Does vocational overshadowing even exist? A test of the robustness of the vocational overshadowing bias.

Vocational overshadowing (P. M. Spengler, D. L. Blustein, & D. C. Strohmer, 1990 ) is a hypothesized underemphasis of clients' career concerns when more interesting, prestigious, or economically rewarding "personal" problems coexist. This study tested the robustness of the vocational overshadowing bias by using an expanded array of case material, by including practicing counseling psychologists (n?=?125) and clinical psychologists (n?=?121), and by assessing the moderating effects of clinician information processing and attitudinal characteristics. Clinical psychologists were more likely than counseling psychologists to underemphasize vocational concerns combined with severe noncareer problems. More complex thinking about career counseling and higher preference for working with career problems were associated with greater attention to clients' career concerns. However, no clear evidence was found for the vocational overshadowing bias by either equal or less severe noncareer problems. Implications of these findings for career counseling and clinical judgment research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of type of problem and expectations of counselor knowledge and understanding to students' gender preferences for counselors.

131 female and 57 male undergraduates rated, for each of 11 vocational and 22 personal problems, whether they expected a male or female counseling psychologist to be more understanding and more knowledgeable in dealing with a problem. Most Ss expressed no preference for psychologist gender for dealing with vocational problems, although males with a preference preferred a male psychologist to a slight degree. For personal-social problems, females expressing a preference showed a consistent pattern of preference for a female psychologist. However, the number of women expressing some degree of preference and the strength of preference varied across problems. Males expressed generally weaker but more varied preferences than females did. The expectancy for psychologist's understanding generally was a stronger and more consistent correlate of preferences than expectations of knowledgeability. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor theoretical orientation as related to intake judgments.

Investigated the relation between the predominant theoretical orientations (self-identified) of counselors and intake interview judgments by asking 12 senior staff counseling psychologists to rate the problems of 1,443 university students who presented themselves for an intake interview on a 5-point scale. Results show that counselors who were humanistically oriented judged that their clients presented more severe educational problems and characterized their clients as more anxious than did the cognitively oriented psychologists. The 2 groups of counselors did not differ in how they judged the severity of personal problems or predicted length of treatment. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quality of counselors' intake evaluations for clients with problems that are primarily vocational versus personal.

Compared the quality of 15 doctoral-level counselors' written evaluations following an initial interview with 113 17–36 yr old college students whose problems were judged to be primarily vocational, personal, or a mixture of the two. Overall, quality of intake evaluations was lower for vocational than for personal problems. Counselors' interest in doing intakes, studying the results of interest inventories, and doing vocational personal counseling related to the quality of their intake evaluations in various ways. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic problems of consciousness.

In the interests of (a) forestalling the historically familiar "solution" to the problem of consciousness; (b) showing that there are problems of consciousness, not just one, requiring the scientific attentions of psychologists; and (c) enlisting the energy and wisdom of psychologists and allied scientists in the effort to solve these problems, the present article reviews and discusses an array of problems of consciousness that have been recently introduced into the literature. They are the problems of conscious experience, intentionality, imagination, awareness, introspection, personal unity, the subject, "consciousness" (as more or less), the normal waking state, conscious behavior, and explicit consciousness. Each main section is devoted to one of these problems and focuses on one or a few authors who have addressed it. The article concludes with a brief section on the future of consciousness. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adjustment differences between counseled and noncounseled students at a university counseling center.

Investigated whether college students who seek counseling differ in their psychological adjustment from those who do not seek counseling. The Social and Emotional Adjustment scales of the Opinion, Attitude, and Interest Survey were administered to 1,368 freshmen, 341 of whom elected counseling within a 5-yr period. Students seeking counseling for help with personal problems differed significantly on the Social and Emotional Adjustment scales from those who did not seek counseling. However, no differences were found for students who wished to resolve educational or vocational problems and students who did not seek counseling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in counseling center client problems across 13 years.

Are perceived increases in symptom severity in college counseling center clients real or imagined? Counseling center staff, retrospectively, reported that client problems are more severe now than in the past. Yet studies examining client distress levels at intake have found no significant increases. This study examined counseling center client problems across 13 years from the perspective of the treating therapist at the time of case closure. Increases were found for 14 of 19 client problem areas, whereas other areas retained stable levels, and 2 problem areas had a quadratic trend over time. These changes directly affect counseling service practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of students' attitudes toward counseling at a predominantly Black university.

A questionnaire survey of 377 students' attitudes toward counseling at a predominantly Black university produced results similar to those reported for predominantly White campuses. The predisposition to seek out counseling services depended on the type of problem. Most Ss were willing to discuss with the counselor matters related to vocational and educational concerns; however, for personal adjustment problems there was significant decline in the frequency with which the counselor's help was sought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability and severity of presenting problems at a university counseling center: A 6-year analysis.

Professional psychologists on college campuses and independent practitioners in university communities have expressed concerns that the problems of university students who seek counseling have worsened in recent years. Initial client intake data gathered from 2,326 students during 1989 to 1995 at a large Midwestern university counseling center were analyzed using P. P. Heppner et al's (1994) multivariate classification scheme. Patterns of serious client concerns were evident over the 6 years analyzed. Findings suggest that professional training for psychologists who will work with university populations should include training on suicidality, psychopathology, and crisis intervention as well as working within a team or community-based orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic group perceptions of mental health service providers.

Assessed 121 male and 118 female Chicano, 124 male and 123 female Black, and 126 male and 125 female Anglo college students' perceptions of 100 characteristics of 6 service-provider groups and the likelihood that Ss would discuss 9 problem areas with professional groups. Analysis revealed main effects for race, sex, and provider groups; factor analysis of the 9 problem topics revealed personal-social and educational-vocational dimensions. Females were more likely than males to discuss both problem areas with provider groups. Blacks and Chicanos were more likely than Anglos to take personal problems to professionals. Ss preferred to consult psychiatrists and clinical psychologists for the same types of problems more than counseling psychologists, who in turn were preferred more than college counselors, high school counselors, and advisers. For educational-vocational concerns, Ss generally expressed a stronger probability of consulting providers other than psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. Methodological issues, previous findings, and implications for service providers are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor intake judgments, client characteristics, and number of sessions at a university counseling center.

Conducted a study to investigate the variables used by intake counselors at a university counseling center in estimating the number of interviews a client will attend and to assess the accuracy of those estimates. Data collected from 448 cases indicate that counselors relied most heavily on their judgment of the severity of personal problems in estimating the number of interviews clients would attend. The variables investigated accounted for a relatively small amount of the total variance found in the actual number of counseling sessions held. An unexpected finding was that the judged severity of vocational problem was negatively correlated to both the estimated and actual number of interviews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselors' judgments of the quality of the prescreening stage of the career decision-making process.

The first stage of the career decision-making process is prescreening, which aims at locating promising alternatives deserving further exploration. J. L. Holland's (1997) concepts of differentiation, consistency, and coherence were adapted to cases in which an individual's career-related preferences, which serve as guidelines for locating such promising alternatives, are expressed in many work aspects (e.g., length of training, income, work environment) and not merely in terms of vocational interests. The assumption was that, as for interests, the optimal starting point is crystallized preferences. Judgments of 29 career counseling psychologists and 48 counseling graduate students who were presented with information about the career-related preferences of 18 hypothetical clients supported the hypotheses that crystallized preferences are differentiated, that they are consistent, and that they are coherent. The judgments of these experts on 9 lists of occupations supported the hypothesis that the desirable outcome of the prescreening stage is a concise and homogeneous list of promising alternatives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A controlled study of variables related to counseling center use.

Investigated the utility of several variables in discriminating between students who sought help at a university counseling center (seekers) and those who did not (nonseekers), when level of personal adjustment was controlled. Interactions between Ss' level of personal adjustment and help-seeking status were also examined. 40 female undergraduates who reported no previous history of formal counseling or psychotherapy were administered several tests including the College Maladjustment Scale. Three variables—alternate sources of help, counseling usefulness, and perceived severity of help-seeker pathology—significantly discriminated seeker from nonseeker Ss. It is suggested that level of Ss' adjustment is an important variable to control in research on the decision to seek help. Attitudinal variables were not powerful predictors of help-seeking behavior. Implications for the delivery of mental health services on the university campus are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concurrent validity of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory for graduate students in counseling.

Examined the vocational interests of 114 graduate counseling psychology trainees and the concurrent validity of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) for this group. Ss were administered the SCII, and a subgroup of 43 Ss completed a questionnaire assessing satisfaction with their graduate program, interests in various types of coursework, and preferences for future professional employment. Results generally support the concurrent validity of the SCII in a group of counseling trainees but also indicate differences in the ordering of SCII Holland themes in this group vs psychologists in general. Relationships between certain SCII scores and Ss' preferences concerning coursework and future employment were found. Implications of the findings for both the training and the employment of counseling psychology trainees are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Native American college students' preference for counselor race and sex and the likelihood of their use of a counseling center.

39 female and 23 male Native American college students completed questionnaires assessing their preference for counselor race and sex and the likelihood of their using a counseling center. Both females and males demonstrated a strong preference for Native American counselors, regardless of problem situation. Males preferred male counselors, but females expressed a preference for female counselors only if they had a personal problem. Likelihood of using the counseling center increased as counselor preference increased. Likelihood of using the counseling center increased if Ss could be seen by a counselor of the same race regardless of problem situation. Only in the personal-problem situation did likelihood ratings increase if Ss could be seen by a counselor of the preferred sex. Ss were less likely to indicate they would go to the counseling center with a personal problem if they would be seen by either their 3rd- or 4th-choice counselors. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor reactions to female clients: Type of problem, age of client, and sex of counselor.

88 male and female graduate students in counseling, staff of a university counseling center, and faculty in counseling and clinical psychology viewed videotaped vignettes of 2 35-yr-old women and 2 20-yr-old women who portrayed problems about feared rape, existential anxiety, choice of a college major in social work, or choice of a college major in engineering. Results indicate that the 2 personal-social problems were rated as more serious than the vocational problems on all dependent measures. Additionally, the feared-rape problem was considered the most serious and needing the most counseling sessions, whereas the women with existential anxiety received the most empathy and were perceived as being most able to profit from counseling. The 2 vocational problems did not differ on any of the dependent variables. Other results indicate effects for both client age and counselor sex depending on the particular problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in extremis: Preventing problems of professional competence in dangerous practice settings.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 42(2) of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (see record 2011-08009-001). The title and authors for the first section of the article, beginning of the first column on page 95, were inadvertently omitted. The section should have begun with the following: “In Extremis Practice: Ensuring Competence During and After Deployment to a Combat Zone,” by W. Brad Johnson and Shannon J. Johnson.] When a psychologist provides services in a dangerous context—a work setting defined by persistent threat to the psychologist's own personal safety and well-being—the psychologist is said to practice in extremis. Psychologists who routinely function in extremis, such as those in correctional, disaster response, military, and police psychology—among other specialties—may be at increased risk for troubling experiences such as direct or vicarious traumatization, compassion fatigue, and empathy failure. Over time, in extremis experiences may contribute to decrements in professional competence. When psychologists become aware of personal problems that interfere with their work, they must take steps to ameliorate the problem while protecting consumers. In this Focus on Ethics, we discuss the difficulty inherent in self-identifying and correcting problems of professional competence when working in a high-threat environment. Three expert commentaries further elucidate in extremis competency concerns from the perspective of disaster response, police, and military psychology. The authors provide numerous recommendations for helping psychologists to ensure ongoing competence in in extremis jobs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing family counseling interventions for adults with episodic neurological disabilities: Presenting problems, persons involved, and problem severity.

Adults with episodic neurological disabilities (e.g., epilepsy) and their families are likely to encounter a number of psychosocial difficulties for which family counseling is sought. Although previous research has identified broad categories of family difficulties, we continue to lack basic information about the specific types, range, and severity of these family problems. Furthermore, we have only limited knowledge about the relationships among the specific types of problems, family background characteristics, and the family members involved in specific problems. The primary objectives of the study were to determine (a) the kinds of problems reported by adults with episodic neurological disabilities (n?=?25) and their families (n?=?34) in counseling, (b) the relationships between types of problems and demographic/medical factors, (c) the family problems reported in counseling that are most severe, and (d) members of the family system and significant others in the community who are involved in specific problems. The findings provide valuable information for designing family counseling interventions for this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quality of counselors' intake evaluations as a function of client presenting concern.

The effects of type of client concern (vocational or personal-social) and its relationship to intake quality were investigated. University students (n?=?90) presented vocational or personal concerns to intake counselors (n?=?12) at 3 university counseling centers. Intakes of vocational cases were less lengthy, less useful-adequate, and less comprehensive than were intakes of personal cases. There was no difference in clients' ratings of the counseling relationship or of the quality of intakes. Counselors wrote moderately longer intakes of personal-social cases, which contained more information on personality dynamics, presenting problem, and history than did vocational intakes, which contained more on clients' interests and values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The shape of change in psychotherapy: Longitudinal assessment of personal problems.

Proposed 4 parameters that describe the course of change in the subjective intensity of personal problems during psychotherapy: (1) the problem's initial severity; (2) its rate of change (deterioration or improvement); (3) its instability (day-to-day variability in intensity); and (4) its curve (change in the rate of change during treatment). The authors constructed indexes of these parameters for 10 individualized personal problems rated 3 times per week by each of 40 clients (most were diagnosed as depressed) over the course of their 16-session treatment and associated assessment periods. Initial severity predicted problems' reported salience to clients. The rate of change parameter was correlated (across clients) with traditional pretreatment to postreatment outcome measures. Instability was high, and problems dealing with tension symptoms and mood were more unstable than were problems dealing with relationships or self-esteem. Cutting across problem content were large individual differences among clients in the patterns of change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)