Spirituality and the Current Adjustment of Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

We explore the role of spirituality in the current adjustment of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). A sample of 101 men and women survivors of CSA completed questionnaires on spirituality (relationship with God or higher power), person factors (blame attributions, self-acceptance, hope), and current adjustment (mood, personal growth, resolution of the abuse). Results indicated that relationship with a benevolent God or higher power is related to the experience of less negative mood and a greater sense of personal growth and resolution of the abuse. Also, relationship with a higher power is related to other person factors such as self-acceptance and hope. Relationship with a benevolent God appears to have an indirect link to depressive mood and resolution of abuse through the mediating pathways of hope and self-acceptance. In contrast, relationship with God appears to have a more direct association to the outcome of personal growth for these survivors .     

Alzheimer's Disease: The Death of the Disease

Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia, affects middle-age and older adults. The disease is becoming more evident because of growing numbers of older people and better diagnosis and detection methods. The author describes the behavioral and physical symptoms of the disease as well as specific suggestions for care of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Counselors can use this article to provide family members and other persons dealing with Alzheimer's disease with information and practical advice about dealing with the changes occurring in the patient.     

Constructing Realities: An Art of Lenses

In this essay I attempt to map the dimensions of my own move away from a cybernetic-biologic analogy for "family-systems" therapy. Central to this shift has been social construction theory augmented by two other lenses: a second-order view, and a sensitivity to gender. These conceptual tools have helped me to distance myself from my previous therapeutic stance and to envision a very different model, one that is less strategic and instrumental, and more collaborative and unconcealed.     

Is empathy ear-to-ear or face-to-face?

If counselor and counselee cannot see each other, is the quality of their relationship affected? This study compares the empathy ratings of trained and untrained counselors in three different situations: counseling by telephone, in a confessional-type arrangement, and face-to-face. Although trained counselors scored significantly higher empathic understanding ratings than untrained counselors, there was little difference among the ratings for the three methods used.     

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF LEADER REWARD BEHAVIOR, SUBORDINATE EXPECTANCIES, AND SATISFACTION

Positive and punitive leader reward behavior and their longitudinal relationships with subordinate expectancies and satisfaction were studied in a large manufacturing organization. Longitudinal data were collected approximately one year apart from 132 managerial, engineering and supervisory employees. Cross-lagged correlations suggested that positive leader reward behavior was causally related to higher effort-to-performance expectancy, as well as higher satisfaction with work, opportunities for promotion and overall satisfaction. Punitive leader reward behavior was suggested to be causally related to lower satisfaction with work, supervision and overall satisfaction. Implications were discussed for the use of leader reward behavior and for future research.     

The Impact of Balanced Risk–Benefit Information and Initial Attitudes on Post‐Information Attitudes1

In a realistic social context, people are confronted with both positive and negative information, yet research on this topic is relatively scarce. We present 2 studies examining the role of initial attitudes on the impact of one‐sided vs. balanced positive and negative information on attitudes toward food production methods. The first experiment demonstrated that one‐sided information influenced post‐information attitudes congruent to the direction of the message content. The second experiment showed that the effect of balanced information on post‐information attitudes may depend on initial attitudes. These results demonstrate that negativity effects are dominant for people with initial positive attitudes, but change into positivity effects for people with initial negative attitudes. Implications for communicating both positive and negative information are discussed.