The benefits of working hard on leisure: Comment on Tinsley and Eldredge (1995).

The persistent scholarship by Diane and Howard Tinsley represents the premier research program on the psychology of leisure. The article by H. E. A. Tinsley and B. D. Eldredge (see record 1995-27399-001) advances the Tinsleys' work by developing a large-scale taxonomy of leisure activities based on psychological needs. Their empirical and methodological work is exemplary. However, some of the conceptual and theoretical bases for their article are not always as clear or compelling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I am wanting to tell you: Reply to Borgen (1995) and Dawis (1995).

This reply to F. H. Borgen (see record 1995-27394-001) and R. V. Dawis (see record 1995-27395-001)) argues that studying the causes, attributes, and benefits of participants' psychological experiencing of leisure is more likely to advance knowledge of leisure's effects on participants than efforts that recapitulate the study of vocational interests. The conceptual relation of the construct of needs to interests and values is explained, and it is suggested that K. Holmberg, D. Rosen, and J. L. Holland's (1990) taxonomy may lack validity because of its reliance on the armchair judgments of "experts." This article disagrees with Borgen's suggestion that H. E. A. Tinsley and B. D. Eldredge's (see record 1995-27399-001) findings are critical of J. L. Holland's (1985) theory and suggests a procedure for attempting to develop a valid taxonomy of leisure activities using Holland's theory. Nevertheless, Holland's theory largely ignores the amount of exertion intrinsic to an activity, and exertion is the most important dimension for distinguishing among leisure activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An investigation of the validity of Tinsley and Tinsley's (1986) theory of leisure experience.

Tinsley and Tinsley (1986) postulated that perceived freedom, intrinsic motivation, facilitative arousal, and commitment are necessary but insufficient for a person to experience leisure. They additionally proposed that experiencing leisure would result in absorption in the task at hand, lack of focus on self, feelings of freedom or lack of control, enriched perception of objects and events, increased sensitivity to feelings, increased intensity of emotion, and decreased awareness of the passage of time. We administered a questionnaire designed to operationalize these four prerequisites and seven attibutes of leisure experience to 99 college students. The results generally supported Tinsley and Tinsley's hypotheses that subjects would rate leisure activities higher on these dimensions than they would either work or maintenance activities. We discuss the implications of these findings for counseling psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Am I the fifth horseman of the apocalypse? Comment on Galassi, Crace, Martin, James, and Wallace (1992) and comments on research concerning expectations about counseling.

The criticisms by J. P. Galassi et al (see record 1992-17938-001) of H. E. Tinsley and B. L. Benton (1978) and the Expectations About Counseling instrument are shown to be unfounded, problems with the terminology of Galassi et al are discussed, and the technical adequacy and findings of Galassi et al are analyzed. Problems that have occurred frequently in research on expectations about counseling are attributed to lack of programmatic research, failure to critically analyze existing literature, and use of instruments designed for a single study. The devotion of too much attention to "let's change a word" and "let's change a demographic variable" research is criticized. More effort is called for (1) to identify and measure theoretically relevant expectations, (2) to examine the relations between expectations and related constructs, (3) to determine how expectations can be modified, and (4) to investigate the relation of expectations to aspects of the counseling process and outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations about counseling in relation to acculturation in Mexican-American and Anglo-American student samples.

A rationale for the role of client expectations in counseling theory and practice with Mexican Americans is set forth. The Expectations About Counseling-Brief form questionnaire (K. Washington and H. E. Tinsley, 1982) and the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (I. Cuellar et al; see record 1981-27035-001) were administered to 213 Mexican-American and 137 Anglo-American subjects. Data from questionnaires were augmented through semi-structured interviews with each group. Levels of acculturation, gender, and previous experience with counseling were evaluated for their influence on expressed expectations in each ethnic group. Although no significant group effects were noted, expectations did significantly vary with acculturation categories. Implications of these results for counseling theory and practice with Mexican Americans are briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributes of leisure and work experiences.

Content analyzed essays written by 238 college students and 66 noncollege adults about their most memorable leisure experiences and most meaningful commonly occurring leisure and work experiences for the presence of 46 constructs describing 39 attributes and 7 benefits of the experiences. Significant differences were found in the frequency with which these constructs were used in describing leisure and work activities. Leisure experiences were most frequently characterized as providing enjoyment (i.e., intrinsic satisfaction), companionship, novelty, relaxation, aesthetic appreciation, and intimacy. In contrast, work was most frequently described as providing extrinsic rewards, accomplishment, learning, and altruism. The results were interpreted as supporting H. E. Tinsley and D. J. Tinsley's (1988) theory of leisure experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client denial and resistance in the advance directive context: Reflections on how attorneys can identify and deal with a psycholegal soft spot.

An important reason why advance directive instruments are underused is that people faced with the need to think about the end of life, future mental health problems, or the need for nursing home admission experience psychological stress that produces denial and procrastination. This essay examines how lawyers who are counseling clients about advance directive instruments can deal with such client denial and resistance. It explains the psychological defense mechanism of denial and related forms of resistance and offers suggestions about techniques that lawyers can use for dealing with denial and resistance in counseling clients about advance directives. It suggests ways in which lawyers can develop their interpersonal skills, becoming more empathic and more sensitive to their clients' psychological needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical knowledge exhibited by clients and nonclients.

Two studies were conducted to explore the relation between (a) experience in counseling and psychotherapy and (b) ethical knowledge. In Study 1, 77 college students reported their experience as clients in a variety of settings and then completed a questionnaire concerning their knowledge of ethical issues. The hypothesis that clients (subjects who had counseling experience) would demonstrate ethical knowledge superior to that of nonclients (those with no such experience) was not supported. Ethical knowledge did not differ as a function of counseling experience, the setting in which counseling was received, or the number of sessions. However, though overall ethical knowledge was high across groups, knowledge with respect to each ethical issue was incomplete. In Study 2, following the same procedure, we compared 17 current psychotherapy clients at a Veterans Administration medical center with 15 nonclients, patients in the hypertension clinic who had never received psychological services. These clients demonstrated superior ethical knowledge on specific issues (.008?ps?     

Spiritual issues in counseling: Clients' beliefs and preferences.

The current study assessed psychotherapy clients' beliefs about the appropriateness of discussing religious and spiritual concerns in counseling, clients' preferences for such discussion, and identified explanatory variables for these beliefs and preferences. These variables were assessed using the Client Attitudes toward Spirituality in Therapy survey; the Index of Spiritual Experiences (J. D. Kass, R. Friedman, J. Leserman, P. C. Zuttermeister, & H. Benson, 1991); the Expectations About Counseling-Brief Form (H. E. A. Tinsley, 1982); the Religious scale of the Counseling Appropriateness Check List (R. Warman, 1960); the Socially Desirable Response Set-5 Scale (R. D. Hays, T. Hayashi, & A. L. Stewart, 1989); and the Religion Section of the Mooney Problem Check List-Adult Form (L. V. Gordon & R. L. Mooney, 1950). Clients believed religious concerns were appropriate for discussion in counseling and had a preference for discussing spiritual and religious issues in counseling. Spiritual experience was the most potent variable for explaining preferences for discussing spiritual issues. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Implications of 'Psychological Injuries' for Clinical Psychology Training Programs.

This paper uses the psychological and legal concept of "psychological injury" as an illustration of the evolving market for psychological knowledge and of necessary changes in the graduate and internship training of clinical psychologists. Our current graduate and internship training fails many of our students through neglecting important areas of knowledge and experience. In this paper, I discuss the importance of exposing graduate students to: a) the economics of mental health; b) professional roles involving knowledge dissemination outside traditional academia; c) information needs of direct and indirect consumers of psychological knowledge; and, d) communication skills necessary when interacting with nonpsychologists. Suggestions are made for the improvement of our graduate training programs, including more explicit acknowledgement of the likely career paths of most of our graduates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Guiding assumptions, data, and minor pestilence: Reply to Tracey (1992) and Tinsley (1992).

In response to concerns raised by T. J. Tracey and H. E. Tinsley (see PA, Vol 79:17955 annd 17954, respectively), several issues are discussed. Research in a new area should incorporate a variety of methods and philosophies including those that are more empirical or discovery-oriented in focus rather than being driven solely by borrowed theory. Failure to acknowledge the differences between personal and career counseling has hampered expectations research in career counseling. No empirical basis currently exists for selecting the best assessment format for instruments measuring expectations in counseling. Both preference and anticipations rather than a single, global expectations construct need to be assessed in career counseling, and a reliable and valid assessment instrument is currently not available for that purpose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological benefits of leisure participation: A taxonomy of leisure activities based on their need-gratifying properties.

In this study, a needs-based taxonomy of leisure activities is proposed. Respondents experienced in a given leisure activity were asked to indicate the extent to which it met different psychological needs, as measured by the Paragraphs About Leisure (PAL) questionnaire. Each of the 3,771 participants completed the PAL on only 1 of the 82 leisure activities for which data were collected. The leisure activities were cluster analyzed with the scores on the PAL, and 12 leisure activity clusters were revealed. One group was judged to be a residual, and the other 11 groups were named agency, novelty, belongingness, service, sensual enjoyment, cognitive stimulation, self-expression, creativity, competition, vicarious competition, and relaxation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural, sociofamilial, and psychological resources that inhibit psychological distress in African Americans exposed to stressful life events and race-related stress.

This study tested a sociocultural model of stress and coping in a sample of 215 African Americans. Psychological resources (optimism, ego resilience) were modeled as a "nested self" (S. E. Hobfoll, 2001), supported by social resources (family adaptability and cohesion) and cultural resources (racial pride, religiosity). Race-related stress was a significantly more powerful risk factor than stressful life events for psychological distress. Structural equation modeling results confirmed the hypotheses that psychological resources had a significant direct effect in minimizing psychological distress, and social resources had a significant stress-suppressing effect on race-related stress. Theoretical and practical implications for counseling psychologists are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clients' pretreatment counseling expectations as predictors of the working alliance.

Because research suggests that counseling expectations are malleable and that alliance ratings predict clinical outcomes, the relationship between this pretreatment client characteristic (expectations) and the quality of the alliance early in treatment deserves further attention. This study examined the relationships between 57 clients' pretreatment role expectations and 3rd-session client-rated alliance in a naturalistic setting. Prior to intake, clients completed the Expectations About Counseling-Brief Form (H. E. A. Tinsley, 1982), and clients completed the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form Revised (R. L. Hatcher & J. A. Gillaspy, 2006) following the 3rd therapy session. Results indicate that clients' expectations for personal commitment predicted the task, bond, and goal dimensions of the alliance. Expectations for facilitative conditions and counselor expertise did not predict clients' perceptions of the alliance. Clinical implications and research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual and institutional productivity of racial and ethnic minority research in the Journal of Counseling Psychology.

This study examined individual and institutional productivity of research pertaining to racial and ethnic minorities in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP). Full-length articles appearing in JCP from 1988 to 1997 were examined. Two distinct methods to calculate productivity scores were used to obtain rankings of individual authors (G. S. Howard, D. A. Cole, & S. E. Maxwell, 1987) and institutions (D. J. Tinsley & H. E. Tinsley, 1979). Our findings identified the top most productive authors and institutions of ethnic and racial research published in JCP from 1988 to 1997. Implications of these findings and areas for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Alcoholism: A bio-psycho-social approach.

Reviews the book, Alcoholism: A bio-psycho-social approach by Jerome David Levin (1990). This small volume sets its task as providing counseling students with a comprehensive knowledge base "summarizing biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, anthropological, sociological, epidemiological, historical, and psychological findings on alcohol and its use and abuse" (Preface, p. xi). It treats each of these, in varying degrees of depth, in seven chapters. Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is its thorough presentation of the medical consequences of alcoholism, the mechanisms involved, and the interplay between biological and psychological factors. Unfortunately, this volume does not provide sufficient coverage of treatment-related issues. It may serve as an introductory overview of the alcoholism field for undergraduate or graduate students, or professionals from other fields. It is too advanced, however, in its use of concepts and language, for paraprofessional students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Perceived social support among college students: Three studies of the psychometric characteristics and counseling uses of the Social Support Inventory": Correction to Brown, Brady, Lent, Wolfert, and Hall.

Reports an error in "Perceived social support among college students: Three studies of the psychometric characteristics and counseling uses of the Social Support Inventory" by Steven D. Brown, Theresa Brady, Robert W. Lent, Jenny Wolfert and Sheila Hall (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1987[Jul], Vol 34[3], 337-354). In Table 5, the reliable change (RC) values for Clients 1-7 on the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the College Student Satisfaction Scale were incorrect. The corrected values are presented in the erratum. In addition, a note should be added to Table 5 that reads: "Posttreatment scores used in the calculation of RC are means obtained from the sum of posttreatment and follow-up scores." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1987-32914-001.) Perceived social support has been shown to relate to psychological distress and well-being. However, measurement of the construct has been limited by a failure to embed perceived support in a body of psychological theory that would suggest how perceived support is produced and modified. In three studies we assessed the psychometric characteristics and counseling uses of a theory-derived measure of perceived social support, the Social Support Inventory (SSI). Results of the first study indicated that the SSI possessed excellent internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity, and it performed in theoretically predicted ways in a series of construct validity analyses. Results of the second study suggested that the SSI may not be influenced by mood state or demand characteristics. The third study concerned a counseling intervention developed from the SSI's theoretical base. Reported outcomes are from the first 7 consecutive college student clients exposed to the intervention for difficulties in their social transition to college. We also describe the person-environment fit theory from which the SSI was derived and discuss future conceptual and research needs on the theory, instrument, and intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Correction to Earl and Albarracín (2007).

Reports an error in "Nature, decay, and spiraling of the effects of fear-inducing arguments and HIV counseling and testing: A meta-analysis of the short- and long-term outcomes of HIV-prevention interventions" by Allison Earl and Dolores Albarracín (Health Psychology, 2007[Jul], Vol 26[4], 496-506). Several corrections that were omitted are found in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-09406-014.) Objective: To examine the long-term efficacy of both fear-inducing arguments and HIV counseling and testing at encouraging and maintaining knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention, as well as condom use. Design: Analyses were conducted with a sample of 150 treatment groups and 34 controls and included measures of change at an immediate follow-up and a delayed follow-up. Main outcome measures: The main outcome measures were perceived risk of HIV infection, knowledge about HIV, and condom use. Results: Results indicated that receiving fear-inducing arguments increased perceptions of risk at the immediate follow-up but decreased knowledge and condom use, whereas resolving fear via HIV counseling and testing decreased perceptions of risk and increased knowledge and condom use at both the immediate and delayed follow-ups. The effects on perceived risk and knowledge decreased over time, but the effects on condom use became more pronounced. Conclusion: Inducing fear is not an effective way to promote HIV-relevant learning or condom use either immediately following the intervention or later on. However, HIV counseling and testing can provide an outlet for HIV-related anxiety and, subsequently, gains in both knowledge and behavior change immediately and longitudinally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training students in education of the hypertensive patient: enhanced performance after a simulated patient instructor (SPI)-based exercise

The process whereby a physician explains to the ill patient what has gone wrong and what can be done about it can be taught and evaluated by simulated patients (SPIs). This study was designed to determine whether a training experience in educating a diabetic SPI improves subsequent performance with a hypertensive SPI. Competence in educating a hypertensive SPI by students who had no prior training experience (n = 26) was compared to that of an experimental group (n = 20) that had a prior training session. Performance was assessed with a counseling skills scale and a case-specific content checklist (1 = poor to 5 = excellent). Students in the experimental group performed better than controls in both counseling skills (4.46 v 3.86, P < .01) and completeness of coverage of content (3.28 v 2.65, P < .01). Students in both groups focused more on clinical features and treatment than on laboratory testing and follow-up. The ability to counsel "patients" with hypertension can be enhanced by a prior learning experience with a diabetic SPI. Clinical application of knowledge about hypertension can be assessed by SPIs.