Accreditation Standards for University and College Counseling Centers

The accreditation standards outlined in the article are used by the International Association of Counseling Services, Inc., as the basis for the formal accreditation of college and university counseling programs throughout the United States and Canada. They reflect the program elements and practice standards that are deemed essential in a counseling center that provides high-quality services to students.     

Interpersonal Correlates of Narcissism in Adolescents

Researchers investigated the relationship between measures of interpersonal behavior and narcissism. Eight octant measures of interpersonal behavior were constructed, and validity and reliability estimates were obtained. High school and junior high school students (N = 333) completed five measures of narcissistic vulnerability, eight octant measures of interpersonal behavior, and a measure of social desirability. Canonical correlational analysis indicated a specific pattern of interpersonal behaviors for individuals with differing levels and types of narcissistic vulnerability. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that scores on several of the scales were found to differ significantly by sex and by treatment for emotional, behavioral, or educational difficulties. Implications for counseling are considered.     

Research utilization: The state of the art

As a field of study, “research utilization” is at a turning point. Despite an accumulation of replicable findings, robust constructs, even a “soft technology” for bridging the gap between theory and practice, we are still largely in the situation of the distance between social problems of, let us say, conflict or inequality and the ability of social science to provide credible, reliable and usable solutions. At the same time, the initial paradigms, suffering from hyperrationalism, have given way to more transactional ones, and have been shaken by the tenets of postmodernism. Shaken, but not undone, as “middle-level” constructs emerge, ones that appear to link the research community with a variety of professional communities in more meaningful and durable ways. Michael Huberman has been Visiting Professor of Education at Harvard University since 1991, where he teaches research methodologies and conducts research on knowledge dissemination. He is also Senior Research Associate at the Network, Inc.     

The perceptual organization of dot lattices

Bravais (1850/1949) demonstrated that there are five types of periodic dot patterns (or lattices): oblique, rectangular, centered rectangular, square, and hexagonal. Gestalt psychologists studied grouping by proximity in rectangular and square dot patterns. In the first part of the present paper, I (1) describe the geometry of the five types of lattices, and (2) explain why, for the study of perception, centered rectangular lattices must be divided into two classes (centered rectangular andrhombic). I also show how all lattices can be located in a two-dimensional space. In the second part of the paper, I show how the geometry of these lattices determines their grouping and their multistability. I introduce the notion ofdegree of instability and explain how to order lattices from most stable to least stable (hexagonal). In the third part of the paper, I explore the effect of replacing the dots in a lattice with less symmetric motifs, thus creating wallpaper patterns. When a dot pattern is turned into a wallpaper pattern, its perceptual organization can be altered radically, overcoming grouping by proximity. I conclude the paper with an introduction to the implications of motif selection and placement for the perception of the ensuing patterns.     

Formulation of a behavior system for sexual conditioning

Empirical and conceptual developments that led to the formulation of a behavior system for the sexual conditioning of male Japanese quail are described. Initial efforts concentrated on conditioning with localized conditioned stimuli and on identifying behavioral indices of conditioning. Later, learning about species-typical cues and about contextual cues was also explored, and it became evident that different types of cues control different aspects of sexual behavior. The results were used to formulate a behavior system containing both response and stimulus dimensions. In this system, contextual cues and local cues are assumed to elicit only general search behavior unconditionally. In contrast, unconditioned responses to species-typical cues of a female quail include general search, focal search, and copulatory behavior. General search, focal search, and copulatory behavior can become conditioned to local cues. Conditioning can also modify focal search behavior elicited by species-typical cues and can result in various modulatory influences between different types of stimuli. The behavior system approach provides a framework for organizing the diverse sexual conditioning effects and suggests future directions for investigation.     

Induced delivery of anencephalic fetuses: a response to James L. Walsh and Moira M. McQueen

James Walsh and Moira McQueen accurately conclude that the early delivery of anencephalic fetuses is morally acceptable, but the reasoning they use to reach that conclusion is flawed. First, the principle of double effect does not require a weighing of good and evil, but rather seeks a sufficient reason for tolerating the physical evil indirectly intended. Second, the principle of double effect requires a clear distinction between physical and moral causality. Third, the Catholic moral tradition will not admit direct and intended killing of the innocent. Rather, early delivery of anencephalic fetuses is permissible because of the pathology associated with delivery of anencephalic fetuses at full term. Thus, the early delivery of an anencephalic infant is acceptable if the purpose of the moral act is avoiding a pathological condition on the part of the mother.     

Neurobehavioral deficits,adolescent traumatic brain injury,and transition to college

Outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been frequently evaluated for adults, although there has been minimal research on adolescents with TBI. It has been argued that TBI sequelae may be more difficult for adolescents to adjust to given developmental changes in physical (puberty), interpersonal (self-concept), and environmental domains (transition to college). In addition, it is commonly acknowledged that moderator variables such as psychiatric history, family functioning, substance use, and sexuality impact functional outcome following TBI, although it is often difficult to objectively evaluate these variables. The current study examined relationships among TBI-related deficits, moderator variables, and academic outcomes for six adolescents transitioning to college. The findings suggest that it may not be appropriate to predict functional outcome based solely on objective neuropsychological results. However, moderator variables appear to have a more direct relationship with outcome, depending on the moderator variable and the individual.     

Simulation of complex survival distributions

This paper describes a method for generating sample survival distributions from a hypothetical population, as would be required for running Monte Carlo simulations. The method is based on the concept of a quincunx. Cases are entered into a life table and allowed to drop out or die during each interval with probabilities that mirror the hypothetical population. By repeating this process many times and tracking the results, the researcher is able to study the sampling distribution of effect size indices and test statistics, and can generate empirical estimates of power and precision for planned studies. Unlike other methods that are commonly used for this purpose, the model proposed here allows the researcher to define a population in which the hazard rates and/or attrition rates vary substantially from one time point to the next, as may be the case in clinical trials or studies of processing times. The method requires less than 100 lines of code and runs some 10,000 simulations per hour on a microcomputer.     

Sensorimotor synchronization: Motor responses to pseudoregular auditory patterns

Musically trained and untrained subjects (N=30) were asked to synchronize their finger tapping with stimuli in auditory patterns. Each pattern comprised six successive tonal stimuli of the same duration, the first of which was accented by a different frequency. The duration of interstimulus onset intervals (ISIs) gradually increased or decreased in constant steps toward the end of the patterns. Four values of such steps were used in different trials: 20, 30, 45, and 60 msec. Various time-control mechanisms are hypothesized as being simultaneously responsible for subjects’ incorrect reproduction of the internal temporal ratios of the stimulus patterns. The mechanism of assimilation (of a central tendency) led subjects to enforce a regular (isochronous) structure on the patterns. The influence of other time-control mechanisms (distinction, subjective expression of an accent, sequential transfer) was expressed mainly in differences between intertap onset intervals (ITIs) and the corresponding ISIs at the beginning of the patterns. The duration of the first two ITIs was in the majority of the trials in an inverse ratio to the ratio of the respective ISIs. The distortions resulting from the timing mechanisms concerned were more pronounced in the performance of nonmusicians than in that of musicians.     

On the scaling of visual space from motion—in response to Pizlo and Salacfa-Golyska

Pizlo and Salack-Golyska (1994) have raised an important question about the validity of the interpretation of experiments reported by Lappin and Love (1992)—based on the fact that alternative cues in the image plane might have supported the shape discriminations in those experiments. The meaning of the hypothesis that visual space may be scaled by congruence under motion is clarified, pertinent evidence is reviewed, and new experimental evidence is reported We conclude that visual space can be metrically scaled by congruence of moving shapes.