Reflections on uncomplemented philosophies,integrated curriculums and words that bind and separate in counseling and clinical psychology

Should counseling psychology remain a distinct specialty or should it merge with clinical psychology? Recently, a growing amount of attention has been directed toward the increasing similarities between the counseling and clinical specialties, and musings about integrating them into a generic training model have emerged. This position paper considers some problems with the current divisions existing between counseling and clinical psychology. Three basic points are examined: (a) the effects of language systems on the counseling and clinical specialties; (b) the normal-abnormal dimension of behavior as a weak justification for distinct specialties; and (c) the fostering of distorted views of human behavior through counseling and clinical training programs.     

Person-centered theory and the contemporary practice of psychological testing

This paper examines the effects of person-centered theory on contemporary psychological testing. Seven basic ideas or assumptions, which are integral to and guide the testing process, are identified and briefly discussed. Each idea is considered to have been affected either directly or indirectly by person-centered philosophy. Some of the ways in which these ideas are reflected in contemporary testing practice are indicated.     

A comparison of Guided Imaginal Coping and imaginal exposure in the treatment of panic disorder

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a new intervention, Guided Imaginal Coping (GIC), compared to imaginal exposure (IEX), and a waiting-list control (WLC) condition among 24 clinic outpatients meeting DSM-III-R criteria for panic disorder (PD) or PD with agoraphobia. GIC was the more consistently effective intervention, with individuals demonstrating significant improvement in frequency and severity of panic attacks (Pas) as well as significant reductions in physiological and subjective arousal to provocative imagery. Individuals in the IEX intervention demonstrated less consistent improvement on the dependent measures, while individuals in the WLC condition essentially remained unchanged. Both GIC and IEX were effective according to a composite measure of clinically significant improvement. However, only GIC was superior to the WLC condition when clinical improvement was defined as zero PAs at follow-up. These findings, while preliminary, suggest that GIC can be added to the armamentarium of effective approaches to treating PD.     

Towards a Hierarchical Model of Self-concept for Hong Kong Chinese Adults with Physical Disabilities

This paper explores the basic facets and structure of the self-concepts of groups of 135 and 146 Hong Kong Chinese adults with and without physical disabilities, respectively. Comparison of responses to a 20-item scale indicated a very similar pattern of the importance the individuals in these groups attached to these areas of their lives. However, the non-disabled group did report higher satisfaction ratings on six of these areas and factor analysis of both the importance and satisfaction ratings showed a similar underlying factor structure for both groups. Content analysis of open-ended questions confirmed that both groups shared similar self-concept facets except that the subjects with physical disabilities most frequently reported the importance of “functional independence in daily living tasks”. It is proposed that this facet needs to be included in a self-concept instrument appropriate for subjects with physical disabilities. Models of self-concept were then suggested for each group.     

Thinking About “Tests and Assessment” and the Career Beliefs Inventory

The author (a) comments briefly on the “Tests and Assessment” section of the Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD)—what it has covered and has not covered in recent years—and (b) introduces a set of articles that discuss a new career-oriented inventory of potential interest to counselors.     

Depth of processing: When the principle of congruity fails

Two factors, level of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) and congruity (Schulman, 1974), known to have large effects on the recall of experimenter-provided responses to questions, were examined in a series of five incidental learning experiments using subject-generated responses. The data show that manipulation of level of processing has the same effect on recall of subjectgenerated responses as it does on experimenter-provided responses. However, the effect of congruity is reversed for subject-generated responses. The data suggest that the difficulty of generating unrelated responses (“incongruous“ items) may account, at least in part, for the failure of the “principle of congruity“ with subject-generated responses.     

Malpractice in clinical social work: A perspective on civil liability in the 1980's

Recently reported cases involving the malpractice of psychiatrists have also focused attention on the potential liability for similar acts by clinical social workers. While there is no appellate case authority holding social work clinicians liable for malpractice at this time, the potential for such litigation is enormous. This article explores some of the more common areas of concern and suggests several prophylactic measures that clinicians may employ to safeguard both their professional career and their continued financial independence.     

Learning to reproduce a list and memory for the learning.

The ability to reproduce from memory a short list of verbal items immediately following presentation is known to improve over successive trials on that list, even if these trials are embedded in a sequence of trials on other lists of the same sort (Hebb, 1961). Less clear is whether this "Hebb effect" arises without the list repetition being noticed. This question has long been pondered and has recently taken on particular theoretical significance, but the available evidence is scant and inconsistent. Two experiments are described in which, in essence, a sequence of immediate reproduction trials was followed by tests that called for list recognition (Experiments 1 and 2) and/or estimates of list presentation frequency (Experiment 1). These tests provided quantitative measures of repetition awareness. Typical Hebb effects were found, but there was no evidence that the effects occurred without the subjects' being aware of the repetition; effect-size analyses indicated that both the recognition and frequency responses were more sensitive to repetition than were the reproduction responses. Therefore, not only could the recognition and frequency responses not have been made solely on the basis of how readily the test lists were reproduced, but the Hebb effect could have required an awareness of repetition.