Gender-based emotional stereotyping.

Previous research documents that mental health professionals' attitudes reflect the general public's stereotype of women as hyperemotional. This article reports the results of 6 studies exploring the existence of a complementary stereotype of men as hypoemotional. As predicted, counselors and college students consistently stereotyped men as hypoemotional (all ps?p?     

Counseling pretreatment and the Elaboration Likelihood Model of attitude change.

Studied the Elaboration Likelihood Model (R. E. Petty et al, 1984) in a counseling context, using 254 undergraduates assessed as highly or less highly ego involved with social skills or career concerns. Ss were exposed to a pretreatment intervention composed of strongly or weakly reasoned arguments by a counselor of high or low credibility promoting participation in a social skills or career counseling group. The resulting factorial design revealed that significantly more favorable attitudes toward counseling occurred as Ss' ego involvement increased and as intervention quality improved. Counselor credibility significantly affected the degree to which Ss' attitudes reflected argument quality differences. It is suggested that, compared with prior research on the model, the counseling context may be one of moderate involvement. Nevertheless, it is contended that the model accounts for the effects that were found. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis.

Applied a cognitive response analysis to the use of rhetorical questions in persuasion. 160 college students heard a counterattitudinal message in which the major arguments were summarized in either statement or rhetorical forms. The personal relevance of the issue and the quality of the arguments employed in the message were also varied. The use of rhetorical questions was found to either increase or decrease the cognitive elaboration of a message depending on the personal relevance of the communication. When the message was of low personal relevance and recipients were not naturally processing the statement form of the message diligently, the use of rhetoricals enhanced thinking: A message with strong arguments became more persuasive, and a message with weak arguments became less persuasive with rhetoricals. However, when the message was of high personal relevance and recipients were already highly motivated to process the statement form of the message, the use of rhetoricals disrupted thinking: A message with strong arguments became less persuasive, and a message with weak arguments became more persuasive with rhetoricals. This 3-way interaction was expected from the cognitive response analysis, but not from competing formulations. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Heesacker et al.

In the article, "Classics and Emerging Classics in Counseling Psychology," by Martin Heesacker, P. Paul Heppner, and Mark E. Rogers (see record 1982-33388-001), frequencies for the Holland reference (Entry 4) in Table 3, page 403, were omitted. The frequencies should be listed as follows: CP, 1; P&G, 3; JCP, 12; and Total, 16. In addition, the third sentence of the last paragraph on page 402 is inaccurate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderators of the congruence and realism of major and occupational plans in college students: A replication and extension.

Utility of gender, traditionality of choice, and gender role identification as moderators of the interest–field congruence and ability-level realism of major and occupational preferences in college students were examined. Measures of vocational interests, academic abilities, and gender role orientation, as well as a statement of college major choice and occupational plans, were obtained in a sample of 592 undergraduates. Results indicated that, contrary to L. K. Wolfe and N. E. Betz's (1981) study, traditionality of choice and gender role were unrelated to interest–field congruence. However, among both men and women, those having masculine-typed and androgynous personality characteristics were most likely to be using their abilities in their choices, whereas feminine-typed persons and those who preferred female-dominated occupations were least likely to be doing so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changing the rape-supportive attitudes of traditional and nontraditional male and female college students.

This study tested whether individuals possessing traditional sex role attitudes could have their rape-related attitudes influenced by a psychoeducational intervention that has been effective with less traditional individuals. Male and female undergraduates (N?=?245) were classified on the basis of their sex role traditionality and received the intervention or served as no-treatment controls. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that intervention recipients adhered less to rape myths and expressed less rape-supportive attitudes than did controls. Participants were subsequently contacted with a phone appeal regarding women's safety projects that they thought was unrelated to the experiment. On 1 phone appeal measure, experimental participants' responses were significantly less rape-supportive than were control participants' responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caregiver mental health and racial/ethnic disparities in stroke: Implications for culturally sensitive interventions.

Purpose/Objective: The purpose of this study was to create a set of culturally sensitive mental-health-intervention recommendations for the caregivers of Latino/Puerto-Rican, Black, and White individuals with stroke. The study examined whether the mental health of stroke caregivers and functioning of individuals with stroke differed according to race/ethnicity, changed differentially over time according to race/ethnicity, and showed relationships between the two sets of constructs that differed according to race/ethnicity. Research Method/Design: Data on caregiver mental health and functioning of individuals with stroke were collected from 124 (n = 248) White, Black, and Latino/Puerto-Rican dyads at 1, 6, and 12 months post-hospital discharge. Results: Out of the three racial/ethnic groups, Latino/Puerto-Rican individuals with stroke showed the lowest functioning, and their caregivers showed the poorest mental health, though the mental-health effects did not reach statistical significance. Consistent patterns which differed as a function of race/ethnicity emerged over time in the relationships between caregiver mental health and functioning of individuals with stroke. Conclusions/Implications: Critical knowledge may be lost regarding the connections between caregiver mental health and the functioning of individuals with stroke when researchers and clinicians look only across race/ethnicity as opposed to also within. A monolithic racial/ethnic approach to mental-health interventions for stroke rehabilitation is likely limited, and race/ethnicity may affect how caregiver mental health and functioning of individuals with stroke reciprocally influence each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal influence process in real-life counseling: Investigating client perceptions, counselor experience level, and counselor power over time.

Examined the interpersonal influence process within an actual counseling context over an average of 8 sessions. Counselors were either beginning or advanced practicum students or doctoral interns (n?=?27); clients were 31 students who sought counseling at a university center. Before and after counseling Ss completed the Counselor Rating Form, the Expectations about Counseling measure, and the Counselor Perceptions Questionnaire. Results indicate that (a) the actual counselor experience level did not affect client perceptions of the counselor; (b) perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness changed over time, but not in the same direction across counselors; (c) different levels of client need did not affect clients' perceptions of counselor characteristics; and (d) counselors rated as highly attractive indicated they had more therapeutic power over clients than counselors rated as moderately attractive. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using real-client perceptions to examine psychometric properties of the Counselor Rating Form.

In study 1, 110 clients of a university counseling center (mostly college students) were asked to participate in self-evaluation of services they received by completing the Counselor Rating Form (CRF) at the end of counseling (mean number of sessions was 7). Results of principal components analysis suggest the existence of only 1 major factor underlying Ss' perceptions of counselors. In addition, oblique and orthogonal 3-factor analyses did not produce factor structures similar to those from laboratory analog research. Study 2 was conducted with a subsample of 72 Ss to determine if the CRF as a 1-factor instrument could adequately discriminate client satisfaction with counseling as well as with the 3 CRF subscales. Ss completed an expectations-about-counseling scale before beginning an 8-wk counseling program and the CRF and Counseling Evaluation Inventory after completing counseling. Results suggest that actual clients at the close of counseling do not clearly distinguish among perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Discriminant and regression analyses revealed that the 1-factor model performed as well as the 3-factor one. Findings extend those of K. P. Zamostny et al (see record 1982-04514-001) by analyzing data on the CRF using clients at a later stage of counseling and by using discriminant and regression analyses to assess the relative predictive utility of 1- vs 3-factor solutions on the CRF. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived counselor characteristics, client expectations, and client satisfaction with counseling.

Examined (a) the relationship between perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness and client satisfaction; (b) the relationships between specific client expectations on perceived counselor characteristics and client satisfaction; and (c) the effects of actual counselor experience level on perceived counselor characteristics and client satisfaction. The 55 counselors who participated in the study were either beginning or advancing practicum students, doctoral-level interns, or PhD counselors; clients were 72 students who sought help at a university counseling center. Clients completed an Expectations About Counseling (EAC) questionnaire before entering counseling, as well as the Counseling Evaluation Inventory (CEI) and Counselor Rating Form (CRF) after several weeks of counseling. CRF and CEI were correlated, but EAC scores were not strongly related to the CEI or CRF scores. Actual counselor experience level did not differentially affect CEI or CRF scores. Findings are discussed in terms of several variables (e.g., legitimate power, source variables, and client satisfaction) that may differentially affect the influence process over time. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)