Comparative guidance through international study

In the contemporary world of instant communication, which creates parallel trends in diverse cultures, comparative guidance studies have acquired a new importance. They promote a higher degree of cross-cultural openness and sensitivity, at the same time stimulating clarification of values. Here the author reviews earlier publications on comparative guidance and presents examples of new insights into guidance practices that can be gained through international studies. He offers suggestions on planning professional travel abroad and on including comparative guidance studies in existing counselor training programs.     

Admissions counselors or recruiters?

College and university administrators have typically chosen variously selected faculty members and/or counseling-oriented admissions staff members to perform the crucial task of recruiting new students. What is really needed, however, is neither an intellectually inclined professor nor a listening counselor but rather a warm, outgoing, enthusiastic proponent of the sending institution. The title “admissions counselor” is a misnomer: An admissions staffer is basically a recruiter, not a counselor, and the title of “counselor” should therefore be reserved solely for those people who are professionally trained and located in a counseling position.     

Theological Reflections

[In January 1960 a meeting at the premises of the London Society of Analytical Psychology was convened to discuss the relation of analytical psychology to theology. It was given the provocative title "Who shall have the last word: psychologist or theologian?"; the aim was to stimulate debate. Kenneth Lambert was to open and Victor White was to be one of the discussants. So as to forward the discussion, Lambert sent Victor White a number of questions and his answers to them were to follow. To the great regret of everybody Fr. White could not be present at the meeting owing to ill health, but at my request he sent me his replies and agreed to allow their publication. They raise a number of interesting issues and it is hoped that they may promote further discussion in these pages. Editor .]     

When the survey question directs retrieval: Implications for assessing the cognitive and affective predictors of global evaluation

Research suggests that individuals do not respond to survey questions on the basis of a single, fixed set of psychological considerations. To the contrary, they respond on the basis of whatever material happens to come to mind at the moment of answering. Furthermore, the particular material that comes to mind often depends upon the nature of the question and the manner in which it is posed. This has important implications when attempting to assess the independence of beliefs and emotions as predictors of global attitude judgments. When addressing this question, it is important to consider the extent to which any given measurement procedure specifically targets ‘emotionally relevant beliefs’ in memory. Past research has failed to target this specific subset of beliefs. As a consequence, beliefs have failed to fully account for the relation between emotions and global attitude judgments. Completely different findings emerge when the researcher employs ‘decomposition’ and ‘emotionally cued recall’ to enable respondents to generate ‘emotionally relevant beliefs’. Under these conditions, beliefs fully account for the relation between emotions and global attitude judgments. However, this only occurs when one defines and operationalizes ‘emotionally relevant beliefs’ at the individual level. The theoretical and methodological implications of these results are discussed. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dreaming as a primordial state of the mind: The clinical relevance of structural faults in the body ego as revealed in dreaming1

Thetherapeuticactionofpsychoanalysis, attributedformanyyearstotheinterpretation of the repressed libido, has shifted its focus to object relationships. Some modern analysts maintain that the primary factor of psychic change is the new model of object relationship provided by analysis, and do not consider signifi cant the knowledge of episodes comprising implicit memories, whose irrecoverable nature is demonstrated by neuroscience. Nevertheless, the author proposes that the knowledge of specifi c archaic events, useless as their interpretation may be, offers a glimpse of the make‐up of the mind, contributing to the improvement of the empathy indispensable for inducing changes in the patient. Episodes linked to absolute narcissism, in the beginnings of the body ego, which do not appear either in associations or in transference, emerge in dreams. Neuroscience has made possible the understanding of aspects of dreaming capable of providing a glimpse of the genesis of the ego, whose development from the bodily phase of absolute narcissism to the psychic object phase can thus be traced. The unearthing of the genesis of primary structural faults in dreaming furnishes the analyst with an estimate of the possibilities for development of the ego, and this knowledge provides fi ne tuning capable of guiding the analyst's conduct. A clinical case illustrates how these phenomena occur, showing the intersubjective relationship as the silent primary generator of psychic changes, consolidated and developed secondarily by means of the analytical dialogue.     

Law, Strategy and Democracy: A Response to Duff

abstract   In this response to Antony Duff's paper, I raise doubts about the method of moving from internal to external critique, suggesting that external critique, focusing on more basic principles in moral and political philosophy, has primacy, and that internal critique, if it is done well, will very quickly turn external. I then suggest a different distinction: that between pure and strategic philosophical work, suggesting that more strategic work might be done in legal philosophy to improve the impact of philosophical work on those more concerned with policy. Finally, I suggest that more philosophically focused work on law and democracy has become increasingly important in the light of developments in criminal justice, something missing from Duff's account .     

The Need for a New Psychological Model of Religious Development

This article summarizes the most prominent theories of religious development that are rooted in Piagetian tradition: R. Goldman, D. Elkind, J. Fowler, F. Oser. Following a discussion of some of their assumptions and presuppositions, the paper presents a rationale for a new theoretical model of religious development applicable to Christian populations and congruent with a Christian worldview.     

Marxist guidance: a dialectic lesson

Based on primary sources published in the Soviet Bloc, this article reviews orthodox Marxist theory, methodology, and practice. It compares the stated goals of Marxist guidance with actual outcomes, and identifies the foundations of guidance in the Soviet Bloc in terms of Marxist philosophy and social doctrine. The application of dialectic methodology to guidance is also explained. Current symptoms of ideological unrest in socialist society as exemplified by the now-suppressed reform movement in Czechoslovakia are analyzed and its dynamics identified. Finally, the article draws conclusions applicable to guidance in this country.     

A Review of the Nonreading Aptitude Test Battery

This article re-examines data from the Nonreading Aptitude Test Battery (NATB) and General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) test manuals in light of some conventionally accepted psychometric considerations. The NATB standardization sample is adequate. However, the validity is open to question since the NATB demonstrates only a modest correlation with the GATB. It is recommended that caution be employed in relating NATB profiles to the Occupational Aptitude Patterns' norms. This is especially relevant since the NATB, lacking norms of its own, relies on GATB norms and its derived Occupational Aptitude Pattern (OAP).     

The effects of social support on adjustment to stress: The mediating role of coping

The present research tested Thoits' (1986) proposal that coping mediates in the relationship between social support and adjustment to stress in two different contexts, namely adjustment to work stress and women's adjustment to the birth of their first child. The research was also designed to examine whether sources of support are more likely to influence coping if they are similar to the support recipient or proximal to the source of stress. In the first study, 137 employees from a large retail organization participated. Measures of social support (from supervisor, work colleagues, nonwork network members) and coping were obtained at Time 1. Two weeks later (Time 2), measures of employee adjustment were obtained. The second study was conducted on 197 expectant mothers. The measures of social support (from partner, family members, nonfamily members) were obtained at Time 1, coping was assessed at Time 2, and adjustment (self-report and husband ratings) was assessed at Time 3. Results of structural equation analyses revealed, in the first study, that the effects of colleague support on levels of adjustment were mediated through coping responses. In contrast, the effects of supervisor support on adjustment (job satisfaction) were direct. In Study 2, there was evidence that the effects of partner support on women's adjustment to new parenthood were mediated through coping responses. In contrast, levels of family support had direct effects on self-reported and external measures of adjustment.