Supervision in careers guidance: Empowerment or control?

Like many other professions, careers guidance is currently undergoing rapid and radical change. But the Careers Service is still operating to nationally agreed 'core training objectives' which determine both initial training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part I) and supervisory training (Diploma in Careers Guidance Part II). Recent changes influencing guidance practice and training are outlined, and the predominant mode of current supervision within the Careers Service is identified as 'managerial' in character. This is explained in terms of both the historical development of the service and its funding mechanisms. A model for supervisory practice for the future is presented, identifying three essential elements: organisational commitment, contractual agreement and an explicit framework.     

Gender and illness: implications for family therapy

This paper outlines the importance of considering gender when working with professionals and families dealing with a life-threatening or chronic illness. Clinical vignettes are used to demonstrate the importance of addressing gender to avoid attributing pathology to behaviour that could otherwise be viewed as normal. The particular contribution of the family therapist is highlighted, including suggestions about how systemic interventions can be introduced to enhance the capacity of those involved to deal with the transitions demanded by such illnesses.     

Outcomes in clients transitioning from in-person counselling to telehealth counselling with trainees

The onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid transition of mental health services from in-person to telehealth counselling. Despite the far-reaching impact of this transition, we know little about the impact of this transition on outcomes for clients working with counsellor trainees. The present study utilised longitudinal data collected from a counselling training centre at a major U.S. university to compare client ratings of depression, anxiety and working alliance across 1) in-person services delivered (i.e. pre-pandemic) and 2) telehealth services delivered after the pandemic began (i.e. intra-pandemic) among the same group of clients. Results support our hypothesis that changes in clients' self-reports would be generally equivalent across in-person and telehealth services. Depression and anxiety symptoms decreased, and working alliance tended to increase during both in-person and telehealth care; however, these trends were only statistically significant during telehealth services. Limitations related to sample size (N = 15 clients; up to 17 sessions per client) and low statistical power are discussed. Nonetheless, this study supports the growing body of literature supporting the efficacy of telehealth counselling services. We provide suggestions for future telehealth research and discuss implications for counsellor training.     

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.     

Blindness to background: an inbuilt bias for visual objects

Sixty‐eight 2‐ to 12‐year‐olds and 30 adults were shown colorful displays on a touchscreen monitor and trained to point to the location of a named color. Participants located targets near‐perfectly when presented with four abutting colored patches. When presented with three colored patches on a colored background, toddlers failed to locate targets in the background. Eye tracking demonstrated that the effect was partially mediated by a tendency not to fixate the background. However, the effect was abolished when the targets were named as nouns, whilst the change to nouns had little impact on eye movement patterns. Our results imply a powerful, inbuilt tendency to attend to objects, which may slow the development of color concepts and acquisition of color words. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/TKO1BPeAiOI . [Correction added on 27 January 2017, after first online publication: The video abstract link was added.]     

Relational memory during infancy: evidence from eye tracking

Here we report evidence from a new eye‐tracking measure of relational memory that suggests that 9‐month‐old infants can encode memories in terms of the relations among items, a function putatively subserved by the hippocampus. Infants learned about the association between faces that were superimposed on unique scenic backgrounds. During test trials, infants were shown three faces presented on a familiar scene. All three faces were equally familiar; however, one had been presented with the test background earlier. Visual behavior was recorded continuously using a TOBII eye tracker. Infants looked preferentially at the face that matched the test background very early in the trial; however, the time course of this preferential looking effect varied as a function of delay. These results suggest that by 9 months of age infants can form memories that represent the relations among items and maintain them over short delays.     

The Family Life and Adjustment of Hmong American Sons and Daughters

We examined gender differences in intergenerational family conflict and its associations with psychological and academic adjustment using a United States sample of 121 Hmong American first-year college students. Hmong women and men reported similar levels of family conflict. Family conflict was related to psychological distress, above and beyond neuroticism. Gender moderated the relationship between family conflict and substance usage and academic performance. For Hmong college men, higher family conflict was associated with lower rates of smoking and higher rates of completing the first year of college. For Hmong college women, higher family conflict was associated with greater likelihood of alcohol consumption in their lifetime.     

Statistical language learning: mechanisms and constraints

What types of mechanisms underlie the acquisition of human language? Recent evidence suggests that learners, including infants, can use statistical properties of linguistic input to discover structure, including sound patterns, words, and the beginnings of grammar. These abilities appear to be both powerful and constrained, such that some statistical patterns are more readily detected and used than others. Implications for the structure of human languages are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Religion, Spirituality, Psychological Adjustment, and Quality of Life Among People with Multiple Sclerosis

The present research was comprised of two studies that aimed to explore the role of religious and spiritual variables in the psychological adjustment and quality of life of people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In study 1, religious behavior and objective levels of spirituality and religiosity were not significantly related to psychological adjustment or quality of life among people with MS. Positive religious coping was negatively related to psychological adjustment and quality of life. In study 2, Intrinsic religious orientation and Quest religious orientation were related to poor psychological adjustment. Implications of the present research for people with MS and other chronic illnesses are discussed.     

Correlation between maternal stress and children's stress

Mothers (N = 168, M age = 37.0 yr., SD = 4.6) responded to a questionnaire of scales measuring sources of stress and symptoms of stress within themselves, and symptoms of stress in their 5-8-yr.-old children (61 girls, 98 boys; M age = 7.3 yr., SD = 1.0). Scores on all scales intercorrelated significantly, indicating a relationship between maternal stress and stress of the child. Both types of stress also correlated with the frequency of punishment of the child. Both maternal stress and frequency of punishment predicted stress symptoms in the children, maternal stress being a somewhat stronger predictor.