HIV counselling in developing countries: the link from individual to community counselling for support and change

Counselling in developing countries can extend from individual to family and community, can be implemented as a means of facilitating changes or support, and in the community context can be used to measure as well as sustain behaviour change. Contrasts between developed and developing countries include the capacity of communities in developing countries to acknowledge loss and find hope. Community involvement in counselling, and capacity for confidential sharing, are building blocks for strategic participatory response to AIDS and HIV, that can link inclusive care to prevention by community-determined change in attitudes, behaviours and environment. The premise that there can be a positive link from the individual to the community through confidential sharing and that it can give rise to prevention through counselling the community is illustrated by reference to programme examples from Brazil, Sri Lanka, North-Eastern India, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Community hope exists through recognition of loss, inclusion of suffering people, and capacity and action for change. One transferable tool for community development is community counselling in relation to HIV and AIDS. A visible and expected outcome is increased community capacity to care and hope.     

Category-Based and Feature-Based Cognitive Processes: The Role of Unfavorable Information1

Recent research on selection decisions suggests that favorable features (e.g., attractive physical features or positively-evaluated personality traits) can enhance ratings of applicant suitability, but little research has examined the impact of unfavorable features. Theories of person perception distinguish between two information processing strategies: category-based and feature-based. We predicted that unfavorable features would influence selection decisions only when raters used feature-based processing strategies. Results suggest that applicant features' prototypicality and favorability can compensate for one another, with applicants' negative features resulting in a disadvantage only when the applicant is perceived as nonprototypical.     

Hard-to-manage preschool boys: Externalizing behavior,social competence,and family context at two-year followup

Boys, identified as hard to manage in preschool, were followed up 2 years after initial assessment. Mothers, fathers, and teachers continued to rate hard-to-manage boys as having more problems with attention and impulse control, and as more oppositional, than comparison boys who had been problem-free at intake; problem boys also were rated as less socially competent by all three informants. Differences in severity were apparent as a function of initial referral source. Boys identified as showing significant problems by at least two informants (28% of the problem boys) were especially low in social competence and their mothers reported more symptoms of depression and parenting stress. Family adversity, lower IQ, and severity of symptoms at intake discriminated boys with continuing problems from those with less serious difficulties at followup. Control boys with potentially emerging problems were characterized by more family problems than the remaining control boys. Implications for the development of problems in young children are discussed.The research reported in this paper was supported by NIMH grant No. R01 32735. Special appreciation is expressed to the parents, children, and teachers who cooperated in this work. Thanks are due to the many graduate students and research staff who worked on this project, including Clea Angell, Linda Ewing, Clare Flanagan, Patricia Huszar, Andrea Lurier, Cynthia March, Sarah McAuliffe, Teri Meyers, Elizabeth Pierce, and Emily Szumowski.     

Work,stress, and well-being

Work-related stress may lead to injuries and psychological disorders. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has identified psychological disorders as one of the ten leading work-related diseases and injuries during the 1980s (Sauter, Murphy, & Hurrell, 1990). This article sets out a framework, strategy, and recommendations for enhancing stress management skills and the psychological well-being of individuals in occupational environments. Central to the strategy are attention to work design variables, such as control, uncertainty, conflict, and task demands, surveillance of psychological disorders in the workplace, education of managers and workers concerning psychological well-being and stress in the workplace, and treatment of individuals in distress.     

Role of the Leader in Therapy Groups Conducted With Illicit Drug Abusers: How Directive Does the Leader Have to Be?

A 17-hour marathon group was conducted in a residential treatment center established for inmates in a correctional setting in the southeastern United States. The Hill Interaction Matrix (HIM-G; Hill, 1965) was used to measure the types of leader activity and the types of member activity during portions of each hour of the group activity. It was found that when the group was most therapeutic, there was a relationship between the therapists' actions and behaviors and the types of issues that were discussed in the group. The results that were found do not agree with some of the established drug and alcohol abuse literature.     

How students invest their time outside of school: Effects on school-related outcomes

The purpose of this study is to examine the degree towhich various kinds of out-of-school activitiesadolescents participate in influence their schoolengagement, achievement, and perceptions of their lifechances. The conceptual framework outlined by theauthors suggests personal investments students makeoutside of school in meaningful, structured activitiesand with the help and guidance of adults serving asrole models have significant effects on variouseducational outcomes. To that end, the authors foundsome evidence suggesting that student participation instructured activities and religious activities andtime spent interacting with adults during tenth gradeappear to have positive and significant effects onvarious educational outcomes by Grade 12. Conversely,time spent hanging out with peers was consistentlynegatively associated with educational outcomes in thestudy, with few exceptions. The effects of time spentworking for pay and time spent alone were somewhatinconsistent throughout the analysis but this may bedue to methodological problems within the measures. The result of the analysis has implications forafter-school and summer school policies and programs. The authors discuss these implications and suggestfurther study of the effects of school context, familyinfluence, and the availability of community resourceson students' personal investments.     

Effects of body fat on weight concerns, dating, and sexual activity: a longitudinal analysis of black and white adolescent girls.

Using data from a 2-year longitudinal study of 200 Black and White adolescent girls (mean age was 13.8 years at study entry), the authors investigated the implications of differences in body fat for dating and sexual activity and the implications of heterosexual activity for dieting and weight concerns. Among White girls, and Black girls with college-educated mothers, more body fat was associated with a lower probability of dating, even among nonobese girls. However, dating and sexual experience were unrelated to subsequent dieting and weight concerns. For both Blacks and Whites, body fat was the key determinant of dieting, weight dissatisfaction, and eating concerns. These findings indicate that adolescent girls' concerns about weight have a basis in real experiential differences, and efforts to promote healthy attitudes and eating habits may be more effective if the experiential implications of weight differences are taken into account.     

Victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS among college students.

The victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS was examined in relation to gender, fraternity-sorority affiliation, classification (freshmen vs. others), religion (Catholic vs. others), and academic major (business college vs. others) in a survey of 818 students at a midwestern state university in the United States. Desired social distance from gay men and lesbians, the intervening variable in these relations, significantly mediated the indirect effect of fraternity-sorority affiliation, classification, and gender on the victim-blaming tendency. Gender and desired social distance were found to be significant direct determinants of the victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS. The study suggests that attitudes toward gay men and lesbians must change if attitudes toward people with AIDS are to change.     

The condition of affects and aspirations in adult depression

A commentary by a noted television anchorman in the book ON THE EDGE OF DARKNESS about this depression contains familiar themes. These will be cited, followed by a consideration of traditional psychoanalytic theories of depression. Broadening the contemporary theoretical domain, self-psychology provides useful understandings of how narcissistic aspirations along with failed childhood affect attunement become central features of depression. Treatment implications are considered along with an application of theory to a pastoral counseling case. Such a case demonstrates the role and interplay of religious ideation, emergent narcissistic aspirations and affects as they relate to a client's depression.The author dedicates this article to Terry Lyon, Diplomate, A.A.P.C., who was a sustaining presence during a crucial phase of my self-searching and awakening. The author also wishes to express appreciation for the counsel of Wes Brun and colleagues at the Samaritan Counseling Center.