Bias in Counselor Hypothesis Testing: Testing the Robustness of Counselor Confirmatory Bias

Explored the issue of confirmatory bias in counselors' clinical hypothesis testing. Recent research suggests that counselors are subject to a confirmatory bias when using information to test a client hypothesis. The current research tested the robustness of this finding by adding realism and accountability to the experimental situation. Two experiments examined the facts that experienced counselors recalled (a) about a coached client in a naturalistic situation, and (b) when they selected information from a client narrative when told that they would later be held accountable for their selection. In Experiment I, experienced counselors recalled more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information from a coached client's live presentation of factors. In Experiment 2, counselors-in-training selected more confirmatoty than disconfirmatory information from a case history despite the accountability implied by the experimental instructions. The authors concluded (a) that the confirmatory bias is a robust one that may be a natural part of any judgment situation and (b) that counselor education should explicitly train counselors to avoid this confirmatory bias.     

Fitting linear models to ordinal responses

The distribution of an ordinal response can be modelled as a grouping of an underlying quantitative variable whose mean is a linear function of explanatory variables. Possible distributional assumptions about the underlying quantitative response are compared. An iteratively reweighted least squares algorithm for parameter estimation in these models is described in detail and variances and tests of hypotheses are given. Two data sets are analysed to illustrate the methods.     

A behavioral technique for recovery from the psychological trauma of hysterectomy

Three groups of women (ns = 10) undergoing hysterectomy were subjects in an evaluation of biofeedback and relaxation techniques applied to recovery from psychological trauma of hysterectomy. Dependent measures included requests of pain medications, anxiety levels, finger-tip temperature, subjective units of discomfort, and number of days post-operative care. Although the results were mixed on most variables, the number of days post-operative care was significantly less in the relaxation/biofeedback group.     

Adolescents' communication styles and learning about birth control

Adolescents have different communication styles for acquiring information about birth control from a mass medium--interactant or noninteractant, depending on whether they involve communication with others in the process of media use. Three interactant styles are identified: a home-oriented style, where communication is primarily with immediate members and friends; a peer-oriented style, where communication is primarily with own-age peers and personal friends; and multi-source user, where communication is with more than one cluster of sources and the majority of one's communication is not with any particular source. The noninteractant style identified is a media-oriented style, where the adolescent relies exclusively on the mass media for information acquisition without communicating with anyone about the content or process of learning. Data suggest that the interactant style, especially for the multi-source user, is most beneficial for new learning. Gender and the presence of siblings at home are important moderators of the relationship between communication styles and knowledge of birth control. For example, females with a media-oriented style know more about birth control than females with a home-oriented style. Implications of the findings for the delivery of birth control information to adolescents are discussed.     

Perceived persuasiveness as a function of response style: Multi-issue consistency over time

This experiment studied the effect of an individual's response style on different issues over a long period of time. A hypothetical situation depicted the repeated responses given by one person on a target issue and on four other issues for one year. The 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design varied consistency of the stimulus person's position on the target issue during the year (consistent or variable); his consistency on other issues during the year (consistent or variable); and social context (alone or dissenting group). Subjects were 155 college students. Results showed an interaction between consistency on the target issue and consistency on other issues for the three dependent measures (p < .001). That is, significantly greater persuasiveness, confidence, and dis-positional causality were attributed to stimulus persons whose opinions were either completely consistent or completely variable on all issues during the year. Results suggest that the consistency of response style across issues—and not the constant advocacy of a specific position–is the crucial factor in the effectiveness of a long-term minority influence.     

Backward masking and asymmetry of processing for vowels differing in acoustical similarity

Several investigations have reported problems in demonstrating for vowels the phenomena of backward masking and right ear advantage so easily demonstrated for consonants. An experiment is reported on the dichotic backward masking (BM) of acoustically similar and dissimilar sets of vowels in consonant-vowel syllables. The results suggest that increasing perceptual difficulty by varying the acoustic similarity of the stimulus set augments BM. A second experiment showed that the right ear advantage (REA) was augmented by manipulating the acoustic similarity of the stimulus set and by decreasing intelligibility through the addition of noise. This and other evidence was employed to ascribe variations in both REA and BM to the interaction of perceptual processing time with information decay in precategorical acoustical storage. It is argued that this process interaction underlies statistical interactions in dichotic data which show that variations in difficulty (discriminability, noise addition, brain deterioration) affect most adversely the least favoured items (those presented earlier, those on the unattended ear, those on the left ear).     

The responsiveness and equality of mental health care to Chicanos and Native Americans

An examination was made of the services received by Chicano and Native American clients in 17 community mental health facilities. Although these minority clients differed from Anglos in demographic variables, there was no evidence that they were rendered inferior or discriminatory services. However, failure to return for therapy was much higher among minority clients. Possible reasons for this failure to return are discussed. It is suggested that for ethnic group clients, equality of services may not mean responsive services.