The Impact of Balanced Risk–Benefit Information and Initial Attitudes on Post‐Information Attitudes1

In a realistic social context, people are confronted with both positive and negative information, yet research on this topic is relatively scarce. We present 2 studies examining the role of initial attitudes on the impact of one‐sided vs. balanced positive and negative information on attitudes toward food production methods. The first experiment demonstrated that one‐sided information influenced post‐information attitudes congruent to the direction of the message content. The second experiment showed that the effect of balanced information on post‐information attitudes may depend on initial attitudes. These results demonstrate that negativity effects are dominant for people with initial positive attitudes, but change into positivity effects for people with initial negative attitudes. Implications for communicating both positive and negative information are discussed.     

Multidimensional Family Therapy HIV/STD Risk-Reduction Intervention: An Integrative Family-Based Model for Drug-Involved Juvenile Offenders

Drug and juvenile justice involved youths show remarkably high rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk behaviors. However, existing interventions aimed at reducing adolescent HIV risk behavior have rarely targeted these vulnerable young adolescents, and many approaches focus on individual-level change without attention to family or contextual influences. We describe a new, family-based HIV/STD prevention model that embeds HIV/STD focused multifamily groups within an adolescent drug abuse and delinquency evidence-based treatment, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT). The approach has been evaluated in a multisite randomized clinical trial with juvenile justice involved youths in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies ( http://www.cjdats.org ). Preliminary baseline to 6-month outcomes are promising. We describe research on family risk and protective factors for adolescent problem behaviors, and offer a rationale for family-based approaches to reduce HIV/STD risk in this population. We describe the development and implementation of the Multidimensional Family Therapy HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention (MDFT-HIV/STD) in terms of using multifamily groups and their integration in standard MDFT and also offers a clinical vignette. The potential significance of this empirically based intervention development work is high; MDFT-HIV/STD is the first model to address largely unmet HIV/STD prevention and sexual health needs of substance abusing juvenile offenders within the context of a family-oriented evidence-based intervention.     

Virus-Like Ideas: The Role of Counselors in the Ecology of the Ideosphere

This article develops an analogy between viruses and ideas. It suggests that ideas, like viruses, can invade and infect us and that immune systems need to be developed to prevent future infection of destructive ideas.     

OPEN A NEW WINDOW IN RATIONAL RESEARCH PLANNING: ADJUST ALPHA TO MAXIMIZE STATISTICAL POWER

Alternative strategies for optimizing statistical power in applied psychological research are considered. Increasing sample size and combining predictors in order to yield a useful effect size are well-known tactics for increasing power. A third approach, increasing alpha, is rarely used because of zealous adherence to convention. There are two related aspects in setting the alpha level. First, the relative seriousness of Type I and Type II errors must be considered. This assessment must then be qualified and redetermined after taking into account the prior probability that an effect exists. Procedures that make these processes objective are demonstrated. When sample size and effect size are both fixed, increasing alpha may be the only feasible strategy for maximizing power. It is concluded that a priori power analysis should be a major consideration in any test of an hypothesis, and that alpha level adjustment should be viewed as a useful strategy for increasing power.     

Patron Contact Training: A Workshop for Personnel Who Meet the Public

This article is intended to provide counselors with a format for designing and running workshops to train personnel employed in positions of high customer contact.     

How Stable Is Marital Interaction Over Time?

This is a report of the degree of stability in affective marital interaction over a 4-year period. There were statistically significant levels of stability in overall emotionality, and in positive and negative affect, particularly for wives. There was also stability for specific affects but, except for humor and listener backchannels, these varied with gender. Women were more stable than men in overall negative and positive affect. Men were more stable than women in belligerence, contempt, and tension/fear. Women were more stable than men in whining.     

The Effect of Life Events and Relationships on Adult Women's Decisions To Enroll in College

This study was designed to investigate the role of life events and “relationship” morality in women's decisions to enroll in college. Interviews with 38 women, ages 25–46, indicated that the timing for women returning to college was determined by the state of their relationships and life events and not solely by motivation. Enrollment was often postponed until children were “old enough,” family responsibilities were lessened, or fellow workers or employers would not be inconvenienced.     

Counselor Applications of Research Findings to Practice: Learning To Stay Current

There is evidence that many counselors currently perceive research as irrelevant to their work, possibly because the present model of training counselors to solve problems is inadequate. The authors point out ways in which applied training can be restructured so that counselors will be better able to apply research findings to their practice.     

What Client Behaviors Make Counselors Angry? An Exploratory Study

Counselors may feel anger when clients do not behave according to their expectations of what is a good client. Client resistance, client impositions, verbal attacks on the counselor, and overinvolvement by the counselor in client dynamics seem to be relatively common occurrences that annoy counselors. Possible counselor responses to these feelings are discussed.