A Systems Dilemma

The current shift of interest, reflected in public policy, from the production of goods to the provision of services, has caused a major re-examination of the nature of the services the individual can expect from his society. This re-examination is producing a number of insights, some of them shocking. In particular, we are learning that many of the systems we have created to deliver services are, in the name of “progress” and “civilization,” contributing to the conditions of human distress they were designed to alleviate. Much has been written lately about how service systems of one kind or another subvert their announced goals—how a welfare system perpetuates poverty, or how the medical profession creates iatrogenic illness. There has not been very much written, however, about how several systems inadvertently combine in their day to day operations in such a way as to frustrate each others' activities, and how, in so doing, they destroy in varying degrees the lives of people, or render it difficult for them to improve their lives. We have all been much too tightly locked in our own niches by training, experience, and various types of private interest to see this kind of interlock. It comes into sharp perspective only when one studies the problems of a single person in terms of his total life space, his “ecology.” This paper represents an effort to describe one such situation in a family as viewed from a community health services program designed to approach human crises as ecological phenomena, and to explore and respond to them within this framework. We have found that the best way to organize our view of the environmental field people move in is according to the diverse systems which make it up, so we have labeled our theoretical base “ecological systems theory.” ( 1 ) What is of particular interest to the behavioral scientist in the situation described is that neither individual nor family diagnosis, nor the contributions of the larger systems (in this case a housing system and a system of medical care) will, if viewed separately, explain the state of the man in question. Only when the contributions of all of these systems are made clear, and their interrelationships explored, do the origins of the phenomena described begin to emerge.     

SELF-REPORTED ASSERTIVE JOB-SEEKING BEHAVIORS OF MINIMALLY EDUCATED JOB HUNTERS

Little research attention has focused on the job-search behavior of minimally educated workers. The primary objective of the studies reported was to examine the relationship of self-reported assertive job-hunting behavior to acquisition of employment among minimally educated workers. The results of three studies provide: (a) construct validity evidence for the Assertive Job-Hunting Survey (AJHS; Becker, 1980), (b) evidence for construct similarity across minimally educated job seeker and college student populations, (c) evidence of a significant relationship between the AJHS and both subjective and objective job acquisition criteria in postdictive and predictive research designs, and (d) evidence that the AJHS, a measure of a non-cognitive variable, can make a unique contribution to the prediction of job acquisition beyond cognitive ability measures.     

THE EFFECTS OF SELF-REGULATORY COPING ORIENTATION ON NEWCOMER ADJUSTMENT AND JOB SURVIVAL

In a field experiment new hires to entry-level service jobs were randomly assigned to either a comparison group, which received information warning of negative aspects of the job and information about specific coping behaviors, or to an experimental group, which received the same information as the comparison group, plus training in cognitive restructuring and positive self-talk, and statements to bolster self-efficacy. It was expected that the experimental group would exhibit less turnover and report higher levels of supportiveness, satisfaction, and commitment and less anxiety than the Comparison Group. However, the experimental group exhibited more early turnover. The coping information provided to the Experimental Group increased perceptions of negative job information, and such perceptions may have resulted in a self-selection effect. Of those remaining at 4 weeks, those from the experimental group were significantly more likely to report intentions to remain for a year or longer, and to report greater job satisfaction.     

Sexual Dual Relationships in Counseling: Confronting the Issues

Sexual intimacy between counselors and clients is a frequently claimed type of violation against licensed professional counselors. This article examines the issue of sexual dual relationships in terms of prevalence, harm inflicted on clients, counselor awareness, predictability, and parameters for concern. Implications for counseling practice, education of prospective clients, legislation, research, and counselor training are also discussed. It is suggested that despite the complexity and controversy surrounding the topic of sexual dual relationships, the challenge to counselors to confront and to explore these issues is critical to the profession and cannot be ignored.     

Overcoming Learned Helplessness: Managerial Strategies for the 1990s

Problems of work force quality in the United States in the 1990s, strategies for managerial response to these problems, and sources of employee resistance to change are discussed.     

How Do People React to Stigma Acknowledgment? Race and Gender Acknowledgment in the Context of the 2008 Presidential Election1

Some studies have found that acknowledging one's stigmatized social identity in an evaluative context leads to more favorable evaluations, whereas others have found that stigma acknowledgment can increase negative evaluations. The present study examined one potential factor (i.e., evaluators' attitudes toward social groups to which acknowledgers belong) that may moderate the relation between stigma acknowledgment and evaluations, in the context of race and gender acknowledgment in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Results indicated that acknowledgment of race, but not gender, led to more negative evaluations, particularly for high‐prejudiced individuals. The findings highlight the importance of examining stigma acknowledgment effects from a Person × Situation perspective. Implications for advancing understanding of acknowledgment as a useful strategy in evaluative contexts are discussed.