Toward a Constructivist and Developmental Identity for the Counseling Profession: The Context-Phase-Stage-Style Model

The constructivist and developmental metatheories offer foundations for prevention- and health-oriented counseling approaches that target the whole population. In the assessment model proposed here, the counselor is directed toward 4 specific dimensions of human construction and development. They are the following: social context, life phase, constructive stage, and personality style. It is proposed that such assessment be infused into everyday counseling practice in schools, mental health settings, and colleges while also being a ground for the counselor education curriculum.     

Hemispheric differences in object identification

Although the right hemisphere is thought to be preferentially involved in visuospatial processing, the specialization of the two hemispheres with respect to object identification is unclear. The present study investigated the effects of hemifield presentation on object and word identification by presenting objects (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2) in a rapid visual stream of distracters. In Experiment 1, object images presented in the left visual field (i.e., to the right hemisphere) were identified with shorter display times. In addition, the left visual field advantage was greater for inverted objects. In Experiment 2, words presented in the right visual field (i.e., to the left hemisphere) under similar conditions were identified with shorter display times. These results support the idea that the right hemisphere is specialized with regard to object identification.     

"I had so much it didn't seem fair": Eight-year-olds reject two forms of inequity

Research using economic games has demonstrated that adults are willing to sacrifice rewards in order to prevent inequity both when they receive less than a social partner (disadvantageous inequity) and when they receive more (advantageous inequity). We investigated the development of both forms of inequity aversion in 4- to 8-year-olds using a novel economic game in which children could accept or reject unequal allocations of candy with an unfamiliar peer. The results showed that 4- to 7-year-olds rejected disadvantageous offers, but accepted advantageous offers. By contrast, 8-year-olds rejected both forms of inequity. These results suggest that two distinct mechanisms underlie the development of the two forms of inequity aversion.     

Revealing the invisible hand: The role of teachers in children's peer experiences

To introduce this special issue, the concept of the teacher as an “invisible hand” is presented as a metaphor to describe the potentially influential but relatively understudied contribution that educators are likely to have on children’s peer relationships and their broader interpersonal growth. Building from conceptual work distinguishing between the role of adults and peers in children’s social development, we summarize empirical support for the view that teachers are in a position to develop and guide the classroom as a society by simultaneously directing institutional expectations while also providing students with opportunities to collectively construct their own peer culture. Key social development constructs are reviewed from this lens, and the four articles and two commentaries that constitute this special issue are discussed in relation to their contributions to clarifying and extending current views of the role of teachers in school social dynamics. We conclude by considering intervention implications of this work, and we argue that teachers are the one professional in a child’s life who have the opportunity to view the whole child in relation to the social ecology in which he or she is embedded.     

The Influence of Counselor Epistemology on the Helping Interview: A Qualitative Study

The relationship between certain personal qualities of a counselor and the outcomes of counseling has been well established. In this qualitative study, the authors sought to extend this understanding by examining the relationship between the personal epistemologies of counselor trainees and their interview behaviors. Five distinguishing themes emerged.     

Differentiation between and within groups: the influence of individualist and collectivist group norms

The power of individualist and collectivist group norms to influence intergroup and inter‐individual differentiation was examined in three studies. Study 1 revealed that intergroup differentiation was lower when group norms prescribed individualism than when they prescribed collectivism. However, inter‐individual differentiation was higher when group norms endorsed individualism than when they promoted collectivism. In Studies 2 and 3 we found evidence for the moderating effect of group salience on the relationship between norms and differentiation. Specifically, the effect that individualist group norms reduced intergroup differentiation but enhanced inter‐individual differentiation was more pronounced when group salience was high rather than low. This finding demonstrates that conformity to a group norm prescribing individualism influences the manner in which positive differentiation is expressed. The discussion focuses on the caveats of introducing individualist group norms when attempting to reduce intergroup differentiation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individualist and collectivist norms: when it's ok to go your own way

We conducted two studies to investigate the influence of group norms endorsing individualism and collectivism on the evaluations of group members who display individualist or collectivist behaviour. It was reasoned that, overall, collectivist behaviour benefits the group and would be evaluated more positively than would individualist behaviour. However, it was further predicted that this preference would be attenuated by the specific content of the group norm. Namely, when norms prescribed individualism, we expected that preferences for collectivist behaviour over individualist behaviour would be attenuated, as individualist behaviour would, paradoxically, represent normative behaviour. These predictions were supported across two studies in which we manipulated norms of individualism and collectivism in an organizational role‐play. Furthermore, in Study 2, we found evidence for the role of group identification in moderating the effects of norms. The results are discussed with reference to social identity theory and cross‐cultural work on individualism and collectivism. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the effect of practice on inhibition of return in static displays.

In a recent article, Weaver, Lupiá?ez, and Watson (1998) reported that both object-based and location-based inhibition of return effects were reduced with practice. The present study was conducted to (1) replicate the reduction of inhibition of return with practice in single-session experiments with a variety of displays and responses and (2) to examine the notion that the reduction was, at least partly, due to habituation. However, no evidence for practice-related changes in the size of the inhibitory effect were found over a series of different inhibition of return experiments using static displays (using various numbers of target locations, types of keypress responses, and number of trials). Overall, the results suggest that inhibition of return is a robust phenomenon and may not, with static displays, be especially sensitive to practice effects.     

Object- and location-based inhibition of return in younger and older adults

When a cued object moves to new spatial coordinates, inhibition of return (IOR) with younger adults is found at the original cued location (location-based IOR) and at the current location of the object (object-based IOR). Older adults, however, show only location-based IOR. To determine whether this pattern of results represents a general age-related deficit in object-based IOR, the authors used static displays in which the placeholders (i.e., objects) were either present (location-based IOR+object-based IOR) or absent (location-based IOR only). Both age groups showed location-based IOR, but the older adults failed to show object-based IOR, consistent with age-related differences in visual pathways.     

The role of temporal and spatial factors in the covert orienting of visual attention tasks

There is a biphasic pattern in response times to peripheral uninformative cues, with faster responses to targets in cued locations when the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) is under 300 ms and slower responses when it is over 300 ms. The effect has typically been attributed entirely to the SOA while ignoring other aspects of the cues (duration, spatial configuration). To examine these other factors, along with SOA, the present experiments included manipulations of SOA (50, 100, 200, 400, 800 ms), inter-stimulus interval (ISI; 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 350, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 750 ms), and whether or not the cue and target overlap in the same space. The results indicate that cueing effects depend on the combination of cue duration, ISI, SOA, and the spatial configuration of the cues and targets. Three factors are used to explain these time course results.