In Search of Multicultural Competence Within Counselor Education Programs

The authors examine the current status of multicultural training in counselor education. Leading multicultural training programs are identified and described, and specific guidelines for improving multicultural training are provided.     

A FIVE-YEAR STUDY OF A POSITIVE INCENTIVE ABSENCE CONTROL PROGRAM

This study reports the results of a positive incentive program designed to reduce absenteeism at a hospital. Absence data for a treatment group ( N = 164) and a comparison group ( N = 136) were collected for one year prior to the incentive program, the three years the plan was operational, and the year after the program was discontinued. In the treatment program, absence from the treatment group decreased significantly during the first and third years of the program; effects during the second year of the program were marginally significant. No changes occurred in the comparison group's absence level. A utility analysis revealed that the incentive program produced an 11.7% return on investment.     

MICROCOMPUTER USAGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY: THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT IN EMPLOYEE TRAINING

This study presents a test of the influence of social context on training outcomes. Specifically, the effects of labeling microcomputer usage as an opportunity were examined on computer anxiety, computer efficacy beliefs, and learning. Nonacademic university employees enrolled in an introductory microcomputer training class were assigned to a session in which microcomputer usage was randomly established as an opportunity or neutral. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 ( N = 84) identified the issue characteristics of opportunities and threats as a basis to establish context. Study 2 (N = 79) reported the results of the training. Results indicated that, after controlling for pretraining expectations about microcomputer usage, trainees in the opportunity condition exhibited higher computer efficacy and learning, as well as lower computer anxiety, than trainees in the neutral condition. These findings suggest that labeling the context can be a relatively powerful training intervention. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Assessment of Selected CACREP Standards by Accredited and Nonaccredited Programs

This study surveyed both accredited and nonaccredited counselor education program professionals to investigate their perceptions of whether a select group of standards was a hindrance to seeking and achieving accreditation.     

Toward the Nonpathological Assessment of Behavioral and Conduct Disordered Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the behavioral problems of 113 adjudicated male juvenile offenders from the normalized, circumplex personality assessment perspective used in the Personal Styles Inventory. The results of the investigation suggest that this assessment model provides correctional practitioners a valid assessment, which is easily understood, sensitive to the needs of both the youth and their families, and useful in developing the goals required of student individual service plans. The findings are discussed in relation to other classification models, as well as their implications for public and residential care treatment programs.     

An Effect Of Change In Patient Status On Marital Interaction

In the treatment of couples and families, even more so than of individuals, therapists invariably are forced to face the problem of assessment of change in the marital or family "system." The purpose of the present study was to investigate changes in marital interaction for a special population, that is, in which one member of each married pair had been, but was no longer, a hospitalized psychiatric patient. The primary question we addressed was whether changes in marital interaction could be amply detected and whether these changes could be attributed to the particular role shift that had occurred in one spouse--from "patient" to "nonpatient." Utilizing a technique called Interaction Testing, which the senior authors devised in 1960, we found that such alterations in marital interaction do indeed arise when one member of the couple moves out of a patient role and that our instrument is useful in elucidating the nature of such effects. In addition, it can be expected that a study of this kind will be of theoretical and methodological value in dealing with the general issues of problem-solving interaction in couples and families. The clinical aspect of the study may also be expected to stimulate useful thinking regarding family theapy in hospital settings, patient management, and aftercare.     

Power Relationships in Families: A Social-Exchange Perspective

Although researchers have investigated power relationships in families for twenty-five years, conclusions about normative family power patterns have been inconsistent and contradictory. Comparisons across studies have been difficult owing to different definitions of the construct, multiple methodologies, and inconsistent goals. With such confusion, a new, more integrated theoretical approach to the power issue seems warranted, as is suggested by the present paper. The current individual focus on power as a personal attribute can be replaced by a more dynamic, reciprocal, interactive process. Instead of specific or stable power patterns, power interactions should be fluid and time- or situation- specific. No one member would dominate, since power involves a mutual relationship system that changes its content, though not its rules of operation, across decision-making areas. Furthermore, family adjustment would relate to those rules and the family members' reactions to their particular exchange system but not to specific types of power structures. With these considerations, future research should analyze the process, not the content, of power operations in order to maximize the clinical and theoretical utility of its construct.     

The effectiveness of an ombudsman

Most people in our colleges and universities believe that the concept of an ombudsman, developed in the political area, could have a significant influence in institutions of higher education. In this article the author, himself a full-time ombudsman at a large urban college, attempts to correct some prevailing misconceptions about the office and indicate the source of an ombudsman's effectiveness.