Employing Ethical Codes and Decision-Making Models: A Developmental Process

Counselors often encounter seemingly intractable ethical dilemmas. To assist counselors who face difficult situations, the helping professions have generated both ethical codes and decision-making models. Because the process of decision making seems to be related to cognitive-moral development, this article details ethical codes and decision models and speculates on how counselor level of development may influence use of such codes and models.     

The Cognitive Spiral: Creative Thinking and Cognitive Processing

Defining and measuring the construct of creative thinking has proven to be an elusive task. As Clark (1979) has pointed out, the term creativity is used as if there is general agreement as to what the construct means. Yet the fact is that research has taken many routes, and definitions are more often specific to the particular author than a matter of consensus. However, when applying creative thinking to instructional design and presentation, it would be prudent to have a concise definition which separates out potentially confounding elements. The Cognitive Spiral model conceptualizes creative thinking as an integral component of all cognitive processing. This article details the synthesis of a definition and the structure of a model of cognitive processing.     

EXPLICATING THE IMPLICIT: THE LOCAL LEVEL AND THE MICROPROCESS OF CHANGE IN THE ANALYTIC SITUATION

This paper proposes a method of examining the micro-events of the analytic process that borrows heavily from developmental research. The increasing importance of illuminating the microprocess of interaction to understanding the process of change in analytic treatment is emphasised. A set of constructs and terminology is proposed for the study of the moment-to-moment interactive process in psychoanalytic therapy referred to as the local level. A theory of therapeutic action based on 'local-level' process is then explicated. Its central element involves a step-by-step process of 'fitting together', which leads to changes in implicit knowing through alteration of emotional procedures.     

Affiliation with new peer acquaintances during two initial social support interactions

Abstract This investigation examined the influence of a prior social support interaction on a subsequent interaction between new peer acquaintances. Pairs of adolescent peers (recruited in a large metropolitan area in the United States) were videotaped as they met and discussed current life concerns in 2 separate interactions. Results indicated that (a) the behaviors of new interaction partners are coordinated within an interaction (social coordination hypothesis), (b) behaviors exhibited during an initial interaction predict behaviors exhibited during a subsequent interaction (influential interaction hypothesis), (c) individuals affiliate in similar ways across interactions (cross‐situational consistency hypothesis), and (d) behaviors reflecting greater comfort with interaction increase across interactions (uncertainty reduction hypothesis). The discussion focuses on implications of results and contributions to existing literatures.     

The action model of relationship security: How one's own behavior shapes confidence in partners' care,regard, and commitment

The authors present and test the action model of relationship security, which predicts that people's behavior toward a relationship partner shapes their security regarding that partner's care, regard, and commitment. Specifically, actors who enact prosocial or antisocial behavior develop corresponding prosocial or antisocial metaperceptions (i.e., they believe they are viewed as prosocial or antisocial by their partner). In turn, these metaperceptions have a strong influence on actors' security in their partner's care, regard, and commitment due to lay theories positing that prosocial and antisocial behavior impacts others' sentiments. Four studies supported this model. Moreover, findings suggest that prosocial metaperceptions buffer the harmful effects of attachment anxiety on relationship security. This research suggests the relevance of own behavior for relationship security.