The effects of counsellor gender and problem type on help-seeking attitudes among Turkish high school students

The present study explores gender differences in help-seeking attitudes and the effects of counsellor gender and problem type on those attitudes among Turkish high school students. The Attitudes towards Seeking Help Scale and a survey instrument concerning related factors were administered to 342 adolescents. ANOVAs show that male and female students displayed different help-seeking attitudes. Females held much more positive help-seeking attitudes than did males. For females, neither counsellor gender, problem type nor their interaction affected help-seeking attitudes. By contrast, among males, the interaction of counsellor gender and problem type influenced total help-seeking attitudes as well as two of the subscales – psychological distress and confidence in mental health professionals. Limitations, suggestions for further research and implications are discussed.     

外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为之关系：班级氛围的调节效应*

采用调查法,随机选取上海市3所普通中小学四、六、八、十年级的755名学生为被试,探讨班级氛围在外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为关系间的调节作用。结果表明：(1)男生的外化行为问题显著高于女生,其感知的班级氛围显著低于女生。而男、女生集体道德情绪与集体责任行为的性别差异不显著;(2)学生感知的班级氛围随年龄的增长先下降再上升,八年级时最低;集体道德情绪和集体责任行为随着年级的增高而呈下降趋势,小学生(四、六年级)的集体道德情绪和集体责任行为得分均比中学生(八、十年级)高,高一(十年级)学生的得分处于最低水平;(3)外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为的关系受班级氛围的调节。与消极的班级氛围相比,积极的班级氛围能够弱化外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为的负向关联。结果揭示了积极的班级氛围对外化行为问题学生具有一定的保护作用,有助于改善这些学生的社会适应能力。     

Psychometric properties of the Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI) in a study of coping behaviour amongst malawian students

Abstract

The Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI; Amirkhan 1990) is an inductively derived measure of responses to adverse circumstances. Although seeking to isolate “a few fundamental strategies with wide applicability” (Amirkhan 1990). the initial validation studies were all based on Californian populations. The present study repork findings from completion of the CSI by 415 Malawian students as part of their enrolment health check up. Factor analysis (principal components analysis with varimax rotation) identified three factors with very similar structure and loadings to those identified by Amirkhan, namely, Support Seeking, Problem Solving and Avoidance. As with the initial validation study, there was some evidence of withdrawal and distraction forming identifiable sub-components of Avoidance. The CSI does appear to provide a measure of core coping strategies which is robust across cultural settings, the theoretical implications of which are considered. The influence of factors such as age and gender on CSI scores is discussed     

Causes,Counterfactuals, and Non-Locality

In order to motivate the thesis that there is no single concept of causation that can do justice to all of our core intuitions concerning that concept, Ned Hall has argued that there is a conflict between a counterfactual criterion of causation and the condition of causal locality. In this paper I critically examine Hall's argument within the context of a more general discussion of the role of locality constraints in a causal conception of the world. I present two strategies that defenders of counterfactual accounts of causation can pursue to respond to Hall's challenge—including the adoption of a counterfactual condition that is sufficient for causal action-at-a-distance in place of Hall's ‘process’ condition—and conclude that Hall's argument against counterfactual accounts of causation is unsuccessful.     

Engagement organisationnel,coping, et affects en contexte organisationnel : test d’un modèle intégrateur

This study examines a model relating components of organizational commitment to positive and negative affect through the partial mediation of problem solving coping. The results of a study conducted among a sample of 647 employees from various organizations show that affective commitment relates positively to positive affect and negatively to negative affect, with the relation to positive affect being partially mediated by problem solving coping. Normative commitment was positively related to negative affect. Finally, continuance commitment based on few alternatives was negatively related to positive affect and positively related to negative affect, with the relation to positive affect being partially mediated by a weaker problem solving coping. Continuance commitment based on perceived sacrifice had no effects.     

Keep or trade? Effects of pay-off range on decisions with the two-envelops problem

The “two-envelops” problem has stimulated much discussion on probabilistic reasoning, but relatively little experimentation. The problem specifies two identical envelopes, one of which contains twice as much money as the other. You are given one of the envelopes and the option of keeping it or trading for the other envelope. Variables of interest include the possible amounts of money involved, what is known about the process by which the amounts of money were assigned to the envelopes, and whether you are allowed to know how much money is in the envelope in hand before deciding whether to keep or trade. In an earlier study, Butler and Nickerson found that when participants were allowed to know how much was in the envelope in hand, they generally elected to trade if that amount was small relative to the range of possibilities and to keep otherwise. The present experiments showed that this propensity was independent of the amount of money in the envelopes. Participants made decisions with a strong bias for avoiding the risk of losing by trading, particularly when the amount in hand was known and large relative to the range of possible amounts, regardless of the absolute value of the gamble. The results illustrate the dependence of thinking on the context in which it occurs, and demonstrate a tendency to treat quantities that are large or small relative to a particular context in which they are encountered as though they were large or small in a more general sense.     

From Noosphere to Theosphere: Cyclotrons, Cyberspace, and Teilhard's Vision of Cosmic Love

Two theme–setting quotations introduce this essay—that of Yeats's falcon, deaf to the falconer's call, adrift in space above the blood–dimmed tide, counterpoised to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's call to abandon old nationalistic prejudices and build the earth. With primary references to the thought of Teilhard, along with, among others, to Ewert Cousins, Andrew M. Greeley, Karl Jaspers, Marshall McLuhan, Ilya Prigogine, Karl Rahner, Leonard Swidler, David Tracy, and Alfred North Whitehead, I argue that the most crucial intellectual paradigm shift of the twenty–first century will challenge humanity to take the turn from uncritical attachment to rigid absolutism or atomistic fragmentation toward a sense of open–ended, off–centered centeredness and fluid connections—from a static to a dynamic model of reality. Central to my argument is the Teilhardian reinterpretation of the Christian metaphors of creation, fall, incarnation, salvation, and the eschaton in the evolutionary terms of the emergence of cosmic consciousness from the chrysalis of the world of the past—from chaos to order, from biosphere via noosphere to theosphere. Facilitated by the exponential growth of populations, collaborative research, science, technology, and global communication (most dramatically manifested by the Internet), this emergent understanding of what it means to be human can, first, foster the awareness that in humanity evolution has become conscious of itself, and then, gradually, precipitate the formation of “the global village” (the mystical body of Christ), as respectful dialogue replaces diatribe and the dualistic pugilism of Samuel Huntington's “Clash of Civilizations” is gradually transformed into a nonadversarial mentality that values shared humanity and a common purpose. Thus, eons hence, empowered by love–energy, the transmutation of the human into the ultra–human can take the ultimate quantum leap into a yet higher dimension where spirit/energy is no longer in need of flesh/mass, and Earth can be safely left behind.     

中学教师处理学生心理健康问题策略特点探析

采用问卷法考察了268名中学教师在厌学、退缩行为、自我中心、攻击性行为和考试焦虑五种问题情境下教师对处理学生心理健康问题的策略有效性和使用可能性的评定以及性别、教龄因素对教师评定策略有效性的影响。结果表明:(1)中学教师处理学生心理健康问题策略具有情境性,教师对处理学生心理健康问题的策略的有效性的认可和真正在具体情境中采取的策略不尽相同。在厌学和退缩行为情境中,教师倾向于认为情感关爱型策略更有效;自我中心情境中,行为疏导型策略更有效;攻击行为情境中,惩罚约束型策略更有效;在焦虑情境中,言语疏导型策略更有效。在采用可能性的评定中,对学生的厌学、退缩行为、自我中心和焦虑问题,教师都更倾向于采用言语疏导型策略;在攻击行为情境中,教师更倾向于采用行为疏导型策略。(2)与性别相比,教龄是影响教师评定处理学生心理健康问题策略有效性的较为敏感的变量。在厌学情境中,20年以上教龄的教师认为责任转移型策略和情感关爱型策略更有效;在自我中心情境中,20年以上教龄的教师认为责任转移型策略更有效。     

Double bind: An essay on counselling training

Gerard Egan's problem management and opportunity development model is currently in use training prospective counsellors, social workers, nurses, managers, etc. the skills of helping. This essay attempts, experimentally, to depict in three different ways Egan's work and its relationship to operations of power: (1) from a relatively uncritical stance, (2) from a personal experience stance, and (3) from a social constructionist perspective. The whole piece, taken together, attempts to tackle the issue of theory as practice — to ground/unmask/make present the ways in which we are socialised into a profession and the problems inherent in that process. Two themes run through the work: the double bind created for a student on a counselling course which makes some claim to train around Rogers' core conditions, and which is also assessed/accredited; the connections between theory, training and practices.     

How do counsellors make client assessments?

This paper reports on a consultation exercise undertaken with 18 experienced counsellors on how they make client assessments. These practitioners expressed a high degree of consensus on the purposes of assessment making (to reach a shared understanding with the client about their willingness and ability to undertake a shared therapeutic journey) but the way in which they approached the task varied according to the theoretical orientation they acquired during training. Although most had developed their counselling skills and techniques considerably since initial training, not all had integrated the assessment implications of later experience into their formulation making. The implications of combining single model assessment with eclectic practice are discussed, particularly in relation to making a decision to continue working with a client or to refer a client to a colleague. The authors call for further debate on how counsellors find meaning in what their clients say, why they ask the questions they do at the assessment stage, and how they achieve coherence in relation to ideas and skills accrued through ongoing training and practice. The implications of such a debate for training and supervision are discussed.