White Counselor Self-Awareness: A Prerequisite for Developing Multicultural Competence

This review of the literature examines White counselor self-awareness as an important variable in developing multicultural competence. The self-dimension discussed in this article includes worldview, cultural values, and racial identity. It is suggested that counselor self-awareness is a prerequisite to developing multicultural competence and that an in-depth understanding of these factors may improve the delivery of mental health services to culturally diverse client populations.     

Effects of optical pitch on oculomotor control and the perception of target elevation

In two experiments, we used an ISCAN infrared video system to examine the influence of a pitched visual array on gaze elevation and on judgments of visually perceived eye level. In Experiment 1, subjects attempted to direct their gaze to arelaxed or to ahorizontal orientation while they were seated in a room whose walls were pitched at various angles with respect to gravity. Gaze elevation was biased in the direction in which the room was pitched. In Experiment 2, subjects looked into a small box that was pitched at various angles while they attempted simply to direct their gaze alone, or to direct their gaze and place a visual target at their apparent horizon. Both gaze elevation and target settings varied systematically with the pitch orientation of the box. Our results suggest that under these conditions, an optostatic response, of which the subject is unaware, is responsible for the changes in both gaze elevation and judgments of target elevation.     

USE OF COMPONENT ANALYSES TO IDENTIFY ACTIVE VARIABLES IN TREATMENT PACKAGES FOR CHILDREN WITH FEEDING DISORDERS

We evaluated the separate components in treatment packages for food refusal of 4 young children. First, treatment packages were implemented until food acceptance improved. Next, a component analysis was conducted within a multielement or reversal design to identify the active components that facilitated food acceptance. The results indicated that escape extinction was always identified as an active variable when assessed; however, other variables, including positive reinforcement and noncontingent play, were also identified as active variables for 2 of the children. The results suggest that the component analysis was useful for identifying variables that affected food acceptance.     

Gender bias in children's perceptions of personality traits

Social psychologists have demonstrated that when people are divided into social categories, even ones created arbitrarily, they often display favoritism for members of their own group. The current study used an intergroup perspective on gender to examine sex differences in children's perceptions of personality traits. 167 eight- to ten-year-olds were asked to evaluate 48 traits in terms of either their masculinity versus femininity or their positivity versus negativity. As predicted, children's ratings reflected strong biases favoring their own sex. This ingroup favoritism occurred not because boys and girls preferred traits traditionally associated with their sex. In fact, sex differences on the negativity—positivity ratings were virtually absent. Instead, boys and girls had differing views of the masculinity or femininity of personality traits, assigning more positive and fewer negative traits to their own sex than to the other. Implications for gender segregation and for the development of stereotyping are discussed.I would like to thank Eleanor Maccoby and Lisa Serbin for their feedback on an earlier draft of the paper.     

Increased choice of female phonetic attributes in first names

The phonetic gender score is a new quantitative scale that was applied to the spoken sounds of first names. Popular names of females have predominantly positive scores, and popular names of males have predominantly negative scores. Mean phonetic gender scores were higher in 1990 than in 1960 for the 25 most frequent names given to females and males born in Pennsylvania. Choices of names were more diverse for females than males in both years and in 1990 than 1960 for both genders. The increased choice in 1990 of attributes associated with females may indicate greater acceptance of female characteristics in 1990 than in 1960. In 1990 the most numerous racial minority, African Americans, constituted 15% of the births but only 5% of the females and 7% of the males given the 25 most frequent names.