Node Link Mapping Research Articles

The Role of Node-Link Maps in Enhancing Counseling Efficiency

ABSTRACT Node-link mapping is a counseling tool that helps clients and counselors visualize relationships between ideas, actions, and feelings. Previous research has shown that methadone-main-tained clients receiving mapping-enhanced counseling have more positive during-treatment outcomes (e.g., better session attendance and higher probability of clean urines) than those receiving standard counseling. Findings also suggest that mapping enhances the efficiency of counseling sessions by increasing “on task” attention and by reducing communication problems. In this study, mapping counseling was associated with greater coverage of collateral issues (i.e., issues indirectly related to drug use) than standard counseling and lower during-treatment use as indicated by urinalysis results.

Mapping Techniques to Improve Substance Abuse Treatment in Criminal Justice Settings

Node-link mapping, a graphic representation tool, was used to improve mandated substance-abuse treatment in a 4-month residential criminal justice program. Three hundred eighty probationers (residents) were randomly assigned to either mapping-enhanced or standard counseling. Compared to those in standard counseling, residents receiving mapping gave more favorable evaluations to their group meetings, counselors, co-residents, and security staff. They also rated themselves higher on treatment effort and self-efficacy measures than did their counterparts. These findings suggest that mapping-enhanced counseling fosters more effective communication during meetings, promotes stronger therapeutic alliances, and thus enhances the perceptions of the effectiveness of the program and of the people associated with it.

Client education levels and the effectiveness of node-link maps.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of mapping-enhanced counseling with less educated methadone clients (i.e., clients with no high school diploma or GED). Results indicated that less educated clients exposed to node-link maps during treatment showed better 12-month follow-up outcomes than similar clients exposed to standard methods of counseling. Less educated mapping clients were less likely than their standard counterparts to have used drugs and to have engaged in criminal activities in the 6 months before the follow-up interview.

Ethnicity and the effects of mapping-enhanced drug abuse counseling

It was hypothesized that node-link mapping, a tool for visually representing client issues during drug abuse counseling, would reduce communication barriers between counselors and their African American and Mexican American clients. Three hundred twenty daily opioid users participated in methadone maintenance treatment programs in three cities for 6 months or longer following random assignments to mapping-enhanced or standard counseling. Clients in the mapping condition had fewer drug-positive urines (with respect to opiates and cocaine), missed fewer scheduled counseling sessions, and were rated more positively by their counselors on rapport, motivation, and self-confidence during the first 6 months of treatment. Significant interactions involving ethnicity and counseling condition suggested that mapping is more effective for African Americans and Mexican Americans than for Whites. The use of mapping appears to help reduce cultural, racial, and class communication barriers by providing a visual supplement and a common language that enhances counselor-client interchanges.

Node-Link Mapping as an Alternative to Traditional Writing Assignments in Undergraduate Psychology Courses

We explored the usefulness of a spatial—verbal technique called node-link mapping as an alternative to traditional uniting assignments. Students in Introductory Psychology (n = 44) and Memory and Cognition (n = 38) courses participated in the study as part of their normal course work. Students worked individually or in groups of two or three on the mapping assignment and then completed an anonymous questionnaire. Students rated the mapping assignment as more interesting, more informative, and no more difficult than a traditional writing assignment. Students also preferred the mapping assignment to a traditional writing assignment. Students' comments suggest that the mapping assignment helped students organize and remember information better than a traditional writing assignment.

Node-link mapping and the evaluation of drug abuse counseling sessions.

Node-link mapping and the evaluation of drug abuse counseling sessions.

Node-link mapping and the evaluation of drug abuse counseling sessions.

Node-link mapping and the evaluation of drug abuse counseling sessions.

A visual representation system for drug abuse counselors

Node-link mapping is a technique that consists of drawing spatial-verbal displays to visually represent interrelationships between ideas, feelings, facts, and experiences. These multirelational maps are drawn during ongoing counseling sessions to represent a variety of personal and nonpersonal topics. This article provides an overview of this technique, including rationale, related and supporting research, and an example of its use during counseling. In addition, this article describes the potential impacts of mapping and comments on practical considerations related to the effective use of this tool in drug abuse counseling.

Cognitive modularity: Implications for counseling and the representation of personal issues.

Recent modular views of cognition are described and related to counseling approaches. A framework for client-counselor interactions that are based on these views is developed and used to examine ways of expressing and representing counseling issues. The resulting analysis suggests that, for certain counseling activities, spatial-graphic representations are liekly to be useful adjuncts to natural language. Previous work with specialized spatial-graphic approaches (e.g., genograms, behavior loop maps) is reviewed, and a general representational technique, node-link mapping, is introduced.

Node-link mapping: A visual representation strategy for enhancing drug abuse counseling.

A multipurpose visual representation strategy, node-link mapping, was taught to randomly selected counselors in 3 methadone maintenance (MM) durg treatment programs. Counselors were trained to use mapping in their individual and group sessions as a communication, thinking and memory aid. MM clients were randomly assigned to either mapping counselors or standard counselors.

Node-link mapping: A visual representation strategy for enhancing drug abuse counseling.

Node-link mapping: A visual representation strategy for enhancing drug abuse counseling.