Group Counseling with College Underachievers

Some of the controversy concerning the efficacy of psychotherapy or counseling has been resolved by recent evidence that studies reporting no effects had indiscriminately lumped together the high and low therapeutic conditions that are associated with successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The present study extends these findings to a group of essentially neurotic underachieving college freshmen. The 24 experimental students who received group counseling showed greater improvement in grade-point average than 24 matched, non-counseled control subjects. Further, those counseled subjects who received the highest therapeutic conditions tended to show the greatest improvement.     

Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to construct stimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.     

Operant behavior and the galvanic skin potential under DRL schedule

Motor and galvanic skin potential (GSP) activity were investigated during the conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning of motor responses under a differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) schedule of reinforcement. Interresponse time (IRT) distributions for motor responses during conditioning and reconditioning gradually stabilized at a peak just beyond the minimal IRT required for reinforcement. Few unreinforced motor responses and "bursts" of motor responses were observed during conditioning and reconditioning. Relative to conditioning and reconditioning, extinction effected larger IRTs and smaller GSP amplitudes. GSP amplitudes were greater for unreinforced than for reinforced motor responses during conditioning and reconditioning. However, GSP amplitudes associated with the unreinforced extinction responses were smaller than either the reinforced or unreinforced responses during conditioning and reconditioning.     

Spatial orientation by mental transformation

Across three experiments, college students read narratives describing two-dimensional horizontal, sagittal, or coronal environments, each with seven objects in surrounding directions (at 45° angles). Then they responded from memory to questions about which objects were in specific directions. The distributions of error rates and response times were compared with distributions predicted by a mental transformation model and two verbal-spatial decoding and retrieval models. The data fit the predictions of a modified mental transformation model (mental transformation plus 180° exception) better than the predictions of either verbal-spatial model. This was true even though the environment was presented narratively rather than perceptually, and it was true for both the vertical planes in addition to the more typical horizontal plane. Received: 8 August 1997 / Accepted: 2 June 1998     

Content Analysis of the Journal of Counseling & Development: Volumes 67 to 74

This study examined the content of the Journal of Counseling & Development. Collected data were used to identify various changes and trends over time. A content analysis was conducted for a 9-year period (Volumes 67–74). Articles were cross-classified into 11 categories of topics with 7 subcategories and then grouped by the 3 editorship periods during this time. Topics were then evaluated and ranked for each editorship to identify possible trends. An overall ranking of topics is provided, as well as rankings of contributing authors, institutional affiliations, and states represented by contributing authors. Results are compared with an earlier content analysis (Pelsma & Cesari, 1989) of Volumes 48 to 66.     

MMPI-2 Assessment of Varying Levels of Posttraumatic Stress in Vietnam Combat Veterans

The effectiveness of the MMPI-2 in the detection of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptomatology was investigated. Forty-nine veterans at a VA posttraumatic stress clinic were evaluated for PTS symptomatology according to DSM-III-R criteria. The ability of the MMPI-2 to differentiate between Vietnam combat veterans (VCV) who met DSM-III-R criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; N = 36) and those who reported varying levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS; N = 13) was examined. Overall, the MMPI-2 was effective in differentiating between the two groups of veterans. Of the 15 MMPI-2 scales used to evaluate PTS symptomatology, 12 significantly differentiated veterans with PTSD from those with PTSS. Diagnostic efficiency statistics for the MMPI-2 PTSD scales (PS and PK) were calculated at four cutoff points (T 65, 70, 75, and 80). The PS Scale was the most robust and effective index in differentiating between veterans with PTSD and those with PTSS. Implications for the assessment of varying degrees of PTS are discussed.     

Listener response to stuttering modification techniques

In two investigations, nonprofessional listeners used a 25-item bi-polar adjective scale to evaluate an adult male speaker who stuttered. In investigation one, 24 listeners evaluated the speaker during a Stuttering Only and a Stuttering + Cancellation condition. In investigation two, 50 listeners evaluated the speaker in a Stuttering Only and a Stuttering + Pullout condition. Listeners in the first investigation did not assign significantly different ratings to the Stuttering Only and Stuttering + Cancellation conditions. In the second investigation listeners rated the Stuttering Only condition more positively than the Stuttering + Pullout condition (p < 0.05). Analysis of listener response to four open-ended questions indicated significantly more positive reaction to the Stuttering Only condition than either of the Stuttering + Modification conditions. Finally, listeners rated the speaker using the cancellation and pullout techniques as being significantly more handicapped than when he was stuttering only. The findings provided preliminary evidence indicating that everyday listeners may react less favorably to an adult male speaker who is modifying his stuttered speech than when this same speaker is simply stuttering.     

Prejudice Toward Immigrants1

In the present study, 4 variables (realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes) were used to predict prejudice toward immigrants from Cuba, Mexico, and Asia in samples of students from states in the United States that are affected by immigration from these areas (Florida, New Mexico, and Hawaii, respectively). All 4 variables were significant (or marginally significant) predictors of attitudes toward these immigrant groups. Evidence is presented that the predictor variables are conceptually and empirically distinct. However, these variables do appear to be tied together by an underlying theme: They all concern threats to the in-group or its members. Some of the implications of the results for intergroup relations are discussed.