What makes a good story

Three different ways have been selected for analyzing a story's structure, each focusing on different types of information. (a) Episodic or story grammar approaches stories as problem-solving episodes, emphasizing goals and activities to achieve them. (b) Labov's high point structure emphasizes affective information and sees stories as organized around emotional high points or crisis events. (c) Deese's dependency analysis emphasizes linguistic complexity and, in particular, the way propositions are related to each other through a relationship of either coordination or subordination. Stories were scored according to how well they realized good structure in each system, and the three scoring systems were relatively independent of each other. Adults were asked to rate 3-to 9-year old children's personal narratives in terms of how good a story each was, and their ratings were compared to how the stories were scored in terms of all three systems. None of the systems completely explained the subjective quality ratings; rather, all three seemed to contribute in different ways to subjects' ratings, with the best narratives generally deemed sophisticated and complex in at least two of the three systems.The authors wish to acknowledge their great debt to James Deese and Christine Glenn. This research was supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant A-7911 to Carole Peterson.     

THE USE OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC SPEAKING ABILITY

Research has shown that behavior can be successfully modified if behavioral goals are specified and the behavior is broken down into small workable units. The counselor and counselee can work together to state the desired outcome of the counseling process. This report presents a case study in which the method of successive approximations was used with a young male client to develop public speaking ability.     

The inheritance of cognitive interest styles among twins

Through twin studies, research in behavioral genetics has demonstrated significant genetic components in many personality traits. Less research has been done on inheritance of vocational interest preferences, partially because of the lack of a wholistic conceptual model for understanding the relationships among diverse occupational interests. With the development of scales for the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) to measure the six cognitive interest styles propounded by Holland, a parsimonious and comprehensive mapping of the occupational world was available and lent itself to the study of measuring inheritance of vocational preferences among twins. Median intraclass correlations for 409 pairs of monozygotic males, tested with the SVIB, was r = .50; for 570 pairs of monozygotic females, r = .55; for 237 pairs of dizygotic males, r = .27; and for 370 pairs of dizygotic females, r= .27.     

The relative efficacy of thought-stopping and covert assertion

The relative efficacy of Rimm's (1973) thought-stopping and covert assertion, thought-stopping alone, covert assertion alone and a placebo control was tested. All three experimental treatments were predicted to be superior to the control and differences among the experimental treatments were expected. Thirty-six volunteers with a strong fear of harmless snakes were given one of the four treatments. Results demonstrated the efficacy of the combined treatment, as had been shown in previous research, but also demonstrated the efficacy of the individual components alone. Scheffée Planned Comparisons at the post test and four week follow-up indicated that the three experimental groups were superior to the control on the three self-report and behavioral tests of fear of snakes (p < 0.01 for each) but not on a test of fears in general. Scheffée Post Hoc Comparisons showed no significant differences between the experimental groups. The possible overlapping functions of the components are discussed.     

Multidisciplinary teamwork in primary care: The role of the counsellor

Since other professionals have joined doctor and nurse to form multidisciplinary working groups, primary health care teams have made efforts, more or less successfully, to work together. This paper views the primary health care team as a medium-sized, multidisciplinary, family-like organization with very specific characteristics. Full of promise as a synergistic body, nevertheless the team frequently struggles with difficult and even self-destructive dynamics. The structures, problems and values of teamworking in this specialized context are examined, with particular attention given to ways in which the practice counsellor can support and encourage team working. Suggestions are offered regarding how primary health care teams might move towards a more team-oriented approach.     

Gender and self-concept: A reexamination of stereotypic differences and the role of gender attitudes

Sex Roles - Gender differences in overall self-evaluation and in specific dimensions of self-concept were examined in primarily White Caucasian college and high school students. The role of gender...     

Career Counseling Specialty: History,Development, and Prospect

This article contains an overview of the historical development of the specialized practice, preparation standards, and credentialing of career counseling. Discussion also focuses on commonalities of career counseling, general counseling, and other specialized forms of counseling, with attention to questions and implications for the future of career counseling practice and standards.     

Effect of Questioning Techniques and Interview Setting on Young Children's Eyewitness Memory

The goal of this research was to learn if supposed ineffective questioning techniques (e.g., question repetition within the interview) would reduce the accuracy of five-year-olds' eyewitness memory. In the first study, children viewed a slide show depicting a minor crime and were then interviewed either with a standard interview or one which incorporated ineffective questioning techniques. The results indicated that the type of interview did not affect children's eyewitness memory. In a second study, children were presented with the ineffective interview by an authoritative interviewer in a formal office setting. The results again indicated little influence of interview setting or question technique on children's eyewitness memory, identification accuracy, and suggestibility.     

The Experience of Growing Up in a Minister's Home and the Religious Commitment of the Adult Child of a Minister

A survey of 487pastors' children (PKs) age 25+ was undertaken to ascertain if there was any relationship between the unique aspects of the pastoral family and their relationships, and his or her adult religious commitment. Variables included the feelings of the PK toward moving, consistency of parental behavior, amount and quality of family time, ability to be oneself without being noticed, expectations by others for self-perceived as greater than their expectations for others, the status of having a pastor as a father, and the support of church and members, intimacy with each parent, satisfying parental marriage, and relationships with friends and extended family. All variables correlated with at least some measures of religious commitment although none were strong predictors. The strongest was the PKs' perception that more was expected of him or her. Other influences not examined in this study appear to have a greater impact on adult religious commitment. Qualitative analysis was consistent with the above.     

Bounded Identities: Women and Religion in Colonial Brazil, 1550–1750

This article examines the creation of women’s gender identity in the religious discourse of colonial Brazil and documents the creation of two separate norms—one for elite women and another for slave, lower-class, and mixed-race women. The Roman Catholic Church, closely linked with the Portuguese monarchic state and its colonial ambitions, transmitted both norms in religious guidebooks, missionary letters and sermons. This summary centers on the defining role for women in marriage, and indicates that the epoch of colonial Brazil is particularly important for feminist study. With the increasingly disparate perspectives on women from Late Antiquity, the Humanists, and Counter-Reformation theologians, this early modern era saw conflicted discourse concerning traditional gender roles.