Using a Multicultural Framework to Assess Supervisees' Perceptions of Culturally Competent Supervision

Multicultural competency has been identified as essential to effective and ethical practice, particularly in the area of trainee supervision. Yet little is known about how multicultural issues are addressed in the supervision process. Counseling and psychology trainees who indicated a high degree of interest in multicultural issues were interviewed about their supervisory experiences to assess their perceptions of culturally competent supervision. Constant comparative methodology was used to analyze the data. Limitations and implications for research are discussed.     

Interactive Effects of Chronic Health Conditions And Financial Hardship On Episodic Memory Among Older Blacks: Findings From The Health And Retirement Study

Previous research links chronic health conditions and financial hardship to cognitive outcomes among older Blacks. However, few studies have explored the moderating effect of financial hardship on chronic disease burden and specific cognitive domains. This study examined whether financial hardship (as measured by difficulty paying monthly bills) modifies the impact of self-reported chronic health conditions (e.g., diabetes, stroke) on episodic memory among 871 older Blacks (50+ years) in the 2006 Health and Retirement Study . Financial hardship modified the association between chronic disease burden and episodic memory performance such that individuals who reported very little difficulty paying their monthly bills had significantly lower memory scores at high levels of disease burden compared to those reporting high financial difficulty after controlling for age, gender and education (F 2, 49 = 5.03, p = .010). This cross-sectional study suggests that both financial and physical wellbeing may have joint effects on cognitive health in older Blacks.     

Idea‐Generation in Naturally Occurring Contexts

This study examined naturally occurring idea‐generation in organizational groups completing an extended problem‐solving task. Meetings held by 11 groups engaged in a quality improvement process in a governmental agency were analyzed to identify 37 idea‐generation episodes. All groups had available a group decision support system (GDSS), although some opted not to use it. Across all groups, idea productivity was low though fairly efficient, but GDSS‐supported idea‐generation produced significantly fewer ideas. In general, idea‐generation as a process appears to be more complex than has been thought; observed deviations from idealized idea‐generation norms were not necessarily dysfunctional. The findings encourage reassessment of the assumptions underlying existing normative models of idea‐generation.