Using narratives to explore other-directed occupational choice and academic success

The construct of “other-directed versus self-directed career choice” has existed for quite some time. The current focus of vocational psychologists and counselors has made them question the relevance of this construct for contemporary American society. Many counselors today challenge the assumption that a career choice based on others’ expectations is problematic. This longitudinal study utilized a logistic regression analysis to determine whether self-directed or other-directed status, as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test related to success with which individuals enacted career choices. The sample consisted of 433 BS/MD students enrolled in a Bachelor of Science-Doctor of Medicine (BS/MD) degree program at a Midwestern medical college. The findings showed that self-directed or other-directed career choice did not predict academic success.     

Facilitating the emergence of convergent intraverbals in children with autism

Convergent intraverbals represent a specific type of intraverbal in which multiple components of one speaker's verbal behavior control a specific verbal response from another speaker (e.g., Speaker 1: What wooly, horned animal lives in the high country? Speaker 2: Bighorn sheep). To foster the development of advanced language, Sundberg and Sundberg (2011) proposed prerequisite skills that may engender the emergence of novel, convergent intraverbals. We used a multiple‐probe design with both nonconcurrent (across participants) and concurrent (across stimulus sets) components to evaluate the effects of training these prerequisite skills on the emergence of convergent intraverbals with four children with autism. Participants showed the emergence of convergent intraverbals at mastery levels after they displayed mastery performance on all of the prerequisite skills identified by Sundberg and Sundberg, lending support to their characterization as prerequisites. We discuss these findings in terms of operant mechanisms that may facilitate the development of generative language.     

Effects of modeling rote versus varied responses on response variability and skill acquisition during discrete‐trial instruction

Despite its advantages, discrete‐trial instruction (DTI) has been criticized for producing rote responding. Although there is little research supporting this claim, if true, this may be problematic given the propensity of children with autism to engage in restricted and repetitive behavior. One feature that is common in DTI that may contribute to rote responding is the prompting and reinforcement of one correct response per discriminative stimulus. To evaluate the potential negative effects of rote prompts on varied responding, we compared the effects of modeling rote versus varied target responses during the teaching of intraverbal categorization. We also evaluated the effects of these procedures on the efficiency of acquisition of any one correct response. For all four children, any increase in varied responding was fleeting, and for two participants, acquisition was slower in the variable‐modeling condition.     

Comparing response blocking and response interruption/redirection on levels of motor stereotypy: Effects of data analysis procedures

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked by deficits in social communication and the presence of restrictive and/or repetitive behaviors or interests. Motor stereotypy is a form of repetitive behavior that is common in ASD. Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD) and response blocking (RB) are two interventions found to be efficacious in reducing motor stereotypy. However, the current literature presents with inconsistencies regarding the relative efficacy of these two procedures. Thus, we sought to replicate and extend previous literature by evaluating the efficacy of both interventions on reducing motor stereotypy among 3 individuals with ASD. We also sought to evaluate how variations in data analysis affected the interpretation of treatment outcomes. Results indicated that both interventions were equally efficacious at reducing stereotypy when analyzing data exclusive of treatment‐implementation time. However, when analyzing total session time data, RB produced greater and more sustained reductions in stereotypy across all participants. These results emphasize the importance of data analysis decision‐making in evaluating intervention outcomes.     

The Experiences of Students of Color at a Predominantly White Institution: Implications for Counselor Training

This qualitative study examined the experiences of 11 students of color who participated in 2 multicultural counseling courses in a master’s‐level counseling program at a predominantly White institution. Findings illustrate students’ learning experiences based on instructors’ racial and ethnic identities, including a pivotal transition from distrust to trust toward the White instructor. Implications for teaching race‐based topics with students of color are presented. Este estudio cualitativo examinó las experiencias de 11 estudiantes de color que participaron en dos cursos de consejería multicultural en un programa de consejería de nivel máster en una institución predominantemente blanca. Los hallazgos ilustran las experiencias de aprendizaje de los alumnos basadas en las identidades raciales y étnicas de los docentes, incluyendo una transición fundamental desde la desconfianza hasta la confianza hacia el docente blanco. Se presentan las implicaciones para la enseñanza de temas basados en la raza con alumnos de color.     

Advertising: The contribution of applied cognitive psychology

This paper looks at the contribution of applied cognitive psychology primarily to the research on advertising. The first issue is to attempt to define and specify the unique contribution of applied, as opposed to “pure,” cognitive psychology to this research area. Next, the issue of the medium of message delivery is discussed. The importance of program involvement and mood impact on memory for advertisements is then reviewed. The major part of the review looks at the influence of humor, sex, violence, and unconventional sex roles in advertisements on their impact on viewer's memory. An attempt is made to document important and replicated findings in this area. Finally, some effort is made to consider future avenues of research.     

Advertisement–programme congruence in memory of sexual fragrance advertisements

The current study explored the effect of sexual content in advertisements and the programme–advertisement congruence on the memory of sexual and nonsexual advertisements. Seventy participants (41 females and 29 males) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions. They viewed either The Bachelorette (sexual programme) or I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (nonsexual programme) with sexual or nonsexual fragrance advertisements placed within the programme. The order of the advertisements was counterbalanced across participants to control for order effects. Free and cued recall of the advertisements were assessed. As predicted, there was a main effect of advertisement type, with the sexual advertisements better recalled than the nonsexual advertisements. Contrary to our prediction, the sexual content of the programme did not have an effect on advertisement recall. There was an interaction between the advertisement type and programme type; sexual advertisements were remembered better when embedded within a sexual programme. Limitations of this study are considered.     

Early reflections on becoming a therapist: Development of reflective practice in clinical training programmes in an Australian context

The development of competent counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists depends upon not only the clinical competencies, but also the development of the person as the psychotherapist. This qualitative study investigated the experiences of twenty provisional psychologists enrolled in a university‐based clinical psychology training programme. Participants were requested to write reflective essays describing their experiences in relation to their first year of training. Utilising an interpretative phenomenological approach methodology, three superordinate themes were identified: beginning awareness and internalisation of the role of the therapist, therapy as an inter‐subjective experience, and personal transformation. Themes encompassed a range of key areas identified by trainee therapists as central to their development as reflective practitioners. Findings from this study may contribute to the small but growing literature base explicating the early lived experience of being a therapist working from an integrative framework. The findings contribute to our knowledge of the critical elements involved in fostering the theoretical, practical and reflective processes involved in becoming a competent therapist.