Orientations of School Counsellors: An Evaluative and Comparative Study

Law's measures of counsellor orientation were administered to a national sample of New Zealand guidance counsellors. Factor analyses revealed a generally similar factor structure to that found by Law. By using factor scores it was possible to show that the New Zealand counsellors had a balanced but slightly open orientation. Data from counsellor responses to hypothetical counselling situations gave further evidence of balance in the New Zealand sample. Few significant relationships were found between relevant counsellor variables and either the factor scores or the responses to situations.     

Effects of training and visual distance on speechreading performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of training on subjects' ability to speechread sentences at varying visual distances of 3-6 ft., 6-12 ft., and 12-18 ft. 15 college women who received training obtained higher sentence speechreading scores than the 15 untrained women. The emphasis placed on kinesthetic feedback may have assisted the trained subjects' performance; however, distance up to 18 ft. did not appear to affect subjects' ability to speechread sentences, regardless of training.     

The abstraction of arbitrary categories

Bransford and Franks (1971) showed that people retain the ideas expressed in linguistic input, rather than retaining the individual sentences. The extent to which this phenomenon reflects organizational’ processes based on co-occurrence information was investigated by using Bransford and Franks’ procedure but substituting arbitrarily chosen groups of words for sentences. The subjects gave higher recognition ratings to large new groups (analogous to complex sentences) than to small new groups (analogous to simpler ones), so long as the size of the group was in the range normally presented. They also showed the same ordering for old groups; but they rated old groups higher than new groups within each group size. Hierarchical recognition response structure can be established without an ideational basis, and it does not require complete absence from memory of original input items.     

In search of personality traits: A multimethod analysis of naturally occurring prosocial and dominance behavior

Naturally occurring prosocial and dominance behaviors were observed via multiple methods in four groups of adolescents. Individuals varied considerably in their frequency of prosocial and dominance behaviors, regardless of the method employed. These interindividual differences were maintained across situations and over time. The data are consistent with a trait conceptualization of dominance and prosocial behavior. The strength of the present findings suggest that personality researchers need to employ research strategies which extensively observe individuals in the contexts in which they live.     

Sexual identity and personality variables in normal and disturbed adolescent girls.

Disturbed and normal adolescent girls from a working class background were compared on three measures of sex role as well as self and ideal personality characteristics. Both disturbed and normal girls had an appropriate sex-role identity on two of the measures. An association was found between normal status and high self scores on nurturance, affiliation, and endurance, and between pathological status and succorance. Although differences existed on some self reported traits between pathological and normal status, all groups tended to see the ideal female teenager as having an equitable balance among the personality variables and higher than they rated themselves on deference, nurturance, and affiliation and lower on autonomy. It was concluded that the presence or absence of certain adaptive personality traits may be more important than sex role disturbance in pathology.     

Advancing psychological jurisprudence

Recent articles and literature reviews within the field of social science and law point to the importance of developing interdisciplinary jurisprudence. An overview of psychological jurisprudence is presented. Next, three approaches to the specific construction of psychological jurisprudence are reviewed. Finally, the relationship between legal psychology and psychological jurisprudence is discussed.     

Training and careers in law and psychology: The perspective of students and graduates of dual degree programs

Over the last 15 years, commentators have discussed the relative merit—or lack of merit—of J.D.-Ph.D. training programs in law and psychology. Missing from the discussion, however, are the views of those who have enrolled in and completed dual degree programs. The authors, graduates of a law-psychology training program, provide both empirical data and their own views concerning the merit of joint degree training in law and psychology. As part of an effort to generate testable hypotheses regarding dual degree programs, the authors conclude that J.D.-Ph.D. training in law and psychology provides unique insights, skills and opportunities which may be unequalled by other approaches to training in the area.     

The devil you know: the effects of identifiability on punishment

Prior research has confirmed Thomas Schelling's observation that people are more sympathetic and hence generous toward specific identified victims than toward “statistical” victims who are yet to be identified. In the study presented in this article we demonstrate an equivalent effect for punitiveness. We find that people are more punitive toward identified wrongdoers than toward equivalent, but unidentified, wrongdoers, even when identifying the wrongdoer conveys no meaningful information about him or her. To account for the effect of identifiability on both generosity and punitiveness, we propose that affective reactions of any type are stronger toward an identified than toward an unidentified target. Consistent with such an account, the effect of identifiability on punishing behavior was mediated by self‐reported anger. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.