Reliability and validity of standardized case management simulations.

Examined the reliability and validity of 3 computerized case management simulations in counseling, similar to patient management problems in medicine. The simulations depicted a 40-yr-old female with chronic back pain, a 22-yr-old female with a personality disorder, and a 51-yr-old male with alcoholism. The simulations were administered to a criterion sample of 15 experienced counseling practitioners (mean age 35.7 yrs) and to 3 additional samples (n?=?15 in each) representing high, moderate, and low levels of professional training/experience. The mean ages of these 3 groups were 27.7, 25.6, and 24.1 yrs, respectively. Alternate forms reliability coefficients were moderately high, and coefficients for composite scores based on all 3 simulations were somewhat higher. Significant relations were found between performance on the simulations and levels of training and experience. Results support the potential usefulness of standardized case management simulations in evaluating clinical problem-solving skills. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-hypnosis as a facilitator of self-efficacy: A case example.

Presents a case example of a 20-yr-old female undergraduate who sought counseling when her widowed mother was remarrying. Her father had died suddenly 3 yrs previously. Self-hypnosis was used in a 4-session treatment to facilitate her mourning process. It is suggested that self-hypnosis (rather than enhancing imagery) increases self-efficacy. S's sense that she could perform behaviors that lead to desired outcomes increased by allowing her to choose scenes from her life to be explored through imagery. S imagined events around her father's death and "rewrote history" in an attempt to permit herself the direct expression of emotions. At a 3?-yr follow-up, S reported that the self-hypnosis was used to relax and that she had reentered therapy 6 mo before. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical judgment in geropsychology practice.

418 clinical psychologists (aged 28–77 yrs) were mailed a clinical judgment survey containing a standard case history that varied according to age (46 or 72 yrs), class (working or middle), and gender of client. Clients were rated along Likert scales on dependent variables tapping attitudinal (e.g., "usefulness of intervention"), symptomatological (e.g, "disorientation"), and diagnostic dimensions. MANOVA analyses demonstrated that the 72-yr-old client elicited significantly more negative perceptions, including more "psychotic" diagnoses than the 46-yr-old client. Results provide evidence for ageism in the psychotherapy setting and treatment. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimodal treatment package for substance abuse treatment programs.

Describes a multimodal treatment design for a short-term, residential, hospital-based program for drug abusers. Each patient is expected to attend all program services with the intent that one or several will provide the corrective emotional experience facilitating change. Services included medical care, individual counseling/psychotherapy, group counseling, health education seminars, milieu/recreational therapy, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, linkage with aftercare components, and ancillary services (vocational rehabilitation, court liaison, and 90-day follow-up). Psychology interns and students are utilized. Results of internal follow-up show that 40% of Ss admitted over 3 yrs stated they were drug-free at 90 days and 1.5 yrs. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A group counseling emphasis at a university counseling center.

Describes a service delivery system with a group personal counseling emphasis, based on the authors' 2 yrs of experience at a university counseling center. The local background and rationale for this system are discussed, and the practical logistics, the operational policies, and the group ground rules are presented. Utilization data are summarized: 36% of all clients and 88% of clients with 8 or more sessions were group members; groups typically grew to 9 clients and had 60% attendance. Results for a self-report outcome survey of 128 students are exemplified by the 95.1% who reported some level of improvement and the 92.2% who rated their psychologist "very" to "exceptionally effective." (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability, sensitivity to measuring change, and construct validity of a measure of counselor adaptability.

Conducted 3 studies with 44 practicing counselors (aged 24–42 yrs), 11 counselors-in-training, and 42 counselors whose experience ranged from MA-level trainees through PhD psychologists with 18 yrs postdoctoral experience as counselors to assess the psychometric adequacy of the Counselor Behavior Analysis Scale (CBAS). The CBAS measures the central explanatory construct of the adaptive counseling and therapy theory of the 2nd author and colleagues (in press), that is, counselor adaptability. Results suggest that counselor adaptability can be appropriately measured by the CBAS and that counselor adaptability is highly predictive of counseling outcome and is related to other counselor constructs (specifically empathy and talkativeness). (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naive psychology and the development of persuasive appeals in girls.

Examined the appeals generated by 3 groups of 20, 5-, 9-, and 13-yr-old females when asked to persuade mother and best friend to give up watching a favorite TV show to play a game. 3 developmental trends in the use of persuasive appeals were found: (a) diplomatic maneuvers stressing the advantage to the target increased with age, (b) simple requests decreased with age, and (c) "high pressure" tactics increased between the ages of 5 and 9 yrs and decreased between ages 9 and 13 yrs. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensitivity-oriented versus didactically oriented in-service counselor training.

Compared the effectiveness of 2 different in-service training workshops for counselors. 18 male and 15 female secondary school counselors with a mean age of 37.3 yrs and mean counseling experience of 6.3 yrs served as Ss. 22 Ss were given a 16-hr Carkhuff-type refresher in facilitative interpersonal process plus 8 hrs either of sensitivity experiences or traditional didactic learning. 11 volunteers whose schedules could not be accommodated served as controls. Pre-post criteria of relationship skill were assessed in actual and simulated interviews. Results demonstrate the usefulness of Carkhuff-based training supplemented by group encounter as a professional-skills enhancer, and underscored the transferability of sensitivity training gains to counseling. It is concluded that the interpersonal learning that occurs in a sensitivity context may be a more valuable resource in real-life counseling situations than the learning effected by didactic materials. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling supervision by developmental level.

Examined the validity of an elaboration of C. Stoltenberg's (see record 1981-06282-001) developmental counseling supervision model with 71 supervisors (mean age 37.5 yrs) and 107 supervisees (mean age 30.2 yrs) from 9 university counseling centers, resulting in 107 supervision dyads. A supervision level scale (SLS) was used to classify predominant developmental level of supervisees and supervision environments to avoid the use of training level as a proxy for developmental level. Supervisors completed the SLS, and supervisors and supervisees reported their satisfaction and opinion of supervisee's learning. Supervisors were found to generally match the level of their supervision to the level of the supervisee. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed that supervisee developmental level was related to mean semesters of supervisee supervised, but not nonsupervised, counseling experience. Supervision environment level was also related to mean semesters of supervisee supervised, but not nonsupervised, counseling experience. Mean satisfaction and learning ratings of supervisors and supervisees did not differ by person–environment congruency. Results provide support for conceptualizing supervisees and supervision environments developmentally, although not for congruency. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implementing a time-limited therapy program: Differential effects of training and experience.

Assessed the relationship between level of clinical experience, training format (no training, self-instructional, or intensive training), and therapeutic outcome in time-limited therapy (TLT). Six experienced therapists (aged 40–55 yrs) and 6 therapists-in-training (aged 25–31 yrs) underwent 1 of the 3 training formats prior to conducting 8 TLT sessions with a prescreened homogeneous group of 57 clients at a university counseling center. Clients of experienced therapists had consistently superior outcomes when compared with clients of their less experienced counterparts, with the exception of intake officers' outcome ratings. The more intensely trained therapists realized better outcomes, irrespective of therapist experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le syllogisme catégorique: Une réexamination du terme "certains" dans une perspective développementale.

Studied the meaning of the quantifiers "some" and "some… not" from a developmental perspective, using 326 participants aged 10 yrs to adulthood. Results show that the pragmatic interpretation of "Some" as equivalent to "Some… not" (and vice versa) appears as the dominant response from the age of 14 yrs (67% of the responses), and becomes still more dominant in adulthood (90%). Among 10-yr-olds, this interpretation is rarely made (16% of the responses), which fixes the limits of the classical pragmatic approach to "Some" based only on its interpretation as "Some but not all." Contrary to the prediction of the pragmatic approach, 10-yr-old children completely reject the equivalence between "Some" and "Some… not." Between the ages of 11 and 13 yrs, in contrast, such equivalence is only accepted by 50% of participants; at this age, one cannot argue that the pragmatic factor is predominant. Yet the progressive evolution of "compatible-type" responses is consistent with the progressive acquisition of reasoning based on the implication "Some" implying '…and not all," which contradicts the premise "all." Results overall demonstrate a real developmental evolution in the pragmatic interpretation of the quantifier, "Some." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of modeling–role-playing and lecture-discussion training techniques for college student mental health professionals.

Investigated the efficacy of experiential modeling–role-playing and lecture–discussion training techniques for 45 college student mental health paraprofessionals. The sample was predominantly (82%) female, between 18 and 24 yrs of age (89%), and without previous counseling training (66%) or experience (84%). The Lister's Helper Response Preference Inventory and ratings of empathy and global counseling skills based on the interpersonal interactions of the Group Assessment of Interpersonal Traits show significantly better counseling skills for the students trained with the modeling–role-playing program than for the untrained controls. Findings support the use of modeling and role-playing training techniques for enhancing paraprofessionals' counseling skills. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of supervisor experience level on planning and in-session supervisor verbal behavior.

Examined the effects of supervisor experience level on presession planning and in-session supervisor verbal behavior. 30 supervisors representing no, low (1? to 3 yrs), and high (4 to 25 yrs) levels of experience (mean ages 27.3, 28.7, and 35.8 yrs, respectively) listened to a 30-min audiotaped counseling interaction and then recorded thoughts and strategies for supervision in a 30-min planning session. Ss then conducted a 30-min supervision session with the counselor. Analyses of audiotapes from the planning and supervision sessions revealed no significant differences between the 3 levels of supervisory experience in planning statements. However, significant differences were observed in the actual supervision session, with low- and high-experience Ss being similar to each other and different from the no-experience group on several dependent measures. Results also indicate that the counselor rated the low- and high-experience Ss more positively than the no-experience Ss. No relation was observed between statements generated during the planning session and those occurring during supervision. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching behaviors of 9- and 11-year-old girls in mixed-age and same-age dyads.

Examined the hypothesis that the accommodations made by tutors according to the age of their tutees are not specific to the CA of the tutors themselves. Ss were 32 11-yr-old, 32 9-yr-old, and 16 7-yr-old females. Ss who were 9 and 11 yrs old, having learned the rules governing a board game, were asked to teach other Ss to play the game. Nine-year-old tutors taught 9- and 7-yr-old tutees; 11-yr-old tutors taught 11-, 9-, and 7-yr-olds. The tutees' behaviors did not vary among these dyads, but the behaviors of their tutors did. Tutors instructing younger Ss used repetitions, strategic advice, progress checkups, direct assistance, and praise more frequently than tutors who instructed same-age tutees. Overall, results are consistent with the hypothesis that elementary school children possess an implicit "theory of teaching," which assumes that younger children require more cognitive structuring and more supportive and corrective feedback than same-age children. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying Brinley plots to individuals: Effect of aging on performance distributions in two speeded tasks.

This article describes the application of Brinley plots to performance distributions from 2 speeded tasks, namely, letter coding and visual search. Ss were aged either 60 yrs (n?=?111) or 75 yrs (n?=?111). Response times within each age group were ranked and then plotted against each other so that the best 60-yr-old was paired with the best 75-yr-old, and so on. For both tasks, linear fits to the functions were almost perfect, with slopes greater than 1 and with negative intercepts. Additive and multiplicative models of aging were rejected in favor of a general linear model, with different parameters for the letter coding and visual search tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading the transference in adolescent psychotherapy: A comparison of novice and experienced therapists.

Compared how 3 novice and 3 experienced therapists dealt with the therapeutic relationship. I. Z. Hoffman and M. M. Gill's (1988; see also PA, Vol 76:19773) "patient's experience of the relationship with the therapist" method was used to identify adolescent patients' (16–28 yrs old) allusions to the transference. The experienced therapists (>10 yrs of clinical experience) were quite active in responding to the transference allusions (50–61%), whereas the novices (     

Psychologists in rehabilitation: Preparation and experience.

Examined the preparation and experience of the Directors of Psychology Services in the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities of 219 accredited hospitals and specialized settings. These organizations offer services in comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, chronic pain management, and brain injury. 219 Directors of Psychology Services were surveyed. Doctoral specialties were in clinical (60%), counseling (21%), and rehabilitation psychology (4%). Postdoctoral training for 48% was primarily in neuropsychology. 5% had a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling. The work day included psychotherapy, administration, and neuropsychological assessment for the majority. 52% declared that they were not rehabilitation psychologists, and 50% had less than 5 yrs of experience in rehabilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)