The Status of Multicultural Counseling Training at Counseling Center Internship Sites

The current status of multicultural counseling training at university counseling center predoctoral internship sites was evaluated. Fifty training directors completed a mailed survey, and the results contribute to an understanding of graduate training programs. Training considerations and recommendations are discussed.     

Phonological Similarity and Trace Degradation in the Serial Recall Task: When CAT helps RAT,but not MAN

Phonological similarity is observed to affect serial recall detrimentally when correct-in-position scoring is used. Two experiments investigated the role of item and position accuracy scoring of rhyming, similar nonrhyming, and dissimilar lists under immediate recall conditions; articulatory suppression; or a filled delay. In general, rhyme lists produced the best item recall but position accuracy was highest for dissimilar lists. The results are due to a category cueing effect improving item recall for rhyme lists in conjunction with a detrimental effect of phonological similarity on position accuracy.     

Opening the Black Box: Using Process Evaluation Measures to Assess Implementation and Theory Building

The past decade has seen increasing recognition in prevention science of the need to move away from a black box approach to intervention evaluation and toward an approach that can elaborate on the mechanisms through which changes in the outcomes operate (Chen & Rossi, 1989; Durlak & Wells, 1997; Spoth et al., 1995). An approach that examines issues of program implementation is particularly critical in the design of efficacy studies of school-based preventive interventions. Numerous preventive intervention strategies are now delivered within the schools, often by regular classroom teachers. The extent to which teachers faithfully deliver a particular curriculum or incorporate instructional strategies emphasized by an intervention is a critical question for the overall project evaluation. This article illustrates the utilization of process measures from a multicomponent school-based prevention program to examine implementation of a teaching staff development intervention, and the program's underlying theoretical basis. Given the nested study design, the analyses utilize hierarchical linear models (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) to examine changes in teaching strategies by condition and investigate the hypothesized relationships between teaching practices and student behaviors based on the program's theoretical framework. Results suggest that teaching practices in two of the six intervention focus areas were positively impacted in the first 18 months of the project. Findings also support th relationships between teachers' instructional practices and students' behaviour.     

Gender moderates the relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Relative to men, women are more strongly socialized to trust their feelings and intuitions. We thus expected that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem would be stronger for women than for men. That is, if implicit self-esteem contains a large intuitive, experiential or affective component, then people who are in touch with their feelings and intuitions should be more likely to report explicit self-esteem scores that are congruent with their implicit self-esteem scores. Six studies supported this idea by showing that the association between implicit and explicit self-esteem is indeed stronger for women than for men. This finding held in three different cultures and for two different measures of implicit self-esteem. We discuss the implications of this finding for debates regarding the nature and validity of implicit self-esteem.     

Exploring links between polychronicity and well-being from the perspective of person–job fit: Does it matter if you prefer to do only one thing at a time?

This research examined polychronicity, which refers to an individual’s preference for working on many things simultaneously as opposed to one at a time. It was hypothesized that supplies–values fit on this temporal variable is related to well-being. Specifically, it was predicted that deficient and excess polychronicity supplies are associated with poorer well-being, and that well-being is uniformly high along the continuum of polychronicity fit. It was also hypothesized that fit effects are stronger for individuals who place high importance on how their time is allocated than for individuals who place low importance on that dimension. Participants in Study 1, a laboratory experiment, were students (N = 266); participants in Study 2, conducted in a field setting, were employees of Canadian organizations (N = 746). No fit effects were observed in Study 1. Consistent with the hypotheses, however, fit on the dimension of polychronicity was related to job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and psychological strain in Study 2. The role of value importance as a moderator of the relation between supplies–values fit and well-being was not supported.     

Randomized controlled trial of a brief problem-orientation intervention for suicidal ideation

Empirical evaluations suggest that problem orientation, the initial reaction to problems, differentiates suicidal youth from nonchnical controls and nonideating psychiatric controls. One promising area for intervention with suicidal youth relates to enhancing this specific coping skill. Nonclinical participants (N = 110) with active suicidal ideation were randomly assigned to receive a brief problem-orientation intervention or a control procedure. The current study evaluated the benefits of a brief prevention intervention based on the Problem-Solving Therapy model. Exposure to a brief video intervention regarding problem solving and coping skills was sufficient to elicit significant decreases in suicidal ideation and depression, but the intervention did not elicit improvements in problem orientation or other problem-solving abilities. These findings provide preliminary support for a brief, video-based problem-solving and coping skills module. However, considerable work in developing secondary prevention interventions remains.     

The Lost Millennium: Psychology During the Middle Ages

The Psychological Record - The medieval period—roughly the 1,000 years from the classical Greco-Roman age to the Renaissance and modern era—has long been neglected in the history of...     

The Relational Health Indices: A Study of Women's Relationships

A new measure of women's relationships, the Relational Health Indices (RHI), comprises three scales that assess growth-fostering connections with peers, mentors, and communities. The RHI was developed using the Relational Model (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, Surrey, 1991; Miller & Stiver, 1997), a theory of women's psychological development. The 37-item measure assesses three conceptual dimensions of growth-fostering relationships: engagement, authenticity, and empowerment/zest. This study examined the psychometric properties of the RHI with a group of 450 students at a women's liberal arts college, providing evidence for the reliability, validity, and utility of the new measure. The factor analyses confirmed a three-subscale structure: engagement, authenticity, empowerment/zest. The RHI's components generally demonstrate good overall internal consistency. Furthermore, associations between RHI scales and convergent validation scales were significant and in the direction hypothesized. Correlations with adjustment scales varied across the RHI components. The RHI has potential for enriching our understanding of important, subtle qualities and complex dynamics of both dyadic and group relationships, especially among women. The instrument is available for use by researchers interested in continuing the scale and theory development.