Student Perception of Counselor Role

A semantic differential and a Thurstone-type rating scale of satisfaction with counseling were used to measure changes in the perceptions held by students regarding their high school counselors over a period of 2 years. During this time, the large suburban high school that was the locale for the study changed from a system of deans who had both counseling and disciplinary duties to a system of counselors who did not discipline students. Factor analyses and non-parametric change tests were conducted. It was found that, especially during the first year, students perceived their counselors more negatively than they had perceived their deans. Some signs of movement toward more favorable views were noted by the end of the second year. Satisfaction with counseling, however, was favorably perceived by students throughout the two years. Students tended to perceive their counselors in evaluative terms. There was no relationship between perception of counselors and satisfaction with counseling. The evidence suggests that discipline may not be the crucial variable in either student perceptions of counselors or student satisfaction with counseling.     

Are self reports of memory failure accurate?

Previous research with memory questionnaires has been interpreted as showing that people do not recall their memory failures accurately. The present research consisted of three investigations that examined whether participants' reports of memory failures were corroborated by their spouses. These investigations used a greater variety of statistical and survey methods than were used in previous investigations. The results demonstrated that people are able to recall memory failures more accurately than previous research indicated. These results have important methodological and theoretical implications for basic and applied assumptions about what people know about their memory failures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Practice Guidelines for Communicating a Prenatal or Postnatal Diagnosis of Down Syndrome: Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

Down syndrome is one of the most common conditions encountered in the genetics clinic. Due to improvements in healthcare, educational opportunities, and community inclusion over the past 30?years, the life expectancy and quality of life for individuals with Down syndrome have significantly improved. As prenatal screening and diagnostic techniques have become more enhanced and widely available, genetic counselors can expect to frequently provide information and support following a new diagnosis of Down syndrome. This guideline was written for genetic counselors and other healthcare providers regarding the communication of a diagnosis of Down syndrome to ensure that families are consistently given up-to-date and balanced information about the condition, delivered in a supportive and respectful manner.     

Sexual Jealousy in Heterosexuals,Lesbians, and Gays

The present study tests various hypotheses about effects of gender and sexual orientation on jealousy. One hypothesis is derived from an evolutionary perspective and implies that the stimuli that elicit jealousy are sex-linked and independent of sexual orientation. Several others are based on a sociocultural perspective and imply that the experience of jealousy is linked to social experiences and beliefs that differ for men and women and for homosexuals and heterosexuals. To test these hypotheses, we examined the relative distress reported by heterosexual and homosexual participants while thinking about a partners' sexual vs. emotional infidelity. Participants were predominately Caucasian and included students at a Midwestern state university and attendees at a regional gay and lesbian conference. The results reveal that all groups except heterosexual men experience greater distress when confronted with a partners' emotional infidelity. This pattern contradicts the evolutionary hypothesis that the experience of romantic jealousy is sex-linked. However, our multifaceted attempt to identify social experiences or beliefs that account for the greater sexual jealousy of heterosexual men relative to everyone else was only partly successful.     

The Role of Implicit Attitudes in Populist Radical‐Right Support

Previous research on the populist radical right (PRR) has focused exclusively on explicit measures in explaining support for these contested political players. In this study, we explore the role of implicit attitudes in predicting vote likelihood for a PRR party. We use an online survey (n = 773) among Dutch respondents in which we measured implicit attitudes towards the Dutch PRR Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) with a Single‐Target Implicit Association Test (ST‐IAT). The results show that the implicit measure predicts vote likelihood in general, as well as in ways beyond that accounted for by traditional explanations of PRR party support. Importantly, the results also show that the impact of implicit attitudes on intended vote choice is greater for less extreme voters; in other words, those voters less likely to say they would vote for the PVV are more heavily influenced at an implicit level, beyond their awareness. This suggests that implicit attitudes of the PRR party may be quite useful for explaining support among voters who would not normally self‐report it.     

NLSDBA: The National Longitudinal surveys on compact disk

The National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (NLSY) is an ongoing study of 12,686 young men and women who were aged 14 to 21 as of January 1, 1979. Over the years, the respondents have answered a wide variety of over 26,000 questions about their work experience, military experience, training, schooling, family background, marital status, income and assets, health, fertility, child care, and drug and alcohol abuse. The data from the survey are available on CD-ROM. This paper briefly describes the data set and how it may be accessed.     

A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects

A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.