Suicide: Dynamics and Implications for Counseling

‘The authors discuss the dynamics of suicide, how to work with a potentially suicidal client in the counseling relationship, and legal and ethical implications for the counselor.     

Behavioral Marriage Therapy: II. Empirical Perspective

Two recent published reviews of research on behavioral marriage therapy stimulated us to supplement these accounts with additional relevant data. First, we place research on behavioral couples therapy in the broader context of outcome research on nonbehavioral marital therapy. We then summarize the results of 23 studies of behavioral couples therapy not included in these previous reviews and conclude that these additional data on controlled and comparative studies do little to enhance the current empirical status of the efficacy of behavioral marriage therapy and in no case do they establish the superiority of social learning approaches. It is concluded that an open mind to all sources of data on the efficacy of marital therapy is needed if the field is to make meaningful advances.     

The Stigma Associated with Various Criminal Offenses in Hiring Decisions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of prospective employers toward hiring ex-offenders based on the nature of the crime committed. Thirty-nine male and 30 female students in a personnel management class at a major Midwestern university were surveyed regarding their attitudes toward hiring persons convicted for the following crimes: kidnapping, armed robbery, homicide, assault and battery (nonsexual), automobile theft, rape, burglary, sale of hard narcotics, forgery, and child molesting. Statistical analyses revealed a significant difference in the total group's rankings of the 10 crimes but no significant differences between males and females.     

Client,Treatment, and Therapist Variables Related To Outcome in Brief,Systems-Oriented Family Therapy

Client, therapist, and treatment characteristics were examined with respect to how much of the variance they could account for in a variety of outcome measures. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine relationships among each of the client, therapist, and treatment characteristics studied and the various outcome measures. For the 219 families that were treated with brief family therapy, only a relatively low amount of variance in any of the outcome measures could be accounted for. The amount of explained variance, however, varied considerably from one outcome measure to the other. When the more homogeneous groups of clients (single parents or adolescent identified patients) were considered, the amount of explained variance generally showed an increase. Different sets of client, therapist, and treatment variables accounted for the variance in these outcome measures across client groups, demonstrating both the complexities of the relationships and the relative independence of various outcome measures. New variables are suggested for future research.     

CONTENT-ORIENTED PERSONNEL SELECTION IN A SMALL BUSINESS SETTING

This paper illustrates a content-oriented procedure for personnel selection in a small business setting. The procedure focuses directly on criterion performance, inasmuch as it generates lists of tasks relevant to specific job objectives. Rank order correlations provide quantitative indices of agreement between members of the job analysis panel as to the relative importance of the job objectives. The importance of appropriate representation on the job analysis panel is emphasized.     

Women,Education, Mathematics,and Computers: An Instance of Vocational Incongruence

A course in computer literacy was taken by 16 female elementary education majors specializing in mathematics. Results indicated that the students were dissimilar to the typical female college sample and to predicted occupational groups.     

Adolescent Adjustment to Parental Divorce: An Investigation from the Perspective of Basic Dimensions of Structural Family Therapy Theory

This study, conducted within the framework of concepts of structural family therapy, examined the relationship of four family-based, clinical dimensions to the adjustment of 45 adolescents during the first 18 months of parental separation. There were two samples of mother-custody families: an Aided group that applied for treatment, and an Unaided group of paid volunteers. The inclusion of this variable addressed a major methodological deficit of previous studies. There was a significant association between perceived postseparation family structure and adolescent adjustment, demonstrating that individual adolescent adjustment is contingent on structural features of the contemporary postseparation family. Further, Aided families were perceived as more chaotic, disengaged, and enmeshed than Unaided families, while Aided adolescents were characterized by more behavior problems than Unaided adolescents. This suggests that divorce, as an unscheduled transition, might be within the realm of adaptation for many families and adolescents and is not necessarily "disastrous."     

Families' Schemata of Social Relationships

Variation in views of the social environment held jointly by members of family units was examined from a theoretical perspective that specifies distinct kinds of variation among families in their beliefs about the fundamental nature of the social world. Associations compatible with theory were found between direct measures of family interaction and families' schemata of social relationships as assessed by using a felt figure technique. Additional evidence indicated that variation among families in the schemata displayed resulted from similar contributions by all individuals in a family studied. Findings support the existence of family social schemata — a family group's set of views about the organization of relationships in the social world — and indicate several dimensions by which these schemata vary from family to family.     

Employer Preferences for the Form and Substance of Employment Application Cover Letters

This study investigates the effect some principal characteristics of employment application cover letters have on personnel officers. A sample of personnel executives from 100 major companies was queried as to their perception of the desirability of 12 common cover letter characteristics. The results indicate that the personnel officers do not consistently perceive letters in the manner suggested by the existing literature. Some characteristics are shown to elicit negative responses from personnel officers, and thus should be avoided by job applicants. Several characteristics are strongly preferred by the sample surveyed. The model for an employment cover letter derived from this study should enhance the applicant's chances for a favorable response, or at least prevent letter forms which might detract therefrom.