Telephone Counseling for Smoking Cessation: What's in a Call?

Telephone counseling for smoking cessation has been gaining popularity as studies have demonstrated its efficacy. What comprises a successful program, however, has not yet been detailed in the literature. In this article, an innovative telephone counseling intervention for smoking cessation is described, with attention to the clinical issues of client assessment, motivation, self-efficacy, planning, coping, relapse-sensitive call scheduling, and self-image. Counselor training and supervision issues, ethical and legal considerations regarding this form of service delivery, and suggestions for future direction also are outlined.     

General and specific support expectations and stress as predictors of perceived supportiveness: an experimental study.

Fifty-four undergraduates and their mothers participated in an experiment to evaluate hypotheses derived from a theory of perceived social support (Pierce, Sarason, & Sarason, 1990). Regression analyses indicated that the variables in the model accounted for 14.83% and 40.93%, respectively, of the variance in students' perceptions of their mothers' behavior assessed during 2 standardized laboratory situations. Unique effects were found for students' expectations for support from and conflict with their mothers in both pre- and posttask situations, although the effect of conflict was contrary to prediction in the pretask situation. Stress had an impact only in the posttask situation. Students' general expectations for support had no unique impact in either situation. Implications for the role of general and specific expectations for support and conflict, and situational factors, in theories of perceived social support are discussed.     

THE INTERACTION OF BIASES IN THE EVALUATION OF MANAGERS IN SINGAPORE

In this study, independent samples from the same population responded to three simulated situations in which sex and other independent variables were manipulated. In the first two cases, discriminatory decisions against women managers by male respondents were clearly discerned. However, in the third case where sex as an independent variable interacted with developmental potential, the pattern of evaluative decisions changed. A high-potential female was treated as favourably as a high-potential male while the low-potential male received the lowest selection rate from the male respondents. While the finding is not altogether surprising in a meritocratic society like Singapore, the study points to the need to explore the interactive effects which sex bias may have with other attitudes in a specific social context.     

Perceived need for resources: Some differences among groups

Perceived need for interpersonal resources (status, love, services, goods, money and information) was examined in two studies. In the first study drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and motorcycle racers were compared with a control group drawn from the general population. In the second investigation outpatients with medical complaints, alcoholic impatients and drug addict outpatients all treated at a VA hospital were compared with a control group of males drawn from the general population. After patialling out the effects of age and education, both studies showed significant differences among the groups in their expressed need for status, love, services and information. Conversely, no major differences were found in the need for goods and money. The prostitutes in the first study and the addicts of both studies showed the highest need level. The relevance of these findings to the treatment and prevention of social problems is discussed.