Lawrence J. Schneider

Academic Achievement: An Examination of Holland's Congruency, Consistency, and Differentiation Predictions.

Abstract This investigation tested three predictions derived from Hollands (1973) theory of vocational development regarding academic achievement. Groups of 392 male and 424 female entering college freshmen were typed using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, and differentiation. Freshmen with congruent college major choices or with definite majors but indefinite Holland orientations enjoyed greater academic success than students who specified incongruent choices or no definite major choice. Students with personality codes of high or low consistency outperformed students with moderately consistent codes. Freshmen males with differentiated personal orientations achieved higher grade point averages than males having nondifferentiated personality profiles. For females, differentiation was not significant. In all sex comparisons female trends paralleled male trends and females generally outperformed males. Implications for vocational development and counseling were discussed in the context of Hollands theory.

Physiological Responsivity to a Socially Stressful Situation: The Effect of Level of Moral Development

The present study sought to determine whether or not a personality variable, the level of moral development, was related to the way in which individuals respond to socially taboo words. As a result of their responses to a moral judgment questionnaire based on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, 28 participants were assigned to one of two groups: (a) the conventional level group (Stages 3 and 4), a level that is desirous of maintaining social mores for their own sake, and (b) the postconventional level group (Stage 6), a mentality that emphasizes one’s own autonomy with regard to the adherence to social rules. Participants’ galvanic skin responses were assessed while they viewed 18 socially taboo and neutral words presented sequentially via a memory drum. As expected, participants’ GSRs to taboo words were significantly greater than their responses to neutral words, p <.05. Additionally, as hypothesized, the conventional level participants demonstrated significantly greater GSRs to socially taboo words than did the more morally autonomous postconventional participants. These findings support Kohlberg’s theory. Some practical applications of the present study are also discussed.

Placebo effects in the treatment of male dating anxiety

The outcomes of cognitive-behavioral and high credibility placebo group treatments were compared in a sample of nineteen heterosocially anxious males. At post-test and at a 3-month follow-up, both treatments showed improvement on self-report measures of interpersonal functioning (ps less than 0.05). The cognitive-behavioral treatment showed a consistent pattern of improvement on self-report and behavioral measures of anxiety (ps less than 0.05), but, overall, the groups showed comparable levels of effectiveness. The possibility that both treatments relied on placebo mechanisms is discussed.

Accuracy of counselor age estimates and satisfaction with counseling among younger and older women

Ninety-one younger (M = 26 years) and 91 older (M = 69 years) women serving as pseudoclients in a larger study were asked to estimate the counselors age in age-similar and age-dissimilar counselor-client dyads. Analyses revealed that although both age groups estimated the ages of younger counselors with similar accuracy, older counselors were inaccurately judged to be substantially older than they really were by the younger pseudoclients. This was not true for older pseudoclients. These findings suggest that the perception of the chronological age of the counselor does vary systematically by client age. In light of the relationship between accuracy of estimated age and both perceived counselor characteristics and satisfaction with counseling, these findings also suggest that a clients estimate of a counselors age may influence her satisfaction with help, particularly when the client is younger and the counselor is older.

International peer review commentary: Contemporary counseling psychology: Back to the future?

Abstract Counseling psychology has experienced a number of important changes that seemingly have implications for doctoral training. As a result, questions have been raised about how programs could best accommodate to current training needs and marketplace demands. This paper describes one programs attempt to (a) examine contemporary training needs and demands in counselling psychology and (b) address these needs through providing training that seemingly would meet them. The assumptions and basic outline of the program are described. The program is not presented as a model to follow, but rather as one implemented, formative effort designed to accommodate to ongoing changes in the counseling specialty. Such a programmatic description may stimulate further discussion about how best to deal with marketplace demands and variations in psychological practice.

RELIABILITY NOTE ON THE SOCIAL SUPPORT SCALE

This study investigated the internal reliability of Pollack and Harriss (1983) Social Support Scale and reports norms for 352 college males and 443 females. While the scale appears sufficiently reliable for research purposes, additional considerations of reliability and validity need to be addressed before clinical applications are appropriate.