Counselors and legislators: a case history

Recent Florida legislation provides for the training and use of paraprofessionals in guidance. The impetus for this legislation came from the legislators and vocational educators, rather than from the guidance profession. The official reasons given for the enactment of this legislation were especially critical of counselor education. The primary concern was that adequate vocational guidance is not being provided to youth in or out of school. This article discusses the preliminary hearings, content of the laws, and guidelines for implementing this legislation.     

Counselors,confidences, and the civil liberties of clients

Counselors can and do injure counselees by prying improperly into private matters, by passing information along without the counselees' informed consent, and by using privileged information as a basis for recommendations to others. The danger is especially great where counselors work within organizations, and even greater when their clients are fellow members. Safeguards against this danger would appear to take an uncounselorlike form. Although counselors are not usually sympathetic to a legalistic approach, it is from our constitutional traditions that we can best deduce the kinds of protection that we need.     

Counseling puerto ri cans: some cultural considerations

Puerto Ricans comprise a significant percentage of potential clients for many counselors. The migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland over the years has created cultural differences between Puerto Ricans raised in Puerto Rico and those raised in the U.S., but both groups are at a disadvantage in the dominant American culture. Migration back to the island in recent years is creating some problems for Puerto Rico, so Puerto Ricans often find prejudice both here and there. In this article the author, who married into a Puerto Rican family, discusses some values and traits that characterize Puerto Ricans and the behaviors that emerge from these traits. He offers practical suggestions for those counselors who have Puerto Rican clients.     

THE PERCEIVED VALUE OF FRINGE BENEFITS

One hundred eighty-two University of Arizona employees each participated in one of two field studies of the valuation of fringe benefits. Findings included: (a) a lack of employee knowledge regarding employer cost and market value of the studied benefit, and (b) significant undervaluation of the benefit by employees. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that employee benefit valuations anchor on employee contributions. Implications for practitioners and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

A Story about the Counselors in the Land of Help

Licensure is an issue of interest to many counselors. In some ways, however, the issue of licensure seems to be unresolved among them; in other words, some counselors want licensure, some don't, and others really don't seem to care one way or the other. This article recounts what happened to the counselors in the Land of Help when they were confronted with licensure and what they were able to do about it.     

Behavioral Treatment of Test Anxiety in a Drug Abuse Vocational Rehabilitation Day Program

Anxiety is one of the critical factors present in initiating and maintaining a drug-dependent pattern of behavior. This study examines test anxiety. The objective was to determine if a behavioral approach can be applied to the treatment of test anxiety in a vocational rehabilitation program for drug abuse clients. A case history is presented. Procedural details for applying behavioral techniques are discussed. The results of the study indicate that the treatment strategies selected were effective in reducing test anxiety. One of the side effects of using an approach that puts the technology of behavior change into the hands of the client is that the skills learned during treatment can be used to cope with problems other than those discussed with the counselor.     

Spoken word recognition by eye

Spoken word recognition is thought to be achieved via competition in the mental lexicon between perceptually similar word forms. A review of the development and initial behavioral validations of computational models of visual spoken word recognition is presented, followed by a report of new empirical evidence. Specifically, a replication and extension of Mattys, Bernstein & Auer's (2002) study was conducted with 20 deaf participants who varied widely in speechreading ability. Participants visually identified isolated spoken words. Accuracy of visual spoken word recognition was influenced by the number of visually similar words in the lexicon and by the frequency of occurrence of the stimulus words. The results are consistent with the common view held within auditory word recognition that this task is accomplished via a process of activation and competition in which frequently occurring units are favored. Finally, future directions for visual spoken word recognition are discussed.     

Career Maturity in Young Adults With Learning Disabilities: What Employment Counselors Should Know

Increasing numbers of those with learning disabilities who are entering college have been found to have special needs related to both academic survival and career development that are often unrecognized and unmet in institutions of higher education. This article reviews research on the characteristics of young adults with learning disabilities, discusses factors that are associated with the career maturity of young adults with learning disabilities, and offers suggestions to employment counselors that would be useful when working with this population.