISTENCE AND VARIABILITY DURING EXTINCTION OF SELF-INJURY MAINTAINED BY ESCAPE

The self-injurious escape behavior of a developmentally disabled adult was treated with extinction. Results of a reversal design showed substantial bursts of responding when extinction was introduced and reintroduced: self-injury remained at a variable and elevated rate for some time before stable, low rates were observed. Data on aggression, a nontarget behavior during both baseline and treatment, showed a pattern similar to that seen for self-injury during the extinction conditions.     

Conversational skill and locus of perception

The present study attempted to identify behavioral skills associated with global perceptions of communication competence and to determine if the relationship between competence and skills varies as a function of perceptual locus. Fifteen dyadic conversations were videotaped. Each interactant rated self and partner and was rated by four observers who viewed each tape. Results indicated that subjects' perceptions of their partners' skills accounted for 87% of the variance in subjects' ratings of partners' competence and 80% of the variance in subjects'self-perceived confirmation. Observers' ratings of subjects' skills predicted 83% of the variance in observers' ratings of subjects' competence. Observers'ratings of subjects'skills were unrelated to subjects' self-rated competence.     

Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Meta-analysis of Outcomes

Organizational researchers during the past few decades have increasingly focused on the role of subjective work issues and their impact on important worker-related outcomes. One of the most prominently studied factors, perceptions of organizational politics, has received much recent conceptual and empirical attention. In an effort to better understand the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and key outcomes, we apply meta-analysis on 79 independent samples from 59 published and unpublished studies involving 25,059 individual participants. Results indicate strong negative relationships between POP and job satisfaction and between POP and organizational commitment, moderately positive relationships between POP and the outcomes of job stress and turnover intentions, and a non-significant relationship between POP and in-role job performance. Moderator tests show that age, work setting (i.e., public sector or private sector), and cultural differences (i.e., domestic sample or international sample), have contingent effects on certain POP relationships.     

Stability and change in personality traits from late adolescence to early adulthood: a longitudinal twin study

We conducted a longitudinal-biometric study examining stability and change in personality from ages 17 to 24 in a community sample of male and female twins. Using Tellegen's (in press) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), facets of Negative Emotionality (NEM) declined substantially at the mean and individual levels, whereas facets of Constraint (CON) increased over time. Furthermore, individuals in late adolescence who were lowest on NEM and highest on CON remained the most stable over time, whereas those exhibiting the inverse profile (higher NEM, lower CON) changed the most in a direction towards growth and maturity. Analyses of gender differences yielded greater mean-level increases over time for women as compared to men on facets of CON and greater mean-level increases for men than women on facets of Agentic Positive Emotionality (PEM). Biometric analyses revealed rank-order stability in personality to be largely genetic, with rank-order change mediated by both the nonshared environment (and error) as well as genes. Findings correspond with prior evidence of a normative trend toward growth and maturity in personality during emerging adulthood.     

Perceived attachment: relations to anxiety sensitivity, worry, and GAD symptoms

This investigation examined the relation between perceived alienation from parents and peers, anxiety sensitivity (AS), and current worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms with the goal of expanding the knowledge base on factors that may contribute to the development of AS and its role in worry. The mediating role of AS between perceptions of alienation and current worry and GAD symptoms was also examined. Ninety-four non-clinical worriers completed self-report questionnaires assessing their perceptions of attachment, AS levels, and worry and GAD symptoms. Even after controlling for worry and GAD symptoms, greater perceptions of alienation from mothers and peers were significantly associated with higher AS symptoms. AS as a unitary construct mediated the relation between perceptions of alienation from mothers and peers and worry and GAD symptoms. The facets fear of publicly observable symptoms and fear of cognitive dyscontrol also mediated this relation. The role of alienation in relation to AS, worry, and GAD symptoms is discussed along with directions for future research.     

Are we aware of the external factors that influence our food intake?

OBJECTIVES: This research examines the extent to which people accurately report some of the external influences on their food intake. DESIGN: In two studies, specific factors (the presence and behavior of others) were manipulated in order to influence the amount of food that individuals consumed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes of interest were participants' spontaneously generated explanations for their food intake (Study 1; n = 122), and their ratings of the importance of several potential determinants of food intake (Study 2; n = 75). RESULTS: In Study 1, there was high concordance between the amounts eaten by members of a dyad, but very few participants indicated that they were influenced by their partner's behavior; they instead identified hunger and taste as the primary determinants of intake. Study 2 showed that participants' intake was strongly influenced by the behavior of others, but people rated taste and hunger as much more important influences on their intake. CONCLUSIONS: If external environmental factors influence people's food intake without their awareness or acknowledgment, then maintaining a healthy diet can be a challenge, with long-term consequences for health and well-being.