Spirituality and Counselor Competence: A National Survey of American Counseling Association Members

A random sample of 505 American Counseling Association (ACA) members completed a questionnaire that evaluated respondents' ratings of the importance of 9 competencies developed at the Summit on Spirituality (G. Miller, 1999; “Summit Results,” 1995) meetings to effectively address spiritual and religious issues in counseling practice. Results suggest that, in general, ACA members strongly support the importance of the competencies for effective counseling practice.     

Enhancing children's event recall after long delays

The effects of context reinstatement as means of enhancing 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children's event memory in repeated interviews after a 6‐month delay were examined. Children were interviewed immediately after the event (baseline interview) and twice at a 6‐month delay, with 24 hours between interviews. The first 6‐month interview was conducted in a perfect‐context reinstatement (n = 15), imperfect‐context reinstatement (n = 16), or no‐context reinstatement (n = 15) condition. The second 6‐month interview was conducted 24 hours later with no‐context reinstatement for all children. Context reinstatement attenuated the effects of delay on recall. The accuracy of the details reported was greater in the perfect‐context compared to the imperfect‐context and no‐context conditions. Details repeated between the immediate‐baseline interview and in the first 6‐month interview were more accurate than details repeated between the first and second 6‐month interview. There was no increase in recall (hypermnesia) across the first and second 6‐month interviews in any condition. Practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Single‐limit interval estimates as reference points

People often describe uncertain quantities by suggesting a lower or upper limit of an uncertainty interval, rather than the complete range. Five studies are reported, which demonstrate how interval limits function as provisional reference points (PRP), conferring evaluative meanings to the target objects, by suggesting downward or upward comparisons. Thus, a price above X appears expensive, whereas a price below Y appears cheap, even when Y > X. This can give rise to framing effects: a purchase can appear to be recommended or advised against, and a seller can appear as optimistic or pessimistic, and, more generally, an estimate can indicate abundance or scarcity, depending upon which boundary (upper or lower) that is selected. Furthermore, inclusive lower bounds (minimum, at least) and upper bounds (maximum, at most) differ from exclusive lower (more than, above) and upper bounds (less than, below), by suggesting possible (likely) rather than implausible (unlikely) values. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Job Challenge and Organizational Identification in Enhancing Creative Behavior among Employees in the Workplace

Organizations recognize the importance of creative employees and constantly explore ways to enhance their employees' creative behavior. Creativity research has directed substantial efforts to understanding how work environment fosters creativity. Yet, this research has paid little attention to the importance of specific characteristics of the work environment and organizational identification in augmenting creative behavior in employees at work. The present study examines the influence of job challenge on employees' creative behavior, arguing that organizational identification plays a mediating role in this relationship. The results show that organizational identification mediates the relationship between job challenge and employees' creative behavior.     

Semantic priming effects from single words in a lexical decision task

The present research examines the semantic priming effects of a centrally presented single prime word to which participants were instructed to either "attend and remember" or "ignore". The prime word was followed by a central probe target on which the participants made a lexical decision task. The main variables manipulated across experiments were prime duration (50 or 100 ms), the presence or absence of a mask following the prime, and the presence (or absence) and type of distractor stimulus (random set of consonants or pseudowords) on the probe display. There was a consistent interaction between the instructions and the semantic priming effects. Relative to the "attend and remember" instruction, an "ignore" instruction produced reduced positive priming from single primes presented for 100 ms, irrespective of the presence or absence of a prime mask, and regardless of whether the probe target was presented with or without distractors. Additionally, reliable negative priming was found from ignored primes presented for briefer durations (50 ms) and immediately followed by a mask. Methodological and theoretical implications of the present findings for the extant negative priming literature are discussed.     

Approach‐Avoidance Motivation and the Use of Affect as Information

Individuals often rely on their affect for information. However, positive or negative affect may not be informative for individuals who are more prone to feel affect of this particular valence in general, unless they chronically monitor their internal states. A series of studies demonstrates that differences in individuals’ internal versus external focus of attention and in trait affective valence associated with their approach versus avoidance motivation determine reliance on affect as information. Specifically, our findings show that while positive affect is used as an input in product satisfaction judgments regardless of individuals’ approach versus avoidance motivation, negative affect is used only by individuals with a predominant approach motivation.     

An evaluation of in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to women with mental retardation

The current study evaluated a behavioral skills training (BST) program in combination with in situ training to teach sexual abuse prevention skills to five women with mild to moderate mental retardation. In situ assessments were conducted following BST and in situ training sessions were conducted for those who were unable to demonstrate the skills in the natural setting. The results showed that generalization of the safety skills to the natural setting occurred for three of the five participants following one to two in situ training sessions. One participant required 12 in situ training sessions and three booster training sessions to reach criterion level. Three of four participants assessed 1 month following training maintained the skills. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distress in response to emotional and sexual infidelity: evidence of evolved gender differences in Spanish students

The authors studied gender differences in response to hypothetical infidelity in Spanish students. Using a forced-choice methodology, the authors asked a sample of 266 participants to indicate which kind of infidelity would be more distressing: emotional or sexual. Men were significantly more distressed by sexual infidelity than were women, and women were significantly more distressed by emotional infidelity than were men. Results supported the hypothesis that particular infidelity types, which resemble adaptive problems that human beings faced in the past, contribute to the psychology of jealousy. The results are consistent with previous cross-cultural research.