A Meta-Model for Evaluating Counseling Programs

One of the problems associated with program evaluation is the selection of appropriate evaluation procedures. Given the existence of multiple evaluation models, counselors would benefit by having a systematic means for identifying the evaluation model best suited for the task at hand. This article responds to that need by presenting a conceptual framework or meta-model for appraising the utility of existing evaluation models and for identifying the evaluation procedure best suited to any particular situation.     

Counseling the Uncoupling Male

Over a million men are involved each year in the agony and turmoil of the uncoupling process. This article discusses counseling techniques that aid in counseling males leaving the marriage relationship.     

Values and Counselors 1968–1978: Stability or Change?

The signs of the times of the 1960s seem very different from those of the 1970s, as different popular movements emphasized different values. Yet there is doubt about the change in values of specific professional groups. In this study students in counselor education at one university were compared regarding values—one group in 1968 and another group in 1978—using the Rokeach Value Survey. Katz and Beech indicate the likenesses and differences in values between the two groups and analyze similarities and dissimilarities of the future counselors with the general population during the 1960s and 1970s.     

Making Meaning: The Constructive-Developmental Approach to Persons and Practice

The constructive (in the sense of construing) and developmental (but throughout the lifespan) framework, whose conceptual roots lie in the work of Piaget, outlines the holistic personality process of systems of making meaning, systems that organize human thought, feeling, and action. In this article Kegan discusses and then applies the model—to a worker in a CETA program and to a psychiatric ward patient—elucidating the perspectives—on mental health and employability—it can open for practitioners.     

Family Models: Comparing and Contrasting the Olson Circumplex Model with the Beavers Systems Model

There is an increasing interest in and need for family models. One such model is the Olson Circumplex Model, previously reported in this journal ( 18 ). This model is compared and contrasted with the Beavers Systems Model, which was also developed from empirical data and has had extensive use in family assessment. Though both are cross-sectional, process-oriented, and capable of providing structure for family research, we believe there are certain shortcomings in the Olson model that make it less clinically useful than the Beavers Systems Model. These include definitional problems and a total reliance on curvilinear dimensions with a grid approach to family typology that does not acknowledge a separation/individuation continuum. Our model avoids these deficiencies and includes a continuum of functional competence that reflects the development and differentiation of many living systems, including the family.     

Practice and Training in Family Therapy: A Known Group Study

The present study reports on a comparative survey of the belief and action systems of graduates who had been intensively trained in one of three of the major models of family therapy: Bowenian, communications, and strategic. An analysis of the factor-analyzed assumptions (belief system) and style (action system) items showed consistently greater divergence among the three models than convergence, as well as a remarkable synchronicity between the respective literature on these three models and their implementation, as represented by family therapists intensively trained in each model. A comparison of the present study's findings with previous research strongly supports the potency of formal and intensive training for developing adherents of a particular model and suggests that the distinctiveness of each model needs to be more fully developed in preference to premature attempts to develop generic or inclusive models that may become internally inconsistent and therefore difficult to operationalize in practice.     

A LONGITUDINAL EXAMINATION OF RATER AND RATEE EFFECTS IN PERFORMANCE RATINGS

The consistency and loci of leniency, halo, and range restriction effects in performance ratings were investigated in a longitudinal study. Ratings were provided by approximately 90 supervisors in a metropolitan police department, who rated approximately 350 police-rank subordinates on five occasions over a three and one-half year period. Rating effects were computed separately as rater-and ratee-based statistics, and intercorrelated among the five rating periods. The nature of the data set made it possible to hold either raters or ratees constant for each analysis, thus permitting inferences regarding the sources of reliable variance in effects as due to raters or ratees. It was concluded that reliable variance in mean ratings is partly attributable to ratees, but mainly introduced by raters. Reliable halo variance is attributable to raters, and range restriction is a product of stable group performance variability within intact ratee groups. Implications of these results for future rating process research are discussed.     

Counseling Within the Forgiveness Triad: On Forgiving,Receiving Forgiveness,and Self-Forgiveness

The concept of the forgiveness triad—forgiving others, receiving forgiveness from others, and self-forgiveness—is introduced and discussed. Each aspect is defined, presented as philosophically rational and therefore appropriate within counseling, and described within a psychological framework of how people go about that aspect of forgiveness. The interactions of the triad are described, showing how the counseling process that employs forgiveness strategies may become quite complicated. A counselor's awareness of all 3 aspects of forgiveness may lead to greater clarity in the therapeutic encounter. Implications for the helping professions and for moral development of the client are discussed.