Volunteerism as an Enhancement to Career Development

Volunteerism can foster appropriate career development as well as enhance the job search process. Volunteerism can be beneficial to individuals at all stages of career development.     

Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology: A Reply to Ken Wilber

This article is a reply to Ken Wilber's critique of Albert Ellis's “Fanatacism that may lead to a nuclear holocaust,” which outlines some of the dangers of transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy.     

SOME ISSUES IN CONVERSATION COHERENCE

This study examined respondent proficiency at reconstructing a sequence of utterances (discourse). Theories of text hold that participants in a discourse must construct and arrange the sense of the text; that is, they must make decisions about discourse coherence. We had respondents reconstruct a conversation and we made predictions about discourse coherence, the nature of various two-turn constructional units, unit differences, and individual differences. We found that the entire discourse as a processing unit affects the likelihood of certain two-turn pairs being resequenced correctly. Except for the fact that complex subjects were better able to resequence the initial interaction, there were no other individual differences. The research has implications for principles of coherence, text comprehension, and interpersonal behavior.     

Fanaticism That May Lead to a Nuclear Holocaust: The Contributions of Scientific Counseling and Psychotherapy

The author considers some of the fanatical beliefs that may possibly lead to a nuclear holocaust in the not-too-distant future, shows how dangerous these ideas are, and suggests that one of the best ways to minimize this kind of absolutistic and dogmatic thinking is through the psycho-educational approach pioneered by scientific counseling and psychotherapy.     

Race and Cognitive-Ability Test Performance: The Mediating Effects of Test Preparation, Test-Taking Strategy Use and Self-Eff icacy

Test-taking strategy use, cognitive-ability test preparation, and test-taking self-efficacy were examined as possible mediators of the relationship between race and cognitiveability test performance. We hypothesized that African Americans would report using fewer test-taking strategies and less test preparation when compared to White Americans. In addition, we proposed that Afiican Americans would report lower levels of test-taking self-efficacy when faced with a cognitive-ability test. It was expected that these 3 variables would mediate the relationship between race and cognitive-ability test performance. Using a sample of 170 college students, results indicated that African Americans reported using more ineffective test-taking strategies, reported participating in more cognitiveability test preparation, and reported higher levels of test-taking self-efficacy when compared to White Americans. A portion of the difference in performance on a cognitiveability test between African Americans and White Americans could be attributed to the use of ineffective strategies and test preparation.