Recent developments in non-traditional employment testing: An introduction

The purpose of this special issue of theJournal of Business and Psychology is to provide a review and update of several key types of non-traditional employment tests. Non-traditional employment tests can be divided into two categories. One category consists ofbiological/physiological tests. The second category consists ofnarrow-based personality tests. A framework for thinking about non-traditional employment tests is provided.     

Logical pragmatism and dialectical materialism: The beginning of dialogue

A philosophical movement, correctly called logical pragmatism, is growing up around the philosophy of W. V. O. Quine, Soviet scholars follow this development with clear and well-grounded understanding of the origins and tenets of the system. This essay continues the dialogue between contemporary Marxism-Leninism and logical pragmatism recommended by Soviet scholars.A Russian translation of this article is being published inFilosofskie nauki (Moscow).     

Evaluation of a mutual help network for the elderly residents of planned housing

We set up a mutual help network among the elderly residents of a government-subsidized apartment building and evaluated its impact on their social ties, social support satisfaction, and depression. A quasi-experimental design was used, with the residents of a similar building located in the same neighborhood serving as the control group. A total of 230 individual services were exchanged, and 28 group activities were organized during the study period. There was almost no difference between experimental and control groups with respect to the change over the study period in the number of social ties with other residents of the building. Support satisfaction decreased in both groups, but the decrease was larger in the experimental group. The control group had a slight decrease in the frequency of their depressive symptoms, whereas the experimental group had a moderate increase. More research is needed on the ability of social support interventions to produce beneficial effects on mental health among individuals who are not experiencing a particular life stress.     

Personal Versus Vocational Focus in Career Counseling: A Retrospective Outcome Study

In this archival study the authors sought to determine the relationship, if any, between counseling outcomes and the topical focus in career counseling. Twenty-two counselors saw 46 adult clients at a community-based clinic for an average of eight sessions. Counseling outcome and topical focus (the extent to which the actual content of counseling sessions reflected relatively more vocationally or personally focused topics) were assessed from follow-up questionnaires to former career clients and from trained raters' evaluations of the counselors' written progress notes. Results showed that, from the counselors' perspective, outcomes were better when the focus of the sessions was relatively more vocational than personal and when relatively more interviews were held. Client satisfaction, on the other hand, was predictable only from the counselor's level of experience. Satisfaction with occupational status was not associated with any of the client, counselor, or treatment factors. Discussion focuses on the contribution of the results to career counseling practice and on the feasibility and validity of retrospective, archival research.     

Predicting diagnosis performance with measures of cognitive style

This study examines the relationship between performance on a context-independent fault diagnosis task and two dimensions of cognitive style: field dependence/independence (D-I) and focusing/scanning (F-S). The effects on diagnosis performance of training and the ability of both dimensions of style jointly to predict fault-finding ability were considered. The results showed that field independents and focusers were superior fault diagnosticians. Training, in the form of verbal feedback messages, was uniformly effective for the D-I dimension although field independents maintained a superior level of performance, over field dependents. In general, for the F-S dimension, training had little effect on either the focusers or scanners. A combination of scores on the F-S and D-I dimensions significantly enhanced the proportion of the variance in testing efficiency that could be accounted for during fault-finding. Finally it is argued that the F-S and D-I dimensions should be recognized as measures of ability, not style. Future research should be directed at identifying between subject differences on fault diagnosis tasks with reference to theories of information processing.     

One Counselor's Intervention in the Aftermath of a Middle School Student's Suicide: A Case Study

The authors discuss the application of Gestalt theory as a means of dealing with the surviving classmates of a student who committed suicide.     

Counseling Child Sexual Abuse Victims: Myths and Realities

The goal of the authors is to (a) create an awareness among counselors about the nature and prevalence of child sexual abuse, (b) examine myths and realities about the topic, and (c) present recommendations for interviewing suspected victims of child sexual abuse.     

Body image,dieting tendencies,and sex role traits in urban black women

The present study examined body image satisfaction, dieting tendencies, and sex role traits among a sample of black urban women. While women who felt “too fat” were more likely than other women to engage in both restrictive and nonrestrictive dieting tendencies, in general, the women's body weight and body image did not compel them to utilize extremely restrictive dieting practices. A sizable proportion of the sample reported body image dissatisfaction and weight concerns, yet this did not appear to exert an overwhelmingly negative influence over other aspects of their lives, such as participation in sports, exercise, and sexual activity. Body image satisfaction and sex role traits were related. Dieting tendencies were also related with body image satisfaction. These findings and implications for further research are discussed.