Career Placement Project: A Career Readiness Program for Community College Students With Disabilities

This study examines the effect of a Career Placement Project using enhanced career services specifically designed for community college students with disabilities. The 4 areas of services provided by the project were career exploration, Job readiness, Job-seeking skills, and Job shadowing. A pretest-posttest design using a participant group and a control group measured change in career readiness. Based on the data, it seems that the Career Placement Project was effective in increasing the career preparedness of participating students with disabilities.     

FOUNDATION OF A COMMUNICATOR STYLE CONSTRUCT

The foundation of a communicator style construct is presented in this paper. The construct is stipulated to include communication variables which reflect the “way one verbally and paraverbally interacts to signal how literal meaning should be taken, interpreted, filtered, or understood.” Nine independent variables (dominant, dramatic, animated, open, contentious, relaxed, friendly, attentive, and impression leaving) and one dependent variable (communicator image) operationally define the construct. Two independent samples, the first with 80 subjects and 102 items and the second with 1,086 subjects and 51 items, are analyzed in terms of (1) how the variables cluster, (2) what dimensionality is embedded in the structure of intercorrelations, and (3) which variables best predict communicator image. Potentially, the construct provides a context for other communication variables, relates to perceptual processes, and explains interpersonal consequents.     

ASSERTIVENESS AS A COMMUNICATION CONSTRUCT

Previous research in assertiveness has often failed to differentiate the behaviors to be subsumed within the construct. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to isolate and define the subconstructs of assertiveness as they emerged from the structure of two assertive inventories—the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule and the College Self Expression Scale; (2) to evaluate assertiveness as a communication construct by examining it in the framework of two measures of communicator style—a Communicator Style Measure and a test of Predispositions toward Verbal Behavior. Results revealed that the assertiveness measures related to the expected subconstructs of communicator style. Assertiveness, as evidenced by low anxiety, dominance, contentiousness, and a refusal to be intimidated by others, correlated highly with measures of verbal intensity, talkativeness, and good communicator style.     

THE SOUNDNESS OF SUPERVISORY RATINGS AS PREDICTORS OF MANAGERIAL SUCCESS

A model of career development is presented. Using this model, three types of validity, empirical, content, and construct, are considered for supervisors' rating of non-managers as a predictor of success as managers. As denned in the Uniform Guidelines and the professional literature, all three are inapplicable to this prediction situation. Characteristics of a sound rating system are suggested.     

Supervision Needs of Correctional Mental Health Counselors

Supervision of mental health counselors and psychologists is a developing field within psychology. Supervision models and needs are being researched and defined. Supervision for correctional mental health counselors and psychologists is an important part of correctional psychology, but has received very little research attention. There are many aspects of correctional psychology that are unique from the field of psychology as a whole; this is certainly true for supervision of correctional mental health staff. This article examines the supervision needs of correctional mental health counselors and psychologists. An application of one supervision model to correctional psychology is presented.     

Collective Apologies and Their Effects on Forgiveness: Pessimistic Evidence but Constructive Implications

In the last three decades, there has been an explosion in the frequency with which leaders of groups have issued official apologies for collective transgressions. These apologies are commonly assumed to lay a pathway to forgiveness and reconciliation, but empirical examination of the downstream consequences of collective apologies is still in its infancy. In this article, we review a series of studies—including interview studies, survey studies, and experiments—that question the assumed wisdom that collective apologies lead to intergroup forgiveness. Reasons for the muted evidence of an apology–forgiveness link at the intergroup level are elaborated, and implications for how best to issue gestures of reconciliation and remorse are discussed.     

Expansion of Genetic Services Utilizing a General Genetic Counseling Clinic

We established a general genetic counseling clinic (GCC) to help reduce long wait times for new patient appointments and to enhance services for a subset of patients. Genetic counselors, who are licensed in Tennessee, were the primary providers and MD geneticists served as medical advisors. This article describes the clinic referral sources, reasons for referral and patient dispositions following their GCC visit(s). We obtained patients by triaging referrals made to our medical genetics division. Over 24 months, our GCC provided timely visits for 321 patients, allowing the MD geneticists to focus on patients needing a clinical exam and/or complex medical management. Following their GCC visit(s), over 80 % of patients did not need additional appointments with an MD geneticist. The GCC allowed the genetic counselor to spend more time with patients than is possible in our traditional medical genetics clinic. Patient satisfaction surveys (n?=?30) were very positive overall concerning the care provided. Added benefits for the genetic counselors were increased professional responsibility, autonomy and visibility as health care providers. We conclude that genetic counselors are accepted as health care providers by patients and referring providers for a subset of clinical genetics cases. A GCC can expand genetic services, complement more traditional genetic clinic models and utilize the strengths of the genetic counselor health care provider.     

THE ILLUSION OF SYSTEMATIC DISTORTION

This reply to Sypher argues that neither his data nor his analysis provide good evidence for confirming the systematic distortion hypothesis in general or showing that it is operative in the communicator style measure in particular. At best, Sypher's research provides additional construct validity for the communicator style domain. It is maintained that “difficult memory conditions” do not prevail for the self-report of style behaviors. Three studies are briefly reported supporting this conclusion. Finally, necessary conditions are identified in order for self-report data to be increasingly useful. Although the results of factor analyses (and related methods) of sets of ratings are often of immediate and intrinsic interest, there are few personality psychologists today who would claim that obtained factor structures represent inexorable verities (cf. Lykenn, 1971). It is now well recognized that by varying the mix of variables included in a clustering analysis, one can fundamentally alter both the number and nature of the summarizing dimensions subsequently obtained.