A Student Development Theory to Practice Workshop

This article describes a workshop designed to introduce Chickering's theory to paraprofessional staff.     

Self-Involving Versus Self-Disclosing Counselor Statements During an Initial Interview

This study examined the hypothesis that positive self-involving and self-disclosing counselor responses would be rated more favorably by subjects than negative self-involving and self-disclosing counselor responses (Andersen & Anderson, 1985). The differential effectiveness of the counselor responses during the initial interview was discussed, and some implications of the findings for counseling practice were considered.     

Relationship of severity of dementia to caregiving stressors

In studies of individual differences and longitudinal changes in stress and coping among dementia caregivers, assessing severity of patient impairment is critically important. It is proposed that with the progression of dementia, cognitive impairment may steadily increase, but other stressful behavioral symptoms peak at various stages of dementia. Cross-sectional data from 49 caregiving families and longitudinal follow-up data from 48 families suggest that instrumental self-care deficits begin early in dementia, and basic self-care deficits increase with dementia severity, but that many distressing behavioral symptoms decrease in late dementia. Assessments of dementia patient severity should be multidimensional, and increases and decreases in various dementia patient stressors over time should be considered as factors influencing caregiver coping.     

Responding to Student or Teacher Death: Preplanning Crisis Intervention

Crisis caused by the sudden death of a student or teacher can be averted or diminished via a preplanned team intervention approach. The guidelines and strategies of a field-proven intervention program are described.     

Assessing White Racial Consciousness and Perceived Comfort with Black Individuals: A Preliminary Study

This research examined the relationship between White racial consciousness development and perceived comfort with Black individuals. Participants were 339 White undergraduate students from a large southeastern state university who were asked to complete a two-part inventory: part one measuring White racial consciousness development (a five-stage scale) and part two measuring perceived comfort in situations involving Black individuals. An eta coefficient was calculated, providing evidence for the existence of a strong curvilinear relationship between White racial consciousness and perceived comfort with Black individuals η =.23 at p<.0001. These findings suggest that Whites who are completely foreclosed (stage one) or who are well acquainted with Blacks (stage five) are more comfortable in situations with Blacks than Whites who had a moderate amount of contact with them (stages two, three, and four).     

Counseling Persons with a Fear of AIDS

The increasing incidence of AIDS has created a societal fear of AIDS that, in turn, has raised the level of fear and anxiety in individuals prone to fear responses. Fears accentuated by AIDS are discussed and guidelines for counseling offered.     

Task-unrelated-thought frequency as a function of age: a laboratory study

Using retrospective reports, Giambra (1977-1978, 1979-1980) found an inverse relation between age and daydreaming/mind wandering. To deal with an alternate explanation of these results based on age-dependent memorial deficiencies and attitudes toward daydreaming/mind wandering and to provide independent convergent validity, five experiments were carried out. Task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) were taken as the operational definition of daydreams/mind wanderings and their frequency recorded in vigilance tasks. All five experiments found an inverse relation between age (17-92 years, N = 471) and TUTs, confirming the reliability and validity of the earlier studies. The age-dependent reduction in TUTs was considered as evidence of reduced nonconscious information processing with increased age. The results of this study were incompatible with a recent theory that predicts for older individuals an increased input of irrelevant thoughts into working memory due to the older individual's reduced inhibitory control.     

Forecasting the impact of the federal sentencing guidelines

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which created the U.S. Sentencing Commission, required that the commisson consider prison capacity in drafting sentencing guidelines. As part of the commission's efforts to meet this requirement, we developed a computer simulation capable of projecting the impact of the commission's guidelines on future sentences and prison populations. According to our projections, “straight” probation sentences will be reduced significantly under the guidelines. However, reducing the use of probation will generate only modest demands on the prisons, and then mostly for community corrections phased in over the course of 5 years. We also project that, while average time served for violent offenses will increase substantially, average time served for most property crimes will remain largely the same. Finally, while we forecast that federal prison populations will grow markedly by the end of this century, this is more a result of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and the career offender provision of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 than a result of the guidelines.