Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally Competent Counselor in a Sociopolitical Era of Change and Empowerment

This article explores the historical and sociopolitical contexts of the multicultural competency movement and the challenges and promise of becoming a culturally competent counselor. Specific attention is directed to the promise and opportunity for those who commit to a culturally competent personal and professional way of life.     

Summarizing digital documents: effects of alternate or simultaneous window display

We investigated the effect of window visibility on the computer‐based summarizing of digital documents. Two experiments studied the impact of the simultaneous or alternate display of the windows containing the notepad and source documents. In Experiment 1, the participants were asked to summarize the content of the source documents. In Experiment 2, they were required to copy out sections of the source documents. The results showed that in the alternate condition, the participants performed fewer reading and writing cycles than in the simultaneous condition. Furthermore, in the alternate condition, the writing episodes were both more numerous and more effortful, while quality of the summaries produced using the copying strategy was also affected. These experiments highlight the need for writers to be able to navigate freely and easily between the windows so that they can construct an overall mental representation of their summaries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overcoming the winner's curse: an adaptive learning perspective

The winner's curse phenomenon refers to the fact that the winner in a common value auction, in order to actually win the auction, is likely to have overestimated the item's value and consequently is likely to gain less than expected and may even lose (i.e., it is said to be “cursed”). Past research, using the “Acquiring a company” task has shown that people do not overcome this bias even after they receive extensive feedback. We suggest that the persistence of the winner's curse is due to a combination of two factors: variability in the environment that leads to ambiguous feedback (i.e., choices and outcomes are only partially correlated) and the tendency of decision makers to learn adaptively. We show in an experiment that by reducing the variance in the feedback, performance can be significantly improved. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fairness and bargaining power in threshold public goods experiments

Experiments on three two‐person threshold public good provision games, namely, the simultaneous, sequential, and dictator games, are conducted to explore the motives behind giving. Players who move simultaneously are endowed with equal bargaining power, and players who move first are endowed with more bargaining power than players who move subsequently. Dictators are indubitably endowed with complete bargaining power. Since the differences between the bargaining powers of two players increase from the simultaneous to the sequential to the dictator game, comparisons among games allow us to trace whether the contribution behavior is motivated by fairness or is simply due to the strategic concern. The experimental evidence shows that the strategic concern explains the overall contribution behavior better than the motive of fairness. However, in the final round 26% of the dictators share the threshold evenly with their opponents, suggesting that some subjects do play fairly. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acute episodes of predator exposure in conjunction with chronic social instability as an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder

People who are exposed to horrific, life-threatening experiences are at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some of the symptoms of PTSD include persistent anxiety, exaggerated startle, cognitive impairments and increased sensitivity to yohimbine, an alpha(2)-adrenergic receptor antagonist. We have taken into account the conditions known to induce PTSD, as well as factors responsible for long-term maintenance of the disorder, to develop an animal model of PTSD. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered a total of 31 days of psychosocial stress, composed of acute and chronic components. The acute component was a 1-h stress session (immobilization during cat exposure), which occurred on Days 1 and 11. The chronic component was that on all 31 days the rats were given unstable housing conditions. We found that psychosocially stressed rats had reduced growth rate, reduced thymus weight, increased adrenal gland weight, increased anxiety, an exaggerated startle response, cognitive impairments, greater cardiovascular and corticosterone reactivity to an acute stressor and heightened responsivity to yohimbine. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of acute inescapable episodes of predator exposure administered in conjunction with daily social instability as an animal model of PTSD.     

Dissolving the diaspora: Dialogical practice in the development of deep multiculturalism

This article is an exposition of deep or critical multiculturalism that is grounded in a mutually respectful dialogue. Such multiculturalism names historical oppressions, recognizes the structural causes of injustice and inequality, and is profoundly open to cultural critique, challenge and change. In order to promote such a multicultural practice, the article makes the case for a dialogical politics of deep and mutual respect in which ethno‐religious sensibilities are validated and welcomed in their rich diversity. In doing so, the article draws upon the author's empirical research on the Muslim minority in contemporary Canada. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships Among Religiousness,Spirituality, and Health for Individuals with Stroke

The current study evaluated the relationships among spiritual beliefs, religious practices, physical health, and mental health for individuals with stroke. A cross-sectional analysis of 63 individuals evaluated in outpatient settings, including 32 individuals with stroke and 31 healthy controls was conducted through administration of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) and the Medical Outcomes Scale-Short Form 36 (SF-36). For individuals with stroke, the SF-36 General Mental Health scale was significantly correlated with only the BMMRS Religious and Spiritual Coping scale (r = .43; p < .05). No other BMMRS factors were significantly correlated with SF-36 mental or physical health scales. Non-significant trends indicated spiritual factors were primarily related to mental versus physical health. This study suggests spiritual belief that a higher power will assist in coping with illness/disability is associated with better mental health following stroke, but neither religious nor spiritual factors are associated with physical health outcomes. The results are consistent with research that suggests that spiritual beliefs may protect individuals with stroke from experiencing emotional distress.     

Mechanical restraints as positive reinforcers for aggression

Research suggests that, in some cases, mechanical restraints may function as positive reinforcers. In this study, we conducted a functional analysis of severe aggression exhibited by an individual with a history of wearing arm splints. The results of this functional analysis demonstrated that his aggression was maintained by access to the arm splints. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.