Book review

GALLISTEL, C. R. The Organization of Action. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum Associates. 1980. Pp. 432. ISBN 0 470 26912 X.     

Qualitative approaches to research in counselling and psychotherapy: Issues and challenges

There has been a significant growth in interest in qualitative approaches to research in counselling and psychotherapy. Qualitative researchers in this field have begun to apply methods originally developed in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. There are, however, a number of distinctive dilemmas and challenges associated with qualitative approaches to inquiry into the processes and outcomes of counselling. A set of key issues are discussed: relationships with research participants, ethics, reflexivity, methodological choice, communicability, perspective and obviousness. Some suggestions are made regarding the link between qualitative research and counselling practice.     

Serial attention within working memory

It is proposed that people are limited to attending to just one “object” in working memory (WM) at any one time. Consequently, many cognitive tasks, and much of everyday thought, necessitate switches between WM items. The research to be presented measured the time involved in switching attention between objects in WM and sought to elaborate the processes underlying such switches. Two experiments required subjects to maintain two running counts; the order in which the counts were updated necessitated frequent switches between them. Even after intensive practice, a time cost was incurred when subjects updated the two counts in succession, relative to updating the same count twice. This time cost was interpreted as being due to a distinct switching mechanism that controls an internal focus of attention large enough for just one object (count) at a time. This internal focus of attention is a subset of WM (Cowan, 1988). Alternative visual and conceptual repetition-priming and memory retrieval explanations for the cost involved in switching between items in WM are addressed.     

Identifying barriers to help-seeking: a qualitative analysis of students' preparedness to seek help from tutors

A qualitative study based on the first-hand accounts of students in higher education was conducted Participants were encouraged to explain, in their own terms, their own help-seeking behaviour. The focus for their explanations was 'help-seeking from academic staff'. The aim of the study was to construct a culturally sensitive account of barriers to help-seeking in a student population. The discussion focuses on how studies of this kind might complement and extend what is already known about help-seeking m the extant literature.     

Looking as a Measure of Attraction1

Byrne's reinforcement theory of attraction is almost exclusively based upon studies that use the Interpersonal Judgment Scale (IJS) as their measure of attraction. The present study used Byrne's general experimental procedure but employed an unobtrusive “looking” measure of attraction as well as the more familiar IJS measure. The degree of attitude similarity between women subjects and a female stranger was not significantly related to the IJS measure of attraction but was significantly related to the proportion of looking time measure (p < .01). This was true for both subjects who verbalized and did not verbalize awareness of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent measures of the study.     

Coping styles in adults with cystic fibrosis: implications for emotional and social quality of life

As life expectancy increases, interest has grown surrounding the factors that may influence quality of life (QOL) for people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim of the current study was to examine which specific coping styles were positively or negatively associated with social and emotional QOL in a CF sample. One hundred and twenty-two respondents aged 18 and over were recruited through an online support group. Respondents completed the ‘CF Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R)’ and the ‘Brief COPE’. The CFQ-R is a disease-specific instrument designed to measure the impact of CF on nine QOL domains and the Brief COPE is a 28 item questionnaire which assesses 14 coping scales. A multivariate regression model revealed that higher substance abuse and disengagement was associated with lower emotional QOL whereas greater use of religion, instrumental coping and acceptance was positively associated with emotional QOL. Active coping was linked to better social QOL and a negative association was reported between distraction coping with both emotional and social domains. Given the burden of CF, ascertaining which factors enhance or diminish emotion and social well-being is now an integral component of QOL research. The current findings may therefore have value in informing clinical interventions which aim to cater for the psychological needs of individuals with CF.