The Relationship of Clinicians' Values to Therapy Outcome Ratings

The purpose of this study was to explore the interpersonal values of a sample of experienced clinicians. Clinician ratings of hypothetical, value-based therapy outcome vignettes were also investigated. Consistent with previous values research, clinicians showed greater endorsement of independence and lower endorsement of conformity in the Survey of Interpersonal Values. Clinicians' own values were positively correlated with their outcome ratings on the conformity dimension. Discussion is made of factors that may influence whether clinicians reinforce particular values in therapeutic contexts.     

Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Theorists and clinicians have long believed that religious practice may reduce aggression and other destructive behaviors. To date, most evidence for a relationship between religiosity and aggression comes from nonexperimental studies. The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold. First, to examine experimentally whether two religious practices reduce aggressive behavior; second, to determine if specific aspects of religious orientation and spiritual transcendence are related to level of aggression, expressed under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty-two participants assigned to one of three experimental groups (memorize Bible passages, prayer/meditation, or control group) completed a laboratory task of aggression. Participants also completed religious and spirituality instruments, along with self-ratings of aggressive disposition. Results indicated that neither memorization of biblical passages nor meditation reduced aggression. Intrinsic-oriented religiosity participants self-reported lower aggression than extrinsic-oriented participants, but no differences were found on the laboratory task of aggression. Spiritual transcendence showed no behavioral aggression differences .     

Temporal Phase Pluralism*

Some theories of personal identity allow some variation in what it takes for a person to survive from context to context; and sometimes this is determined by the desires of person‐stages or the practices of communities. This leads to problems for decision making in contexts where what is chosen will affect personal identity. ‘Temporal Phase Pluralism’ solves such problems by allowing that there can be a plurality of persons constituted by a sequence of person stages. This illuminates difficult decision making problems when persons have to choose between different life‐altering choices.     

We Are a Religious People; We Are a Vengeful People

We evaluate the relation between religiousness and vengeance using multiple indicators of religiousness (religious orientation and church variables) and behavioral as well as self-reports of vengeance. Results from hierarchical regression analyses revealed that intrinsic religious orientation was negatively and extrinsic religious orientation positively related to self-reports of revenge but not to behavioral indicators of revenge. Only quest orientation was related to behavioral indicators of revenge with those higher on quest setting relatively lower levels of shock following a provocation and giving more money to an obnoxious confederate. Of the church variables, the number of religious activities was negatively and frequency of monetary donations positively related to self-reported vengeance. Only frequency of monetary donations, however, was uniquely related to one of the behavioral indicators of revenge, level of shock, with those who give more frequently also retaliating with higher levels of shock.     

The Effects of Cognitive Restructuring and Decision-Making Training on Career Indecision

The authors designed a cognitive restructuring intervention for individuals having difficulty with career decision making and compared the intervention to a decision skills intervention and a no-treatment control. The cognitive restructuring intervention was more effective than were both decision-making training and the control condition in reducing anxiety about career decision making and in encouraging vocational exploratory behavior. Cognitive restructuring clients also reported more use of the skills they had learned, were more satisfied with the decisions they made, and found the treatment program more useful in making career decisions than did clients in the other two groups.     

THE EFFECTS OF GROUP INTERDEPENDENCE ON SUPERVISOR PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS

A laboratory experiment was designed to test the effect of group member interdependence on supervisory performance ratings. Subjects played the role of supervisors in charge of evaluating members of a three-person work group which was constructed to include two good performers and one poor performer. Supervisors were either told that group members would work closely together (high interdependence) or independently (low interdependence). As hypothesized, supervisors rated the poor performer higher and the good performers lower when the group was portrayed as highly interdependent than when the group members were relatively independent.