Do “Womanist” Identity Attitudes Influence College Women's Self-Esteem and Perceptions of Environmental Bias?

Helms (1990) proposed a four-stage model of womanist identity in which she hypothesized that development of healthy identity in women involves movement from external standards of gender identity to internal standards. Attitudes derived from her model were used to predict undergraduate women's self-esteem and perceptions of sex bias in the campus environment. Female undergraduates (N = 659), freshmen through seniors, were surveyed in classes at a large eastern university. Results indicated that Encounter (characterized by questioning of previously held stereotypical views about gender and dawning awareness of alternative perspectives) and Immersion-Emersion (characterized by an active rejection of male supremacist values and beliefs and the search for a positive self-affirming definition of womanhood) attitudes were inversely related to perceptions of environmental gender bias and positively related to self-esteem. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

Analyzing Ethical Conflict in the Transracial Adoption Debate: Three Conflicts Involving Community

This essay explores ethical conflicts underlying the discourse of the policy debate about transracial adoption, focusing on the adoption of Black children by whites. Three underlying conflicts are analyzed, namely, the values of equality versus community, interracial community versus mukiculturalism, individuality versus racial-ethnic community. The essay concludes with observations on multicultural families.     

On “Naturalistic” Family Research

Much is made of the desirability of “naturalistic” research on the family. Indeed, experimental research is often rejected for not being “naturalistic.” The purpose of the present article is to draw out and to examine some of the assumptions underlying such a position. The assumptions behind criteria such as “real,”“relevant,” and “typical” for research topics and settings are held to be questionable, not least because they are inconsistent with a communicational, context-oriented approach to the family. Alternative assumptions more consistent with this approach are described.     

The Assessment of College Student Need: First Step in a Prevention Response

This article introduces the assessment process, reviews selected assessment studies, and presents a unique procedure for identifying college student needs, leading to a prevention response.     

Counseling in a Government Agency: Interventions for Employees and Supervisors

This article describes an organizational counseling and career development program that serves both employees and their supervisors. Program components include counseling, workshops, and a career resource center.     

Alcohol Education Through Computer-Assisted Instruction

The author describes the application of computer-assisted instruction (CM) to alcohol education. The program, titled If You Drink, contains five modules that teach about the effects of alcohol, blood alcohol content, drinking and driving, decision making about drinking, and interactions between alcohol and commonly prescribed medications.     

Description of a Teenage Pregnancy Program

The authors describe a teenage pregnancy program with three major components—medical care, education, and counseling. The services, particularly the counseling program, are discussed.     

A TEST OF THE PATH-GOAL THEORY OF LEADERSHIP AND SOME SUGGESTED DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Several hypotheses on the moderating effect of task structure from Path-Goal leadership theory were tested in a large public utility. No support was found for the moderating effect of task structure, despite multiple analyses and large and statistically significant differences in moderator variables: instrumental leadership obtained few significant correlations with criteria regardless of task structure, and supportive leadership was strongly related to criteria at all levels of task structure. Based on these results and theoretical considerations, suggestions are made for modification of the manner in which the theory has generally been tested, and for attention to specific testing of several assumptions upon which the theory is based.     

Research in Counseling

This column is based on the belief that research can provide meaningful data to the practicing counselor. While individual studies may not provide sufficient data on which to act, a combination of separate research efforts or a large-scale, long-term research project does have the possibility of providing sufficient data. This column will undertake to provide that data by either reviewing the current research in a specific area or examining the results from a long-term project. The emphasis will be on implications for the counselor, so there will be little if any information on research design or statistical procedures. Readers desiring more detail about a particular study should write directly to the original author(s). Readers who desire to have the results of their research and/or innovative approaches considered for review in this column should send the material to Richard W. Warner, Jr., Counselor Education, 2054 Haley Center, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36830.