John D. Alcorn

Suicide: An Overview

Suicide is a major mental health problem in the United States and an issue that significantly impacts the mental health treatment community. Although the suicide rate remains relatively stable, the discipline of counseling psychology has broadened in scope and work settings have diversified. Thus, counseling psychology trainees are increasingly exposed to suicidal clients. Despite this reality, research suggests that comprehensive, systematic training in suicidology in counseling psychology programs rarely occurs. One reason for this state of affairs may be that the suicide literature is spread across a variety of disciplines, making it difficult for educators and practitioners to stay informed about the knowledge base in suicidology. The purpose of this contribution, therefore, is to provide counseling psychology educators and practitioners with an overview of the field of suicidology as it applies to the training and practice of counseling psychology.Suicide is a major mental health problem in the United States and an issue that significantly impacts the mental health treatment community. Although the suicide rate remains relatively stable, the discipline of counseling psychology has broadened in scope and work settings have diversified. Thus, counseling psychology trainees are increasingly exposed to suicidal clients. Despite this reality, research suggests that comprehensive, systematic training in suicidology in counseling psychology programs rarely occurs. One reason for this state of affairs may be that the suicide literature is spread across a variety of disciplines, making it difficult for educators and practitioners to stay informed about the knowledge base in suicidology. The purpose of this contribution, therefore, is to provide counseling psychology educators and practitioners with an overview of the field of suicidology as it applies to the training and practice of counseling psychology.

Model Training Program in Counseling Psychology

In response to the revision of the American Psychological Associations Guidelines and Principles of Accreditation, the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs (CCPTP) and Division 17formed a Joint Writing Committee to create a document that would present a modal or normative training program for counseling psychology. This article presents the Model Training Program, as endorsed by CCPTP and Division 17.

Counseling Psychology and Health Applications

Roles for psychologists in health settings have greatly expanded over the past two decades. Although early goals of counseling psychology aligned with health promotion concepts, counseling psychologists have been slow to assert themselves in the health field Opportunities for the future involvement of counseling psychologists in health applications are examined in terms of (a) evolving definitions of health specialties; (b) changes currently taking place in conceptual models for health, disease, and medicine; and (c) issues related to the future involvement of counseling psychologists in the health field

Crystal Ball Gazing: Training and Accreditation in 2000 A.D.

Recommendations and proposals related to training and accreditation from various conferences as well as the Task Force on the Scope and Criteria of Accreditation and the Joint Council on Professional Education in Psychology are reviewed. This review focuses on the potential effects of these recommendations on counseling psychology students, trainers, and programs. Finally, implications for counseling psychology training based on the possible implementation of the recommendations are suggested.

Organizational and Political Issues in Counseling Psychology Recommendations for Change

The Organizational and Political Issues Group focused on managerial, structural, and political issues in counseling psychology. Papers were presented by 11 counseling psychologists on 13 basic issues that had been identified by the planning

Visual and verbal modes of information processing and cognitively-based coping strategies: An extension and replication

Abstract This study was designed to investigate the interaction between the use of an imaginallybased vs a verbally-based coping strategy with subjects who were selected on the basis of strong preferences for either visual or verbal modes of information processing. Forty-eight female students were subjected to a cold-pressor task. Measures of pain tolerance, pain threshold and a pain rating were obtained. The findings indicated that there was not a significant relationship between preferred cognitive style and the types of coping strategy provided. However, the treatments combined were found to be significantly more effective than the no-treatment condition on all three dependent measures. A structured debriefing revealed that use of visual vs verbal coping strategies did not differ as a function of treatment type or preferred cognitive style. It was concluded that individuals may demonstrate considerable flexibility in adapting to different types of cognitively-based coping strategies.

Counseling Psychology in Multidisciplinary Health Settings: Implications for Future Training

Counseling psychologists have demonstrated a growing interest in the health field at a time when major changes are occurring in reimbursement and service delivery systems. In particular, the need for broad-based comprehensive treatments within cost-effective service delivery models has led to increased use of multidisciplinary staffing arrangements and increased completion among provider groups. In this article, the authors provide a historical overview of a multidisciplinary training component that has operated within a counseling psychology training program since 1979. Lessons learned from this experience are shared, and recommendations are made for the future training of counseling psychologists who seek health-related careers.

Use of a Behavior-Based Personality Instrument in Aviation Selection

This study evaluated a behavioral-based personality instrument currently used by a branch of the United States Armed Forces in their experimental aviation selection battery. The instrument, the Dot Estimation Task (DOT), was designed to measure compulsiveness versus decisiveness. The reliability and validity of this experimental instrument was evaluated. One hundred and fifty three university undergraduate students were administered the DOT and either of two paper-and-pencil compulsivity instruments in a counterbalanced design. Four weeks later, 90 subjects were retested on the DOT and the alternate compulsivity instrument. The results indicate that the DOT has a test-retest reliability of .64 but has no relationship to either compulsivity measure.

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE COHEN FEAR OF SUCCESS SCALE

Responses from 501 college freshmen to the Cohen Fear of Success Scale were factor analyzed. Six primary factors were initially identified; however, when more stringent selection criteria were applied, only 15 items included within five of the six factors could be retained. Implications for further research and utilization of Cohens scale are discussed.