Scholarship and Professionalism: A Personal Narrative

Personal narratives sometimes can capture more widespread elements in human experience. In the hope that certain elements in my experience will resonate to similar experiences of others, I describe my current struggle to find time for scholarship in my job as a university professor in counseling.     

Aspects of Consumer Satisfaction With Brief Family Therapy

In an evaluative study of brief family therapy, 279 families were administered a Family Satisfaction Questionnaire in their own homes, six months after treatment terminated. This questionnaire was designed to assess several aspects of the families' satisfaction with services received. The identified patient in all families was a child with academic and/or behavioral problems at school. A variety of outcome measures were also obtained both at treatment termination and at the six-month follow-up. Families were generally satisfied with the overall services received but expressed widely varying degrees of satisfaction with various aspects of treatment. Very little dissatisfaction was expressed regarding the availability of services (less than 7 per cent), but a sizeable proportion of families (45 per cent) did not feel that the services provided were comprehensive and adequate. Despite concerns regarding comprehensiveness and adequacy of the service, the majority of families were functioning well at the time of follow-up as assessed by a number of independent measures. Global satisfaction should not be regarded as the only index of treatment effectiveness, as many families who were dissatisfied experienced successful treatment outcomes.     

A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: RESEARCH,DESIGN, INTRODUCTION AND EVALUATION1

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze a unique and innovative appraisal and development system. The Performance Management System (PMS) is the formal vehicle used by Corning Glass Works managers to measure and improve the performance and potential for advancement of approximately 3,000 managerial and professional employees. The current design of PMS is the result of several years of research and development work by staff psychologists and personnel specialists at Corning along with applied psychological research conducted in other organizations. PMS is distinguished from most appraisal systems by the following characteristics: (1) Its emphasis on both psychometric accuracy and practical utility; (2) Its emphasis on development as opposed to evaluation; (3) Its use of ipsative measurement; (4) Its integration of results with behavior centered appraisal. This paper is comprised of an introduction, reports on the initial research, the design and introduction, the evaluation and revision of PMS, and an overall summary. The strategies, results, and problems encountered at each phase of PMS development will be described and analyzed.     

Client,Treatment, and Therapist Variables Related To Outcome in Brief,Systems-Oriented Family Therapy

Client, therapist, and treatment characteristics were examined with respect to how much of the variance they could account for in a variety of outcome measures. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine relationships among each of the client, therapist, and treatment characteristics studied and the various outcome measures. For the 219 families that were treated with brief family therapy, only a relatively low amount of variance in any of the outcome measures could be accounted for. The amount of explained variance, however, varied considerably from one outcome measure to the other. When the more homogeneous groups of clients (single parents or adolescent identified patients) were considered, the amount of explained variance generally showed an increase. Different sets of client, therapist, and treatment variables accounted for the variance in these outcome measures across client groups, demonstrating both the complexities of the relationships and the relative independence of various outcome measures. New variables are suggested for future research.     

CONVERGENCE AMONG DATA SOURCES, RESPONSE BIAS, AND RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A STRUCTURED JOB ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE

Research examined both the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) and the possible analyst sources for gathering job analysis information. 25 state government jobs were examined using job incumbents, supervisors, job analysts, and a comparison group of college students. Reliability and validity (judge convergence and prediction of present pay levels) information was determined for each of the four analyst categories. Results indicate that there is little difference between analyst sources, including students, in terms of their ability to reliably analyze a job using the PAQ. Convergent validity results showed a high degree of agreement among all judge categories when summing item frequencies across all 25 jobs. The prediction of present pay levels was significant for all judge categories but was noticeably smaller than previously reported studies. This seemed to be primarily due to the restriction in salary range of the present study. An analysis of judge response bias showed that supervisors and incumbents rate all or most PAQ items higher than their analyst counterparts. These findings suggest that who furnishes responses to a job analysis inventory makes little practical difference. The exception is that the determination of pay levels and human requirements for test construction purposes should be viewed with caution when different analyst sources are utilized for different jobs.     

College freshmen view their parents

Interview data were collected from a random sample of 55 Macalester College freshmen in the fall of 1968 and the spring of 1969 in an attempt to explore the students' relationships with their parents. In general, students described their parents favorably and with enthusiasm. About half the students reported that they usually discussed important matters with their parents. The major areas of conflict between students and their parents were religion, politics, and sex. Most students felt that they were different from their parents in beliefs, values, goals, or life styles. They frequently claimed to be more liberal and less materialistic and to have a more casual way of living.     

Regional Variation in Preferences for Vernacular Houses

This paper tests 2 theories of relevance to design review and design guidelines. In Study I. a between-subjects design. III college students in Connecticut and 93 college students in Ohio judged goodness of example, familiarity, or preference for 6 houses. The results failed to uncover differences in response related to local experience, suggesting that global features of the houses may overcome local experience. In Study 2, a within-subjects design, 110 students from Connecticut and 49 from Ohio rated goodness of example, familiarity, and preference for the same 6 houses. Results indicate minor effects of goodness of example and familiarity on preference. The results show preference as multidimensional, reflecting knowledge structure, physical features, and connotative meanings.     

A Proposal for Researching Possible Relationships Between Scientific Theories and the Personal Theories of Counselors and Clients

Current views from the philosophy of science encourage speculation about the relationship between the personal commitments of scientists and scientific theories. Increasing numbers of psychologists also have speculated about relationships between the development of personal and scientific theories. The author describes several assumptions that link scientific and personal theorizing. A research program is outlined that might refine and test such assumptions in the context of counseling. The overall goal of the article is to argue that research into the scientific and personal theories of researchers of counseling and the personal theories of counselors and clients may answer long-standing questions about the relationship between scientific and practical knowledge in counseling. Scientists are people. (Source unknown)     

REFERENT SELECTION IN DETERMINING EQUITY PERCEPTIONS: DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS ON BEHAVIORAL AND ATTITUDINAL OUTCOMES

The concept of differential equity allows individuals to have different perceptions of equity depending on the pay referent used. Different pay referents should result in different tactics to reduce inequities. To test this hypothesis, equity perceptions with respect to seven different referents were compared as to their relationship to pay satisfaction, intent to remain with a company, and frequency of extra-role behavior. Findings suggest that the various types of inequity relate differentially to each of the three outcome variables.