Susan X. Day

The Career Futures Inventory: A Measure of Career-Related Adaptability and Optimism

The purpose of this study was to provide initial results on the development and validation of the Career Futures Inventory (CFI), a new 25-item measure of positive career planning attitudes. Items were originated using the rational method. Results from an item analysis of scale homogeneity and exploratory factor analysis in a sample of 690 undergraduates from a large midwestern university revealed three subscales: Career Adaptability, Career Optimism, and Perceived Knowledge. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the three-factor model provided an excellent fit to the data. Additional analyses established high internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity through examination of correlates with dispositional optimism, Big Five personality characteristics, generalized problem solving, vocationally relevant self-efficacy, interests, and numerous career-relevant attitudes and outcomes. Implications for future research and counseling practice are discussed.

Psychotherapy Using Distance Technology: A Comparison of Face-to-Face, Video, and Audio Treatment

This study compared selected process and outcome variables across 3 modes of psychotherapy: faceto-face, real-time video conference, and 2-way audio (analogous to telephone). Results from 80 randomly assigned clients suggested that differences in process and outcome among the 3 treatments were small and clinically promising in comparison with the untreated control group. Experimental comparisons of process and outcome in distant versus face-to-face conditions may influence the future practice of psychology. Conventional wisdom insists that, for most purposes, the therapist and client must be in the same room. Overall, our training as psychologists has emphasized face-to-face contact as the ideal. It will be interesting to discover whether this is true. Moreover, what conditions are required to establish psychological contact with another person and, in fact, what constitutes psychological contact at all, are salient questions in the age of Internet discourse (e.g., Kraut et al., 1998). These research questions are significant for therapist training, choice of treatment, and application of previous research findings. Our effort to compare face-to-face, video, and audio individual therapy addressed two aspects of substitutability. On the process side, the working alliance was examined in all three conditions. Bordin (1979) conceptualized this alliance as the emotional bond between client and therapist, the quality of client and therapist involvement in the tasks of therapy, and the amount of concordance on goals between therapist and client. Reviewing studies of the predictive validity of the alliance variable, Henry, Strupp, Schacht, and Gaston (1994) found empirical support for alliance– outcome associations no matter how outcome was measured, who measured it, or what psychotherapeutic school of thought was represented. These reviewers entertained “the hypothesis that the alliance is a causal ingredient of change” (p. 485). On the outcome side, several assessments were combined, following the advice of Strupp and Hadley (1977) that evaluation of outcome should include multiple sources of information (therapist and client) and multiple targets for change (symptom change, satisfaction level, problem resolution). As implied above, our research questions were straightforward: Does level of working alliance differ according to mode of delivery (face-to-face, audio, or video)? Does outcome differ according to mode of delivery and in comparison to a no-treatment wait-list control group?

Online Counseling Reviewing the Literature From a Counseling Psychology Framework

This article reviews the online-counseling literature with an emphasis on current applications and considerations for future research. It focuses on primary themes of counseling psychology including the history of process-outcome research and multiculturalism. It explores current gaps in the literature from a counseling psychology framework, including the field’s focus on normal and developmental challenges and tasks, client strength and resilience, education and career development, prevention and wellness, and multiculturalism. In general, current evidence indicates that online counseling may be a viable service option for some clients, especially those who are typically isolated; however, questions remain regarding the effectiveness and appropriateness of online counseling.

A Psychometric Evaluation of Cigarette Stimuli Used in a Cue Reactivity Study

Laboratory studies have demonstrated that cigarette smokers react with significant subjective and autonomic responses (e.g., increased craving and increased heart rate) in the presence of stimuli associated with smoking. Although cue reactivity effects are typically robust, a number of methodological considerations make interpretation and design of cue reactivity studies problematic. Previous research has paid scant attention to the psychometric properties of the cigarette cues presented, and standard cues would enhance comparison and synthesis of studies. In the present study, we evaluated 12 cigarette photos (compared with positive, negative, and neutral photos), used in a separate study, for their ability to evoke self-report of craving in both nicotine-deprived and nondeprived smokers. These photos performed as expected, with cigarette pictures evoking significantly higher craving than neutral pictures and deprived smokers showing a trend toward higher craving than nondeprived smokers. The cigarette picture set was evaluated for internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha = .97) as a 12-item scale and further reduced to multiple 2-item scales with reliability estimates ranging from .70 to .93. A cluster analysis of all pictures showed that, when rated for craving, cigarette pictures clustered together, indicating they had distinct properties compared with positive, negative, and neutral pictures. Effect sizes were calculated for each cigarette picture in both deprived and nondeprived smokers. The craving effect sizes ranged from .57 to .98 for nondeprived smokers, and from .61 to .99 for deprived smokers. The analyses suggest these cigarette pictures have excellent psychometric properties for use in future cue reactivity studies.

The Structure of Vocational Interests for Diverse Racial-Ethnic Groups

We investigated differences in the circular structure of Hollands interest types across racial-ethnic groups (African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasians; N = 11,610). The samples consisted of college-bound persons who completed the revised Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT; Swaney, 1995), as well as a comparison group of 10th graders (N = 4,133) in the 1992 UNIACT norms sample. Analyses using a randomization test of hypothesized order, targeted principal components, and three-way multidimensional scaling suggest that Hollands model adequately represents the interest structures of both sexes in all the diverse samples.

Holland's RIASEC model as an integrative framework for individual differences.

and work environments. In the present study, a theoretical framework based on Holland’s (1959, 1997) structure of interests was used to assemble constellations of individual differences variables, producing an integrated model of measures of individual characteristics and the characteristic demands placed on individuals in work environments that can be used in applied settings such as career counseling. Data from a number of published sources, measuring a diverse set of individual and environmental demands, were integrated into interest structures based on Holland’s interest types.

Cue Reactivity in Virtual Reality: The Role of Context

Cigarette smokers in laboratory experiments readily respond to smoking stimuli with increased craving. An alternative to traditional cue-reactivity methods (e.g., exposure to cigarette photos), virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be a viable cue presentation method to elicit and assess cigarette craving within complex virtual environments. However, it remains poorly understood whether contextual cues from the environment contribute to craving increases in addition to specific cues, like cigarettes. This study examined the role of contextual cues in a VR environment to evoke craving. Smokers were exposed to a virtual convenience store devoid of any specific cigarette cues followed by exposure to the same convenience store with specific cigarette cues added. Smokers reported increased craving following exposure to the virtual convenience store without specific cues, and significantly greater craving following the convenience store with cigarette cues added. However, increased craving recorded after the second convenience store may have been due to the pre-exposure to the first convenience store. This study offers evidence that an environmental context where cigarette cues are normally present (but are not), elicits significant craving in the absence of specific cigarette cues. This finding suggests that VR may have stronger ecological validity over traditional cue reactivity exposure methods by exposing smokers to the full range of cigarette-related environmental stimuli, in addition to specific cigarette cues, that smokers typically experience in their daily lives.

Personality and Gender as Predictors of Online Counseling Use

ABSTRACT Extraversion, neuroticism, and gender as predictors of online counseling help-seeking behavior were investigated. A total of 176 college student participants, 30 men and 146 women, were given the NEO-PIR and ATSPPH-S that assessed, respectively, their personalities and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help through different modes: traditional face-to-face counseling, video-conferencing, e-mail, instant text message, and microphone. Results were analyzed using MANOVA and MANCOVA. Subjects were grouped by scores on personality variables: low, medium, and high. Findings suggest that attitudes toward different modes of seeking counseling were associated primarily with gender and extraversion but not with neuroticism.

Online counselling: An initial examination of the process in a synchronous chat environment

Abstract Aims: The present study investigates the dynamics of an initial counselling session held in a synchronous chat environment between counsellors-in-training and a trained confederate posing as a client. Specifically, the study examines (a) the interventions used, (b) the therapeutic alliance, and (c) the ability of the counsellor to accurately diagnose the client. Methods: Transcripts from 54 online sessions were analysed to investigate counsellors’ responses and interventions in an online environment. Results: The use of counselling interventions were similar to those used in face-to-face sessions, but with some differences. Reassurance and open questions were used about twice as often, while interpretation and direct guidance were used less frequently. Most participants (86–90%) reached the correct diagnosis when the symptoms represented a single diagnosis but had more trouble when the symptoms were mixed (36%). Participants reported feeling some distance from the client but reported an increase ...

Grief and Trauma in Children After the Death of a Sibling

Parent loss is understood as a fundamental loss to a child, but less is known about the consequences of a sibling’s death. The present study explored self-reported grief and trauma among 26 sibling-bereaved children to help inform effective support interventions. Grief and trauma scores were highly correlated in our sample, and there were no definitive differences based upon type of loss. The main limitation was a small sample, but our results provide ecologically valid information rather than data from children recruited for research purposes. Implications for continued data collection and publication from naturalistic settings and meta-analytic recommendations are discussed.