Racial reckoning,resistance, and the revolution: A call to community psychology to move forward

This article introduces a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology that features racial reckoning, resistance and the revolution in the context of a syndemic, the historical subjugation of communities of Color (COC) to racial hierarchies and the coronavirus (COVID-19). More specifically, this special issue underscores the need for community psychology and other allied disciplines to address this syndemic facing COC. The special issue delivers on the stories of the lived experiences from researchers and community members as it relates to COVID-19 and COC. Twelve articles are illuminated to challenge the field to create social change.     

The Structured Peer Consultation Model for School Counselors

School counselors typically receive little or no supervision of their counseling. Results of an evaluation of the Structured Peer Consultation Model for School Counselors indicate that the model may help meet the needs of school counselors for ongoing feedback on their counseling with student-clients.     

Visual dissociation of digitized photographs

Visual dissociation occurs when a visual marker from one display in a rapidly presented sequence (e.g., 9 item/sec) is perceived as having occurred in a temporally adjacent display. Three experiments that evaluated the application of computer graphics technology to study this phenomenon with digitized color photographs are reported. The primary concern was that visible phosphor persistence might artificially increase the frequency of integration errors. In Experiment 1, visible phosphor persistence was assessed using a multiple-repetition shutter test to determine which stimulus conditions did not yield reportable persistence. On the basis of these results, visual dissociation performance when the same color photographs were presented using mechanical 16-mm projection (as in previous research) and when they were presented on a computer monitor were compared in Experiments 2 and 3. The results supported computer application, in that computer presentation yielded the same pattern of errors and accuracy levels as did research using mechanical projection.     

Resource scarcity and outcome conflict in time-sharing performance

The efficacy of the resource-scarcity and outcome-conflict views in explaining dual-task interference was examined. A discrete—continuous task pair was purposely chosen to allow fine-grained analysis of time-shared performance. The relative priority of the dual task was manipulated by a secondary task technique to test for performance tradeoff that would be indicative of resource allocation. The temporal predictability of the discrete stimuli was manipulated to examine possible strategic avoidance of interference. The moment-by-moment data did not reveal any evidence for a switching strategy. It was concluded that the intricate interference patterns could be more easily interpreted within the resource framework than within the outcome-conflict framework.     

Does legally mandated consent to psychotherapy ensure ethical appropriateness?: the Colorado experience

We analyzed a sample of 356 forms containing information that Colorado law legally requires both licensed and unlicensed therapists to disclose to clients. The majority of forms contained the legally mandated information; fewer forms contained ethically desirable information. The average readability grade level was 15.74, corresponding to upper-level college, and 63.9% of the forms reached the highest (most difficult) readability grade of 17+. Therapists are obeying the law, but do not appear to be taking advantage of the opportunity to provide their clients useful information in an accessible way.     

Stress,Coping, and Mental Health Among Rural,Village, and Urban Women in Tunisia

The present study investigated stressors, coping strategies, and mental health among 45 Tunisian women living in 3 distinct environments within Tunisia: a rural Bedouin community, a mid-size village, and the capital city of Tunis. Individual interviews were conducted with each woman via a semi-structured questionnaire, which allowed for the collection of qualitative as well as quantitative information. Statistical analyses indicated no significant differences between the middle-class village and urban women on stressor levels, number of coping strategies used, or levels of psychological distress. However, the rural group of Bedouin women reported significantly greater stressor levels and numbers of depressive symptoms than the village and/or urban women. The qualitative information confirmed the greater stress of the rural environment, largely due to extreme poverty. The results suggest that rapid social changes in Tunisia since independence have improved the lives of middle-class women in the villages and cities, but have had very little impact on the situations of rural Bedouin women.     

Situation and Personality Correlates of Psychological Well-Being: Social Activity and Personal Control

Two studies that examined the correlates of peoples′ reports of their own psychological well-being are reported (Ryff, 1989). In Study 1, extraverts reported better psychological adjustment than introverts, especially when they completed the questionnaires with no one else present. Need for social approval and the sex of the participant were unrelated to self-reports of well-being. Satisfaction with social activities, especially activities involving friends and parents, predicted psychological well-being but the frequency of social activity did not. Completing questionnaires in the presence of friends led to better self-assessments of well-being than completing them in the presence of strangers. In Study 2, internal locus of control, high desire for control, and being female, as well as perceived control over the testing situation, were found to predict reports of better psychological adjustment. It is suggested that future research on self-assessments of psychological well-being focus on: (a) the interaction effects of personality and situational variables; (b) the difference between seeking social interaction and seeking social approval: (c) the distinction between platonic and romantic relationships, and; (d) changes in the correlates of psychological well-being throughout the life-cycle.     

Gender differences in the value of contributions to intimate relationships: Egalitarian relationships are not always perceived to be equitable

Little research has directly addressed the role of gender in perceptions of self vs. partner's contributions to a relationship, despite the fact that partners in heterosexual relationships often disagree about whether their relative contributions result in an equitable relationship [N. W. VanYperen and B. P. Buunk (1990), A Longitudinal Study of Equity and Satisfaction in Intimate Relationships, European Journal of Social Psychology,Vol. 20, pp. 287–309]. The primary purpose of this investigation was to systematically examine the association between gender and the perceived value of several different types of contributions made by each partner to a committed relationship. We considered both the gender of the perceiver and the source of the contributions (self vs. partner). A sample of 212 men and 348 women (most of whom were college students; 87% white) were asked to judge the value of their own and their partner's hypothetical contributions to a marital or long-term cohabiting relationship. The results indicated that men and women generally agreed about the value of the contributions made by themselves and their partners. However, gender differences in the perceived value of many contributions depended on whether the contribution was made by self or partner (e.g., men attributed more worth to their partner's sexual faithfulness than to their own, whereas women believed that both partners should receive equal value for this contribution). These perceptual differences suggest that at times it may be difficult for partners to agree about the equity of their ongoing relationships. Special gratitude goes to Pepper Schwartz for her contributions to an earlier draft of the paper. The authors also wish to thank Elaine Hatfield and Alicia Thompson for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper and Dennis Johnson who contributed to the idea for the study.