Brainwashing in Small Groups,China or America: A Counselor's View

Brainwashing in small groups is an issue of both past and current concern. Some claim that brainwashing is a workable method of mind control, others say it is an impossibility. Harrigan offers the view that brainwashing, as a technique to implant a particular belief system, does work, but that the success of the technique is dependent on the development of intense relationships among the people involved. The article points up similarities between Chinese brainwashing and American religious cultism.     

The Mexican American in Higher Education: Implications for Educators

From a review of literature and an examination of data from the Counseling Services at the University of Texas - El Paso, the authors conclude that Mexican-American students place more emphasis on cooperation and group achievement than on individual achievement, and that the education of Mexican Americans may be enhanced when teachers properly reinforce “successful behavior.” In addition, it seems that problems may arise in using U.S.-based theories of “democratic” leadership styles because the Mexican-American culture places more emphasis on traditional leadership roles.     

Paperwork,Pressure, and Discouragement: Student Attitudes Toward Guidance Services and Implications for the Profession

This article goes beyond the traditional survey of student attitudes toward the school guidance service. The student data are used as a springboard to the broader issues affecting the counseling profession. The focus is on counselor discouragement and what all concerned practitioners can do to revitalize the profession.     

Detecting Alcoholism in Clients

Alcoholism is a primary, progressive, fatal, and treatable disorder. It often goes undetected because of a lack of understanding of how to tell an alcoholic from someone who drinks heavily. This article presents a systematic approach using the most reliable and valid instruments available. The approach will allow a clinician to quickly and accurately diagnose or rule out the presence of alcoholism in a client. Accurate diagnosis will allow proper treatment of this disorder, which affects about 6.7% of all people.     

Cognitive and physiological indices of sexual arousal in homosexual,bisexual, and heterosexual males

Cognitive and physiological indices of sexual arousal were investigated utilizing groups of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual subjects (ten subjects per group) who were presented both homosexual and heterosexual films and slides. The results indicated that both homosexual and heterosexual subjects were able to estimate accurately their degree of erection to the erotic stimuli. Bisexual subjects, however, showed a large discrepancy between the magnitude of actual erection and verbally reported estimates of penile tumescence. In terms of physiological arousal, the erectile responses of the homosexual and bisexual groups were indistinguishable, a finding which questions the existence of male bisexuality as distinct from homosexuality or as a different sexual orientation in males.     

Revitalizing Academic Advisement

Academic advisement has traditionally been thought of as limited to such routine functions as course registration and academic record-keeping. Advisement, however, should be redefined so that developmental functions are central. It would then perform a much-needed service in higher education, for students need assistance in planning academic programs and integrating academic, career, and life goals. Faculty and advisors will need to learn some unaccustomed roles (counselor, advocate, and guardian) as well as some new skills. With appropriate support, however, acceptance of developmental advising will be possible.     

Counseling in a Nigerian University

This study describes and evaluates the first two years of a student counseling center in a Nigerian university. The study revealed that the counseling center was hampered by lack of space, lack of staff, and by the ignorance and suspicions of students and lecturers. The study also indicated that there was a great need to investigate various parameters of the counseling situation to determine their effects in the Nigerian milieu.     

Systematic Counseling: The T-F-A Model for Counselor Intervention

Counselors in educational settings are usually not free to select the kinds of clients and problems with which they may work most effectively. Therefore, counselors must select counseling strategies that maximize the probability of helping all clients achieve personal goals. These strategies may focus primarily on changing how clients think, feel, or act (T-F-A). Combinations of thinking, feeling, and acting strategies are illustrated along with relationships to different counseling theories. Effective counselors need to systematically use varying combinations of T-F-A strategies that will be of maximum value in helping individual clients to change their behavior.     

Frequency,complexity, and clarity as covariates of observer reliability

Factors affecting interobserver agreement (reliability) with a comprehensive coding system in the naturalistic observation of children were examined. Data from 117 pairs of observations on 35 children and their families were examined with respect to reliability and three possible covariates: response frequency, observation complexity, and code definition clarity. Analysis of results strongly supported response frequency as a positive covariate of interobserver agreement. Complexity was found to negatively covary with interobserver agreement. The relationship between code clarity and reliability was in the predicted direction but failed to obtain statistical significance. Implications for observer training and data collection in observational studies are discussed.An earlier version of this article was prepared for presentation at The Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Atlanta, Georgia, December 1977.