An exploration of the experience of Christian counsellors in their work with both Christian and non‐Christian clients,with particular reference to aspects of cultural transition

Aim: This study explores the experience of Christian counsellors working in both Christian and secular settings, paying particular attention to the possibility of regarding their development as a form of cultural transition. Method: Heuristic methodology was used, interviewing 22 counsellors with varying churchmanship (i.e. Christian tradition/denomination) and counselling training. Findings/Discussion: A spectrum of experiences with both Christian and non‐Christian clients emerged. The level of overtness of the counsellors’ faith with these clients varied considerably. Parallels with the experience of these counsellors and that of immigrants in terms of cultural transition are discussed. Conclusions: The experience of Christian counsellors differs with respect to the level of Christian influence (i.e. Christian or secular input) in training, supervision and work context. Those with higher secular influence have less difficulty working with clients with different belief systems and values. Implications: Christian counsellors need to be more reflexive with respect to the effect of their own value systems when working with clients, particularly if they work mostly in a Christian context. Trainers need to be aware of cultural transition aspects in the development of counsellors who have a Christian faith.     

Income and support during transition from a military to civilian career

This study examined experienced military members (N= 136, average age 51 years) transitioning to a 2nd occupation, specifically K–12 teaching, and revealed correlations between the length of their transition to both perceived support and income. Perceived support from family and friends had a small, positive correlation with transition time (r= .31), while income had a small, negative correlation with transition time (r=?.28). The Career Transitions Inventory ( Heppner, 1991 ), the Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985 ), demographic questions, and open‐ended questions were used. Implications for career counselors working with transitioning military members are discussed, along with future implications for research and practice.     

Walking and Running on the Circular Treadmill: Transition Speed and Podokinetic Aftereffects

The author compared 10 participants' self-selected walk-to-run transition speeds on a standard treadmill with those on a circular treadmill. The speed of the outer limb at walk-to-run transition on the circular treadmill and on the standard treadmill were very similar. Adaptive aftereffects from running and walking on the circular treadmill were also similar. When asked to step in place without vision, all participants inadvertently turned in circles following walking or running on the treadmill. The results of the present study suggest that the mechanisms controlling walk-to-run transitions are similar for the standard and circular treadmills and demonstrate the robust generalizability of locomotor aftereffects from running to walking. Adaptive control of speed, form, and direction may therefore share similar mechanisms for walking and running.     

The Need for Action When Conducting Intervention Research: The Multiple Roles of Community Psychologists

In choosing to implement empowering interventions with marginalized populations, community psychologists often have to merge research and action. We present three case stories that exemplify empowerment efforts in the context of a multi-year school intervention designed to develop the advocacy skills of ethnic minority students' with disabilities and promote attainment of transition-related goals. In the process of implementing the intervention, our research team had to instigate change, advocate, and/or mediate in multiple conflictual interactions between the various stakeholders in the schools. We faced both positive and negative consequences for our actions. We discuss the responsibilities of community psychologists in the process of empowering others and the implications for the practice of community research.     

Get an Apprenticeship before School Is Out: How German Adolescents Adjust Vocational Aspirations When Getting Close to a Developmental Deadline

Opportunities to attain important life goals are sequenced in age-graded trajectories that wax and wane throughout life. A prime example of such age-graded opportunity structures is the transition from school to work. The institutions of vocational training in Germany closely scaffold this transition and provide developmental deadlines for attaining the critical transition, namely finding an apprenticeship position. Adjustments of vocational aspirations are investigated with regard to the social prestige of three indicators of aspirations, “dream job,” “vocation I am interested in,” and apprenticeships applied for. Findings indicate that adolescents progressively adjusted their “dream job” to “job I am interested in” as the deadline approaches. Moreover, overall adolescents matched their school performance to the social prestige of apprenticeships for which they applied. Boys and girls whose motivational orientation did not match their gender prototype attained particularly high levels of achievement and aspiration.     

Questionner le sens dans l’accompagnement d’une transition vers la reconversion professionnelle : une recherche-intervention

This contribution is based on a research-intervention contracted by a team of researchers in social psychology with a local authority. It focuses on the support of public sector workers, declared medically inapt to occupy their current position, during the transition that is redeployment period. The contributions of two theoretical approaches allowing to understand this question are first crossed: existential psychology relative to the life-span career counseling on the one hand, and psychology of the socialization, underlied by the activities of personalization mobilized in the construction of meaning on the other hand. Secondly, these approaches are discussed in the light of the experience of support workshops developed and implemented in the field of this research. These workshops, organized in four sessions, aim to help participants to objectify the questions inherent in this professional transition and to give meaning to their life course and their experience of the situation. The exchanges made it possible for the participants to share views on issues such as the situation of inaptitude, their relationships to work or the redeployment package itself. These workshops give evidence of the possibility of supporting subjects, concerned by ruptures in their life, towards the development of a capacity to act and to transform their environment and highlight the psychosocial effects of a support designed as a social support for the change of professional activities.     

Levinson's age thirty transition: Does it exist?

Most models of adult development have been derived from and subsequently tested on small, nonrandom samples of adults. The purpose of this study was to investigate one aspect of Levinson's model of male development—the Age Thirty Transition—using a large, diverse, nationwide sample of adults. Secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of High School Seniors of 1972 (NLS) was used to test for the existence of the Age Thirty Transition by sex, race, and socioeconomic level (N=12,000). It was hypothesized that meaningful changes in individual responses between 1979 (age 25) and 1986 (age 32) to eight selected questions about work, relationships, and self would be indicative of the Age Thirty Transition. Only for the less than 20% who indicated dissatisfaction or unhappiness was there substantial change between ages 25 and 32. Responses by race, sex, and socioeconomic level did not vary from the total sample. It was concluded that, for this large sample of adults, there was no persuasive evidence for the existence of the Age Thirty Transition.     

THE BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF TIMING: TRANSITION ANALYSES

Gibbon and Church (1990, 1992) have recently confirmed an important, parameter-free prediction of the behavioral theory of timing (Killeen & Fetterman, 1988): The times of exiting from a bout of activity are positively correlated with the times of entrance to it. The correlations were slightly less than predicted, however, and the correlations between the start of an activity and the time spent engaged in that activity were negative, rather than zero. We adapted their serial model as an augmented (one-parameter) version of the behavioral theory, positing a lag between the receipt of a pulse from the pacemaker and transition into the next class of responses. The augmented version of the behavioral theory further improved the correspondence between the theory and the correlational data reported by Gibbon and Church. It also accounts for previously unpublished data from our laboratory derived from a new timing technique, the “peak choice” procedure. We show that the measured variance of movement times from one key to another closely approximates the estimated variance of transition times recovered from fits of the augmented model to the data. Such correspondence both attests to the correct identification of this source of variance and suggests ways to remove it, both from behavior and from our models of behavior.     

Adolescent Adjustment and the Transition to High School

We examined the impact of the transition from elementary to high school on the psychological adjustment of adolescents, and the effectiveness of an assessment procedure aimed at identifying adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral problems. One hundred and ten children from 2 elementary schools within the greater Brisbane area were followed across the transition from elementary to high school and screened for emotional and behavioral problems in grade 7 and again in grade 8. It was found that, in general, the transition to high school did not coincide with a marked decrease in psychological adjustment. Structured clinical interviews with adolescents in grade 8 showed that 13% of boys and 15% of girls experienced a diagnosable DSM-IV psychological disorder and that a further 15% of boys and 15% of girls suffered from features of a psychological disorder. Furthermore, results of discriminant function analyses showed that a combination of self report of adjustment, teacher report of adjustment, and assessment of relevant family variables obtained in grade 7 predicted the absence or presence of emotional and behavioral problems, six months later, in up to 77% of children. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of the transition to high school, the effectiveness of community-based assessment programs for adolescents, and the stability of emotional and behavioral problems in childhood and adolescents.     

Psychosocial Considerations in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD): The Transition from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Sickle cell disease (SCD) occurs in 1 of every 400 to 500 African American births. Despite its prevalence, there has been a relative dearth of attention paid to SCD in the psychological literature. African American SCD adolescents and young adults, individuals at an already vulnerable developmental stage, are at increased risk for psychological distress and psychosocial impairments (e.g., depression and low self-esteem, poor social and academic/vocational functioning). Such difficulties often result in problematic adherence to medical regimens, and thus represent a potentially serious clinical and public health problem that merits the attention of psychologists working in medical settings. This article (1) reviews the psychosocial needs peculiar to SCD patients transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood; (2) applies a culturally informed stress-coping-adjustment framework to assess and address the psychological status, psychosocial functioning, and disease outcomes of these individuals; and (3) describes a culturally and developmentally sensitive, psychoeducational group intervention.