Effect of Client Sense of Humor and Paradoxical Interventions on Test Anxiety

This study investigated the effectiveness of paradoxical and non-paradoxical interventions with clients [henceforth known as participants] possessing a high or low sense of humor. Fifty-three test-anxious participants were divided into a low sense of humor group and a high sense of humor group and were assigned to a paradoxical intervention condition, a nonparadoxical intervention condition, or a no-treatment control group. Participants in all groups improved over time but, contrary to the hypothesis, low sense of humor participants improved significantly more with a paradoxical intervention than high sense of humor participants with a paradoxical intervention. There were no differences in improvement due to treatment condition for the high sense of humor group. Low sense of humor participants perceived the counselor as more able to help than did high sense of humor participants. The paradoxical intervention was seen as more surprising than the nonparadoxical intervention. Implications for the use of paradoxical interventions are discussed.     

Gender Aware Therapy: A Synthesis of Feminist Therapy and Knowledge About Gender

The time has come to integrate feminist therapy and knowledge of gender into principles of counseling for both women and men. Gender Aware Therapy (GAT) is such a synthesis. GAT encourages counselors to facilitate the development of women and men through exploration of their unique gender-related experiences. The foundations, principles, stages, and applications of GAT are described.     

Social uncertainty and interdependence: A study of resource allocation decisions in groups

Social uncertainty about the behavior of others with whom one is interdependent for rewards is hypothesized to encourage self-interested behavior and inhibit behavioral commitment to the group. This paper examines the roles of uncertainty, expectations, and feedback about other group members' contributions to the group in interdependent decision making. In the absence of feedback, resources tend to be divided between individual and group interests. Resource allocations to the group are found to increase significantly if group members receive feedback about other members' allocations, particularly if that feedback is at the individual level, not an aggregated group level. However, the effects of feedback presence and type are eliminated when group members state their expectations about other members' future contributions to the group. Implications for expectancy value theories of motivation and commitment to groups in organizations are discussed.     

Gender Role Conflict and Depression in College Men: Evidence for Compounded Risk

This study investigated the relationships between attitudes toward the male role, gender role conflict factors, and depression in 401 college men. Results indicated that all four of the gender role conflict factors were significantly correlated with depression. Hence, more traditional men may experience a compounded risk comprising increased likelihood of depression coupled with decreased use of counseling services. Both directions for future research and the implications for counselors and student services are discussed.     

Humility as a psychotherapeutic formulation

Humility training is conceptualized as an appropriate treatment for persons who occasionally describe themselves, but are most frequently described by others as overbearing, insensitive and deceitful. Procedures are outlined to identify unrecognized fears and improve interpersonal skills. Humility is presented as a counterpoint to assertiveness and aggression/anger control interventions.     

A blind woman who is mentally retarded promoting and sharing the occupational engagement of a dependent deaf-blind adolescent

A blind woman who is mentally retarded was employed (as peer care-giver) to promote and eventually share the occupational engagement of a deaf-blind adolescent (trainee) who was dependent on physical prompting. A computer-aided program was used to provide objects for the responses and facilitate orientation and mobility. The trainee was also exposed to the computer-aided program individually to assess the effects of the program per se. The results showed highly positive changes only in the condition involving the peer care-giver. In this condition, the trainee performed high frequencies of correct responses. Moreover, the care-giver managed to share responding with the trainee. Technical and practical aspects of the findings are discussed.