Wellness,Professional Quality of Life,and Career‐Sustaining Behaviors: What Keeps Us Well?

A sample of 506 professional counselors who were members of the American Counseling Association completed measures of professional quality of life, career‐sustaining behaviors (CSBs), and wellness. Significant differences were found both within the sample based on caseload characteristics and between the participants and available norm groups. Counselors with high wellness scores engaged in more CSBs and reported higher positive professional quality of life factors (compassion satisfaction). Implications for counselors, counselor training, and research are discussed.     

A neural model of hippocampal–striatal interactions in associative learning and transfer generalization in various neurological and psychiatric patients

Building on our previous neurocomputational models of basal ganglia and hippocampal region function (and their modulation by dopamine and acetylcholine, respectively), we show here how an integration of these models can inform our understanding of the interaction between the basal ganglia and hippocampal region in associative learning and transfer generalization across various patient populations. As a common test bed for exploring interactions between these brain regions and neuromodulators, we focus on the acquired equivalence task, an associative learning paradigm in which stimuli that have been associated with the same outcome acquire a functional similarity such that subsequent generalization between these stimuli increases. This task has been used to test cognitive dysfunction in various patient populations with damages to the hippocampal region and basal ganglia, including studies of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), schizophrenia, basal forebrain amnesia, and hippocampal atrophy. Simulation results show that damage to the hippocampal region—as in patients with hippocampal atrophy (HA), hypoxia, mild Alzheimer’s (AD), or schizophrenia—leads to intact associative learning but impaired transfer generalization performance. Moreover, the model demonstrates how PD and anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm—two very different brain disorders that affect different neural mechanisms—can have similar effects on acquired equivalence performance. In particular, the model shows that simulating a loss of dopamine function in the basal ganglia module (as in PD) leads to slow acquisition learning but intact transfer generalization. Similarly, the model shows that simulating the loss of acetylcholine in the hippocampal region (as in ACoA aneurysm) also results in slower acquisition learning. We argue from this that changes in associative learning of stimulus–action pathways (in the basal ganglia) or changes in the learning of stimulus representations (in the hippocampal region) can have similar functional effects.     

Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Preparation: A Developmental,Wellness Approach

Recent surveys of the general public and of counseling professionals suggest the pervasive importance of spirituality in the lives of all individuals. Yet, the infusion of spirituality in counselor preparation programs continues to be a concern. Incorporating spirituality within a wellness paradigm can help counselors and counselor educators value and address spirituality as an integral component of optimum human functioning. By distinguishing between religiosity and spirituality and operationally conceptualizing spirituality as a life span developmental phenomenon that is essential for achieving wellness, counselor educators can more readily incorporate spiritual issues within the philosophy of the counseling profession.     

Children of Incarcerated Mothers and Their Caregivers: Factors Affecting the Quality of Their Relationship

We examined the quality of the relationship between children of incarcerated mothers and their kinship caregivers, to investigate whether perceived levels of warmth and acceptance were related to assessments of the children's behaviors. The sample consisted of 69 children (6 to 12 years) with currently incarcerated mothers who attended a recreational summer camp, and 25 of their caregivers. Children who felt lower levels of warmth and acceptance from their caregivers self-reported greater internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Caregivers' warmth and acceptance toward the children was lower when they assessed the children's behavior as difficult and the caregivers' parenting stress was high.     

Predictors of Partner Engagement in PTSD Treatment

A telephone survey was conducted to identify predictors of treatment engagement in 83 cohabitating female partners of 83 Vietnam theater veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The survey assessed veterans for their trauma history and PTSD symptoms. Partners were assessed for caregiver burden, patient–partner involvement, PTSD treatment engagement, self-efficacy relating to PTSD, beliefs about benefits of PTSD treatment, and PTSD treatment barriers. Significant predictors of partner PTSD treatment engagement were the couple’s income, patient–partner involvement, and partner caregiver burden. These findings have implications for family interventions that may increase partner PTSD treatment engagement and improve PTSD treatment outcome.     

Aggression and psychopathology in adolescents with a preference for violent electronic games

Associations between a preference for violent electronic games and adolescents’ self‐perceptions of problem behaviors and emotions were examined. It was predicted that a preference for violent games would be associated with negative externalizing characteristics, in particular aggressive emotions and behaviors, on the Youth Self‐Report (YSR), a standardized self‐report measure of adolescent problem behaviors. Thirty‐two 11‐ through 15‐year‐olds (17 girls) listed and categorized favorite electronic games into one of six predetermined categories and completed the YSR. MANOVA revealed significant relationships between a preference for violent games and the Thought Problems subscale (P < .01) and YSR Total Score (P < .05), with trends noted for the Internalizing (P < .06) and Anxious‐Depressed (P < .08) subscales. Expected relationships with externalizing behaviors, including aggression, were not found. However, across all YSR subscales, children with higher preference for violent games had more clinically significant elevations than those with low preference for violent games. On the Total Problems subscale, of the eight children receiving scores in the clinically significant range, six were in the High preference group (three boys and three girls). The failure to find the expected relationships between a preference for violent games and aggressive, externalizing behaviors is puzzling. It is possible that individuals with a preference for violent games may have high exposure to all forms of media violence. Their perceptions of their own behavior, in comparison, may not seem sufficiently aggressive to justify endorsement of problems in this area. Or, playing violent electronic games may promote a disconnection between the emotions normally associated with violence and violent acts. These explanations are consistent with a desensitization model where exposure to media violence decreases sensitivity to aggression. Aggr. Behav. 28:134–144, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Advocacy for Counseling and Counselors: A Professional Imperative

Although advocacy both for clients and for the profession is essential for the future of counseling and counselors, advocacy for the profession has received little systematic attention. A national plan for advocacy is needed, the effectiveness of which depends on achieving consensus concerning professional identity, promoting a positive public image, establishing effective intraprofessional and interprofessional collaboration, and obtaining the participation of each counselor in advocacy activities. Specific professional advocacy skills and techniques are described.     

Assessment of Nicotine Dependence Among Substance Abusing Adolescent Smokers: A Comparison of the DSM-IV Criteria and the Modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire

Nicotine dependence has been found to be a significant factor in adolescent smoking persistence. However, measures of this construct are primarily adult-derived, limiting their utility as bases for characterizing nicotine dependence and formulating youth intervention strategies. This issue is of particular importance among substance abusing youth who have substantially higher rates of cigarette smoking than do adolescents in the general population. The objectives of this preliminary study were to examine the construct validity of the DSM-IV nicotine dependence criteria and the modified Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire (mFTQ) and to compare the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for nicotine dependence with the mFTQ in a sample of 67 adolescent smokers in treatment for substance abuse. Results revealed that more participants were classified as nicotine dependent using DSM-IV criteria than by mFTQ scores. Little evidence was found for construct validity of these measures and convergence between the two measures was low. Findings also suggested that the present measures do not capture optimally broad dimensions of adolescent nicotine dependence.     

Dissociating basal forebrain and medial temporal amnesic syndromes: Insights from classical conditioning

In humans, anterograde amnesia can result from damage to the medical temporal (MT) lobes (including hippocampus), as well as to other brain areas such as basal forebrain. Results from animal classical conditioning studies suggest that there may be qualitative differences in the memory impairment following MT vs. basal forebrain damage. Specifically, delay eyeblink conditioning is spared after MT damage in animals and humans, but impaired in animals with basal forebrain damage. Recently, we have likewise shown delay eyeblink conditioning impairment in humans with amnesia following anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm rupture, which damages the basal forebrain. Another associative learning task, a computer-based concurrent visual discrimination, also appears to be spared in MT amnesia while ACoA amnesics are slower to learn the discriminations. Conversely, animal and computational models suggest that, even though MT amnesics may learn quickly, they may learn qualitatively differently from controls, and these differences may result in impaired transfer when familiar information is presented in novel combinations. Our initial data suggests such a two-phase learning and transfer task may provide a double dissociation between MT amnesics (spared initial learning but impaired transfer) and ACoA amnesics (slow initial learning but spared transfer). Together, these merging data suggest that there are subtle but dissociable differences in the amnesic syndrome following damage to the MT lobes vs. basal forebrain, and that these differences may be most visible in non-declarative tasks such as eyeblink classical conditioning and simple associative learning.