Reflections of a consulting counseling psychologist: Implications of the principles for education and training at the doctoral and postdoctoral level in consulting psychology for the practice of counseling psychology.

Examines issues related to the "Principles for Education and Training at the Doctoral and Postdoctoral Level in Consulting Psychology/Organizational" (R. L. Lowman et al, Education & Training Committee, see record 2003-04049-003), viewed from the perspective of a counseling psychologist whose primary work role is organizational consultation. The author traces the foundations of counseling psychology as they relate to organizational consulting practice. Comparisons are drawn between unifying themes and roles of counseling psychologists and consulting psychology domains and competencies. Each competency domain is examined with respect to its relative uniqueness or similarity of coverage in counseling psychology training and practice. Issues are raised about the relationship of individual counseling and individual consulting psychology. Suggestions are made about increased inclusion in training of vocational psychology theory, multicultural issues, supervised practicum experience, and role boundary work with respect to consultation and psychotherapy. The Principles are viewed as a resource to counseling psychologists, particularly in defining competencies and training needs related to enhancement of intergroup relations and organizational-wide structural interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology in clinical health psychology: The impact of specialty perspective.

Not all clinical health psychologists are trained as clinical psychologists. A significant minority is trained and identifies as counseling psychologists. As a field, it is important to understand how the specialty-specific values, training context, scholarship, and parameters of practice of counseling psychology contribute to clinical health psychology. In this article, we (a) identify the core values and training context of counseling psychology, (b) review the scholarly history of clinical health psychology by counseling psychologists, (c) present the parameters of practice of clinical health psychology as identified from the extant counseling psychology literature, and (d) examine American Psychological Association membership status to investigate joint membership in the Division of Health Psychology and the Society of Counseling Psychology. Conclusions indicate that (a) an identifiable set of core values guides the training of counseling psychologists, (b) scholarly literature by counseling psychologists has contributed to the growth and development of clinical health psychology, and (c) parameters of practice reflect the specialty-specific perspective of counseling psychology. As professional psychology continues to grow as a health care profession, clinical health psychology will benefit from the knowledge, values, attitudes, competencies, and practice parameters of counseling psychology, and counseling psychology will benefit from recognizing what it brings to the practice of clinical health psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

As we continue on our journey of capturing some aspects of an oral history of professional psychology in writing, we selected three articles that address different aspects of the field. Dr. Leona Tyler, past president of the American Psychological Association and pioneer in the field of counseling psychology, shares with us how counseling psychology has changed over the years from being concerned with helping individuals understand themselves, make important choices, and plan their lives to being more concerned with issues traditionally in the realm of clinical psychology. The second article is written by Dr. Grant Dahlstrom, one of the "greats" in the field of objective testing. He reviews for us why he and George Welsh embarked on the writings of their books on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and what they used in their preparation of guides for clinicians. In the third article, Drs. Lillie and Barry Weiss, clinical psychologists who met and married while in graduate school in the late 1960s, to reflect on the uniqueness of the married couple experience in professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Field work and the clinician: Comment.

Comments on the original article by Jesse E. Gordon (see record 1965-14902-001) regarding the Federal anti-poverty program and subprofessional training. The current author opines that "professionals" in psychology, counseling, and related disciplines can adequately meet the field-work challenges which the disadvantaged and disillusioned youth of our day present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On missing the point: A reply to Jaques et al.

Replies to comments by Jaques et al (see record 2005-09346-002) on the author's original article (see record 1980-33168-001). I daresay that virtually every author who must respond to criticism thinks that the critical reader missed the point. In this case, I must join the legion of misunderstood authors. The article is entitled, "Psychological Services in Rehabilitation Medicine: Clinical Aspects of Rehabilitation Psychology." I attempted a very brief overview of the roles and functions of rehabilitation psychologists, not rehabilitation counselors. Somebody missed the point! Further, as I stated both in the abstract and in the summary, I was focusing on traditional clinical and counseling applications. I am a psychologist, and I wrote this particular article for an audience of professional psychologists to try to introduce some of the issues involved in psychological practice in this particular setting. I think that I accomplished that rather straightforward goal, and I hope that some of the readers will now consider rehabilitation psychology as an area of specialization that does utilize the skills learned in traditional clinical and counseling psychology doctoral programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Reputation, halo, and ratings of counseling programs": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by R. W. Thoreson et al (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1975[Sep], Vol 22[5], 446-450). On page 448, an error appears in Table 1. George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, is incorrectly listed as George Peabody University. It should also have an asterisk to indicate that the program was an APA-approved program in counseling psychology at the time the data for the study were collected. Peabody continues to have an accredited program under a new category called "Programs in Combined Scientific-Professional Psychology," which is characterized by a combination of "clinical, counseling, and school psychology." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1975-31894-001.) Tested the hypothesis that previous ratings of programs in psychology reflect both an experimental psychology and general institutional halo bias. A questionnaire similar to one used in an earlier study of graduate programs by H. D. Roose and C. J. Andersen (1970) was used to survey the responses of 598 professionals in the field of counseling psychology. Respondents were furnished with a listing of 70 doctoral programs in counseling psychology and other closely related programs and were asked to rate each of the programs. It was found that applied programs in counseling psychology received ratings that differed from overall ratings of psychology in general. Programs ranked as strong, good, and adequate are listed. Ratings were related to institutional halo, program age, rater knowledge of program, geographic location, and approved status by the American Psychological Association. Implications for program evaluation are discussed, and users of reputational ratings are cautioned about the need for supplemental information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reconceptualizing social influence in counseling: The Elaboration Likelihood Model.

Previous investigations of attitude change in counseling based on S. R. Strong's (see PA, Vol 42:12025) social influence model have yielded mixed and inconclusive results. Such findings resemble the state of attitude change research that until recently existed in social psychology. In this article we introduce a model of attitude change from social psychology, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion, which has served to unify some of the conflicting results in social psychology. The ELM may potentially account for the inconsistent findings within counseling psychology, providing a reconceptualization of the social influence process that builds upon Strong's (1968) theory and subsequent research. We also provide guidelines for the integration of recent social and counseling literatures in regard to the interpersonal influence process as represented by the ELM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social influence model: A cautionary note on counseling psychology's warm embrace.

Paralleling counseling psychology's search for professional identity has been the emergence of a new theoretical framework known as the social influence model. The present author suggests that some of the enthusiasm for this model might be due to the "counselor as expert" factor that is contained in the model. Other professions have attended to this same factor, and it has caused them great difficulty in relationship to professional stature. Counseling psychology would fare better as a profession if it attended to some of the more robust aspects of this theory. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Public relations—for what?

There is "increasing evidence of hostility to psychology that has appeared in the last few years. This hostility has cropped up often enough now so that it cannot be ignored." Some of this hostility has come from medical groups, some from labor unions, some from people in the commercial field, some from "our humanistic colleagues." Courses of the aroused hostility are discussed. The author is "not convinced that a little knowledge of psychology spread widely will alter very much the important forces influencing social change… . Psychology as an institution, as exemplified by our state and national associations, ought to confine itself to public relations at the level of the policy makers, and not try to become a large-scale educational enterprise." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical psychology and counseling psychology: On similarities and differences revisited.

As psychology specialties, clinical and counseling psychology appear similar in many respects. Although each specialty is considered to possess its own distinctive features, some researchers have recently examined clinical-counseling convergences, which suggests that the two specialties may now be nearer to an integration than in previous times. In an effort to further consider and examine possible convergences between clinical and counseling psychology, we replicated the comparative study of Osipow, Cohen, Jenkins, and Dostal (1979). Osipow et al., drawing on data in the 1975 American Psychological Association (APA) directory, compared clinical and counseling psychologists in major fields, interest areas, and work settings. We drew on data from the 1985 APA directory to determine current clinical-counseling similarities and differences for the same three areas. Comparisons are made between the 1975 and 1985 data, and some of the data's implications about convergences and divergences between the clinical and counseling specialties are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological interventions in organizations: An evolutionary perspective.

Throughout the 20th century, managers and policy makers have relied on psychological interventions to help solve organizational problems. Yet, the results of these interventions rarely meet expectations. One reason may be that some of the perspectives used in thinking about interventions are at odds with how interventions and organizations function. This article argues that applied psychologists may benefit from an evolutionary perspective. Although it holds an important place in basic psychology and organization theory, an evolutionary perspective is nearly absent in applied psychology. It views the development and use of social technologies as part of sociocultural evolution—driven by variation, selection, and retention. This article provides a framework for theory and research on an evolutionary perspective in applied psychology and suggests implications for practice. Key concepts in the design of interventions include uncertainty, variation, and conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

We have seen the future, but is it us? The vocational aspirations of graduate students in counseling psychology.

In a recent article, Fitzgerald and Osipow documented a trend away from academic settings and vocational psychology and toward private practice and more clinically oriented tasks (such as long-term psychotherapy) among members of Division 17. In this study we extended the exploration of this issue by examining the vocational aspirations of a national sample of graduate students in counseling psychology, using similar methodology. The results document the increasing "professionalization" of counseling psychology, as well as the continued diminution of vocational psychology and career counseling as salient characteristics of the discipline, and are discussed in terms of the pragmatics of the marketplace and possible negative impact on clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology: An endangered species?

Surveyed 65 VA hospitals as to the status, roles, and responsibilities of doctoral level counseling psychologists. Results suggest a declining image of the discipline as a visible entity, with large numbers of counseling psychologists defecting to become clinical psychologists. Bias operating against counseling psychologists in the areas of hiring, promotional opportunity, and duty assignments was reported by some chiefs. Counseling psychologists fare comparatively well in being named to administrative positions in the VA. Criticism of counseling psychology is not directed at American Psychological Association-approved programs but rather at programs associated more closely with schools of education. Such programs are seen as producing "easier" degrees and practitioners not primarily identified with psychology. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical, counseling, and school clinical psychology at Purdue University.

"Confusion exists in some quarters about the distinction between clinical and counseling psychology." "Whereas the clinical psychology major most often prepares for work with persons whose behavior represents the extreme of maladjustment and for work within the medical setting, the counseling psychologist will most often apply his training within the relatively normal range of adjustment." Similarities and differences in academic requirements at Purdue University for clinical, counseling, and school clinical psychology curricula are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Family Life Cycle: Orientation for Interdisciplinary Training.

The Family Life Cycle Studies Program and Referral Clinic at Michigan State University engages in training at two levels: It offers an intensive, year-long internship to doctoral students in the mental health professions, primarily from clinical and counseling psychology, who wish to develop expertise in evaluation and treatment of families and who also are often engaged in research on some aspect of family process; and we carry out a wide range of educational and consultative activities with students in the health care professions and with personnel in the schools, the probate court system, and community agencies. The goals of these educative efforts are to develop a family perspective on individual medical, social, and academic problems and to provide at least a rudimentary understanding of family process and some skills in interviewing family groups. The program considers participation in this second set of activities a vital part of the training of our clinical interns. The program expects that they will not only become competent family therapists, but will also be able to teach concepts of family process and function to students in other disciplines and be prepared to serve as resource persons in any community in which they find themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Folk psychology of mental activities.

A central aspect of people's beliefs about the mind is that mental activities—for example, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving—are interrelated, with some activities being kinds or parts of others. In common-sense psychology, reasoning is a kind of thinking and reasoning is part of problem solving. People's conceptions of these mental kinds and parts can furnish clues to the ordinary meaning of these terms and to the differences between folk and scientific psychology. In this article, we use a new technique for deriving partial orders to analyze subjects' decisions about whether one mental activity is a kind or part of another. The resulting taxonomies and partonomies differ from those of common object categories in exhibiting a converse relation in this domain: One mental activity is a part of another if the second is a kind of the first. The derived taxonomies and partonomies also allow us to predict results from further experiments that examine subjects' memory for these activities, their ratings of the activities' importance, and their judgments about whether there could be "possible minds" that possess some of the activities but not others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory and Research on Practices, Theory and Research as Practices: Hermeneutics and Psychological Inquiry.

What are the implications for theory and research in psychology of a hermeneutic perspective that takes practices as its starting point notion? The author addresses this wide-ranging issue by considering a number of specific questions in turn, including, among others, whether the hermeneutic perspective leads to rejecting systematic, quantitative research methods; whether it leads to the conclusion that efforts at theory and research provide us with an understanding of human behavior that is arbitrary; and whether a practices-based perspective points to a way of pursuing inquiry in psychology that is better than proceeding along the lines of mainstream psychology. The answers to these questions include a number of surprises, especially regarding how the hermeneutic perspective contrasts with mainstream psychology and how it differs from social constructionism. The author also identifies challenging issues for adherents of the hermeneutic perspective, including, in particular, issues concerning the limits of what we can know about psychological phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inescapable moralities: Psychology as public philosophy.

Critical psychologists repeatedly lament the fact that we spend most of our time criticizing, unmasking and deconstructing prevailing psychological models, and rather less time rebuilding and reinventing them. Of course, important contributions have been made by theorists who present concrete alternatives to the theories and practices we challenge. Yet there have been relatively few attempts to articulate a guiding vision or visions of what we should be doing. This article discusses a symposium that was organized as an attempt to press beyond the "debunking" phase. All of the papers embody attempts to move into the less-travelled territory of moral conversation. They are predicated upon certain fundamental assumptions about the moral and political situatedness of psychology. The five papers that follow are offered with the recognition that they are neither the first nor the last word on the normative dimensions of psychological discourse. In addition to the specific contribution made by each author, the collective aim of the panel is both to highlight the ongoing moral situations in which we are all caught, and, perhaps most importantly, to invite further conversation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)