The Association for Human Development: a revitalized APGA

The American Personnel and Guidance Association faces a time of challenge as it moves increasingly to a world of change and innovation. Unfortunately, the divisional structure and emphasis of the Association as presently conceived builds for divisiveness, and little organizational unity is evident. However, all members in APGA are concerned with human development, maximizing individual potential, and helping individuals profit from developmental tasks involved in living. The Association for Human Development is suggested as a new name for APGA. Conceptual models for the divisions of the Association are suggested which imply the unity of the developmental process.     

Technology and guidance: a balance

The following symposium discusses the place of technology in guidance and some of the concerns involved. Tiedeman, a leading authority on technological applications in guidance, takes the position that guidance technology is an important new development. Schmidt, who has written widely in the areas of psychology and counseling, questions the place of technology in guidance and society and underlines some of the concerns related to the adoption of technology. The authors' discussions of “one-way” versus “two-way” thinking and the problem of control over the technology should be of interest to readers concerned with applying technology in guidance.     

Dimensions of counseling for career development

Counseling practice has not reflected current thinking about career development and career process. Four types of career counseling are described: Type 1, a traditional vocational counseling approach which helps the client with a specific decision; Type 2, which is concerned with teaching decision-making skills; Type 3, which views career development as a process rather than an end-point toward which all decisions lead; and Type 4, which focuses on creating in the individual the ability to utilize his own strengths to achieve self-determined objectives and to influence the nature of future opportunities.     

INTELLECTUAL ABILITY AND PROMOTIONAL SUCCESS AMONG HIGH LEVEL MANAGERS

T his study explores the relationship between high level managers' promotional success and two measures of intellectual ability. The Concept Mastery Test was administered to 235 middle managers and 130 higher level executives who attended advanced management training programs. The Ship Destination Test was also given to about half the trainees. Both tests are considered to discriminate well among superior individuals. Those managers who earned high scores were rated more favorably by their peers and the training staff. However, advancement in the 4 to 7 years after the training program was unrelated to test performance.     

Elephants in the living room

The elephant experience involves too much stimulation or input for a person to integrate. School personnel may help each other and their students to cope more effectively with these experiences by understanding the symptoms, the common sources, and the process of using them constructively. The symptoms are preoccupation, avoidance, overreaction, and flight into activity. Common sources are grades, test scores, and athletic success. The process of using them constructively involves facilitative people, use of personal resources, review of progress toward assimilation, and personal integration of experiential meaning. The elephant experience is seen as a source of learning that may be either devastating or enriching, and the challenge to the facilitator is to help each individual make it constructive.     

Adolescent Attachment,Identity, and Adjustment to College: Implications for the Continuity of Adaptation Hypothesis

We examined the concurrent relationship between late adolescent attachment to parents and peers and two broad indices of adolescent adaptation—personal and social identity and adjustment to college. Participants included 130 college freshmen and 123 upperclassmen. Although freshmen were disadvantaged relative to upperclassmen with respect to social and personal-emotional adjustment, there were no group differences on the attachment measures, on the measures of academic adjustment and goal commitment, and on the measure of social identity. Freshmen scored higher on personal identity than did upperclassmen. Women reported less alienation from peers, had more trust and better communication with peers, and had higher scores on personal and social idenitity than men. The attachment variables were significant predictors of personal and social identity. Pervasive relations were also found between attachment and adjustment to college, particularly for the upperclassmen sample.     

Assessing and Facilitating Children's Cognitive Development: Developmental Counseling and Therapy in a Case of Child Abuse

This article presents practical implications for assessing a child's cognitive development and then facilitating developmental growth. The concepts of developmental counseling and therapy (Ivey, 1986, 1990) are presented as a systematic framework to integrate neo-Piagetian developmental theory into the interview. Specific techniques may be used for assessing cognitive development, expanding horizontal and vertical development, designing systematic questioning sequences, and planning overall treatment. An example of treatment of a case of child abuse illustrates the concepts in action.     

Selection Criteria for a Career Development Program for the Mentally Ill: Evaluation of the Self-Directed Search (SDS)

Criteria were developed for the selection of a career development program appropriate for the mentally ill. The criteria were based on the Career Development Curriculum (CDC) for the mentally ill and the Purdue Stepped Approach Model. The Self-Directed Search (SDS) was chosen as a program because it met all the selection criteria. Mentally ill program participants showed a significant change (p<.035) on the My Vocational Situation Identity Scale. The findings support the selection of the SDS as a program and the feasibility of offering career development services to mentally ill clients.