Counseling Psychology Students Research Articles

Ascending to the Concrete

This article describes learning in a human development class designed to enable counseling psychology students to hold a complex, sociocultural view of development. The class emphasizes student transformation from reductive, personalist thinking to thinking in terms of complexity and sociocultural processes. It valorizes moving from knowledge-based to inquiry-based and critical approaches. The account here looks at class materials and teaching approaches. It describes student difficulties with learning complex views and gives examples of student products that have been successful.

Adventure-Based Experiences during Professional Training in Psychology

This article considers the use of an adventure-based medium, known as ‘ropes courses’, to enhance the personal growth and professional development of Counselling Psychology students. Six students who completed their Master's degree in Counselling Psychology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, between 1999 and 2000 participated in a ropes course day. Each student was asked to reflect, in writing, on four questions relating to his or her experience. Their reflections were analysed in terms of analytic guidelines proposed by Giorgi. Five main themes emerged from the analysis, namely: boundaries, anxiety, roles, cohesion and trust. It was concluded that the ropes course day contributed to the personal growth and professional development of these students and that an adventure-based medium, such as ‘ropes courses’, can be a valuable component of Counselling Psychology training.

Race, Color-Blind Racial Attitudes, and Judgments About Mental Health: A Shifting Standards Perspective.

A fictitious counseling center intake report was given to a sample of 158 White graduate students in counseling and clinical psychology to examine the impact of reported client race (Black or White) on perceptions of clients' symptom severity. As predicted by the shifting standards model of social judgment (M. Biernat, M. Manis, & T. E. Nelson, 1991), participants judged the Black target to be significantly less symptomatic than the White target. After controlling for social desirability (measured as motivation to respond without prejudice; E. A. Plant & P. G. Devine, 1998), a significant interaction effect showed that color-blind racial attitudes (H. A. Neville, R. L. Lilly, G. Duran, R. M. Lee, & L. Browne, 2000) were positively related to symptom perception for the Black target but not the White target. The shift in assessment (rating the Black target more favorably than an identical White target) was more evident for participants with lower levels of color-blind attitudes. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 4th ed.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: PsychotherapyFull AccessCounseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 4th ed.ARMANDO R. FAVAZZA, M.D., M.P.H., ARMANDO R. FAVAZZASearch for more papers by this author, M.D., M.P.H., Columbia, Mo.Published Online:1 Jun 2004https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.6.1137-aAboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail This hefty tome looks, feels, and reads like a textbook for graduate students in counseling psychology. Obviously, since this is its fourth incarnation, it has been very successful, and it is generally accepted as the best book in the field. The keys to its success are simple: it is comprehensive, clearly written, neatly divided into 20 chapters ending with sections on implications for clinical practice, and contains many clinical vignettes that balance the theoretical material.The book starts slowly, with a discussion of the “superordinate nature” of multicultural counseling, the politics of counseling and therapy, and sociopolitical considerations of trust and mistrust. Much of this section can be summed up by the authors’ contention thatthe power of racism, sexism, and homophobia is related to the invisibility of the powerful forces that control and dictate our lives. In a strange sort of way, we are all victims. Minority groups are victims of oppression. Majority group members are victims who are unwittingly socialized into the role of oppressor. (p. 72)Despite this ominous start, the book moves on to clinical material that really is quite practical. The authors argue correctly that a counselor/therapist dealing with culturally diverse clients needs to be adaptive and not tied down to traditional approaches, although I couldn’t help but chuckle at the suggestion that change-agent outreach programs may involve shooting basketball and playing billiards with clients. Thank God we psychiatrists have patients who, unlike clients, would most likely swoon or run away at the suggestion that we shoot a few hoops together. Just imagine the possibilities of such a scenario in the hands of the comedian Larry David in a episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm! But I digress.The section of the book that most fascinated me was on white racial identity development. Here the authors explore the responses of different people to the question, “What does it mean to be white?” In fact, I plan to spend an entire session of my cultural psychiatry seminar asking the residents to answer this question. The authors note thatwhiteness is transparent precisely because of its everyday occurrence and because Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, average, and ideal.…Persons of color find White culture quite visible because even though it is nurturing to White Euro-Americans, it may invalidate the lifestyles of multicultural populations. (p. 239)As a resource book for teaching about clinical competence, the book is terrific. Ideally, all psychiatrists should be familiar with the book’s contents, but I seriously doubt that, after a mind-numbing day of 15-minute medication management visits, there are many psychiatrists who have the will and strength to read this lengthy tome. More’s the pity, because through years of personal experiences I have learned that our pills tend to be more efficacious and our patients more compliant when we pay attention to cultural facts. If you go about things the right way, it’s amazing sometimes what can be accomplished in 15 minutes.By Derald Wing Sue and David Sue. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, 507 pp., $80.95. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByOrganic consumerism: A comparison between India and the USAJournal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 53 Volume 161Issue 6 June 2004Pages 1137-a-1138 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 June 2004 Published in print 1 June 2004

The Effects of People-First Language and Demographic Variables on Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions Toward People with Disabilities

The effects of people-first language usage and demographic variables on beliefs, attitudes and behavioral intentions toward people with disabilities were investigated. Participants included 351 undergraduate minors, masters, and doctoral level students in counseling psychology at a state university located in the Midwest. Study participants provided demographic information, produced a writing sample concerning a hypothetical client who has a disability, and completed the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATOP) and the Beliefs and Behavioral Intentions Scale (BABI). The BABI examined beliefs and behavioral intentions across three dimensions; sexuality, quality of life potential, and professional personal social distance. Analysis of the writing samples indicated that only a minority of participants used people-first language consistently. A series of ANOVAs were conducted comparing people-first language usage and scores on both the ATOP and BABI scales. Although the results were mixed, language usage appears to affect the attitude and behavioral intentions towards persons with disabilities.

Impact of research training environment and Holland personality type: A 15-year follow-up of research productivity.

Ratings of the research training environment (RTE) and Holland personality type from 325 counseling psychology students who participated in G. M. Royalty, C. J. Gelso, B. Mallinckrodt, and K. Garrett’s (1986) study were examined as predictors of the students’ research productivity 15 years later. Graduates’ research productivity was determined by a search of the PsycLIT database. Results indicated that 2 specific RTE elements were related to productivity for men (faculty modeling and science as a partly social experience) together with the Interpersonal cluster of elements and the total RTE. Only 1 RTE element was related to productivity for women (untying statistics from research). Investigative Holland type was related to productivity for the combined sample of men and women. At a program level, Interpersonal and Instructional RTE ingredients distinguished programs whose graduates had sustained low, moderate, or high levels of research productivity. An important goal of psychology programs that ascribe to the scientist–practitioner training model is to produce doctoral graduates who are interested in research as well as practice and who are able to integrate science and practice into a body of skills, knowledge, and professional attitudes that is greater than the sum of these two parts (Belar, 2000). Gelso and Fretz (2001) suggested that successful scientist–practitioner training is manifested at three ordinal levels: (a) the ability to critically review research produced by others; (b) the ability to apply the rigorous logic of the scientific method to practice activities such as diagnosis, treatment planning, and evaluating the effectiveness of one’s work; and (c) at the highest level, the ability to actually produce scholarly work. Thus, whether the outcome of training is defined in the most demanding terms of producing original scholarship or less rigorously in terms of critical thinking skills, all three levels involve an interest in research and positive attitude toward scholarly activity.

Predicting the scholarly activity of counseling psychology students: A refinement and extension.

J. H. Kahn and N. A. Scott's (1997) model of scholarly activity was refined by integrating the mentoring relationship as an element of the research training environment and research outcome expectations as an additional mediator, as guided by social-cognitive career theory (SCCT). A national survey of 149 counseling psychology students was used to test the refined model. Results supported an indirect effect of the research training environment on scholarly activity through research interest and research self-efficacy; the student's relationship with his or her mentor did not predict these outcomes. In accord with SCCT, research self-efficacy and research outcome expectations mediated the relationships between students' investigative interests and perceptions of the research training environment (predictors) on research interest and scholarly activity (criteria). This model extends Kahn and Scott's work and suggests the value of integrating SCCT into models of student scholarly activity.

Predicting the scholarly activity of counseling psychology students: A refinement and extension.

Predicting the scholarly activity of counseling psychology students: A refinement and extension.

Factor Structure of the Research Outcome Expectations Scale

The Research Outcome Expectations Questions (ROEQ) is a measure of outcomes one might expect to occur as a result of engaging in research activities. Though the ROEQ has good internal consistency, the underlying factor structure of the ROEQ had not yet been examined. Exploratory factor analyses were completed on 183 doctoral students in counseling psychology and counselor education. A one-factor model was identified. The one-factor model was submitted to confirmatory factor analyses using an independent sample of 284 doctoral students and was found to be a good fit of the data. The predictive validity of the revised-ROEQ appears to be adequate. Implications for using the ROEQ in future research studies are discussed.

Mentoring Ethnic Minority Students for Careers in Academia

The need for academic mentoring of ethnic minority doctoral students in counseling psychology has resulted in a call for training programs to build environments that not only provide financial assistance, but also work toward enhancing qualitative aspects of training that may be important in the students’preparations for future academic careers. This article describes the Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education’s (WICHE) Doctoral Scholars Program that provides both external funding and strategies designed to encourage faculty-student mentoring. The extent to which WICHE has influenced doctoral training in the counseling psychology program at the University of Utah is described from the perspective of the WICHE director, a WICHE faculty mentor, and two WICHE doctoral scholars. The importance of the faculty mentor as a facilitative agent in the training of ethnic minority students and in helping them to prepare for careers in academia is highlighted.

Counseling Psychology Students and Professionals

A survey study of counseling psychology graduate students' (n = 67) and professionals' (n = 90) scientific and practitioner interests (Scientist-Practitioner Inventory, SPI; Leong&Zachar, 1991) and expectations and perceptions about the work environment (Work Environment Scale; Moos, 1994) was conducted. Student participants and professionals were partitioned into scientists and practitioners based on future career focus and professional setting, respectively. The practitioners provided support for “matching” interests and work environment (i.e., practitioners experience a higher social-type environment than faculty). Based on the data, some graduate students express more interest in science than practice, while all share a level of interest in practice. Generally, the SPI appears to be a reasonably reliable and valid instrument. Concerns about science in counseling psychology were addressed.

Neuropsychological Training in APA-Accredited Counseling Psychology Programs

The availability of neuropsychological training in American Psychological Association-accredited counseling psychology programs was examined. A survey response rate of 53% (33/62) was obtained from program training directors. Only 42% (14/33) reported the availability of a neuropsychology course at their universities. Results indicated that counseling psychology students are interested in neuropsychological theory and assessment but may have difficulty finding training within their academic programs and institutions. Training directors reported that neuropsychology training is relevant to the work of counseling psychologists, but other responses suggested concern that the identity of counseling psychology is inconsistent with neuropsychology.

Teaching assessment and screening to counselling psychology students

Teaching assessment and screening to counselling psychology students

Factors Influencing the Stated Career Goals of Minority Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology Programs

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence the stated career goals that racial and ethnic minority graduate students in counseling psychology make while pursuing their graduate education. A national sample of 118 minority students, representing 50 training programs, participated. Participants completed a career goal instrument and a demographic questionnaire. Results indicated that most counseling psychology minority students preferred combined academic and practitioner career goals, whereas few were interested in pursuingfull-time academic careers; the presence of positive feedback and reinforcement of counseling skills were primary influences on career choices. Findings are discussed in terms of recommendations for training programs and future theoretically based studies.

Treatment with Children of Divorce

This treatment study with children of divorce was conducted to compare pretreatment and posttreatment adjustment and knowledge of divorce for children assigned to one of two treatment conditions: a board game therapy that includes divorce information and coping skills training, and a conventional form of play therapy. Participants were 21 children, ages 7 to 17, whose parents have divorced within the last five years. Counselors were male and female doctoral students in counseling psychology at a university in the Southeast. Data collection involved pretreatment and posttreatment assessment using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1992), the Children's Beliefs About Parental Divorce Scale (CBAPDS; Kurdek & Berg, 1987), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achen-bach, 1991), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC; Spielberger, 1970), the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children (Piers & Harris, 1969), and the Children's Depression Inventory Parent Form (CDI-P; Kazdin, French, Unis & Esveldt-Dawson, 1983). Multivariate analyses revealed a significant pretreatment/posttreatment difference for the parent-report measures, F (4,15) = 8.6, p < .002, and a significant pretreatment/posttreatment difference on the STAIC subscales, F (2,18) = 9.65, p < .002. These significant pretreatment/posttreatment differences suggest better posttreatment adjustment.

Cognitive Therapy with Couples: The Initial Phase of Treatment

Cognitive Therapy with Couples: The Initial Phase of Treatment Frank M. Dattilio. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press, 1994, (Video: 56 minutes). In this videotape, Dattilio demonstrates the application of cognitive therapy techniques to counseling with couples. The 56-minute videotape is accompanied by a 19-page program guide that highlights the techniques demonstrated and outlines the content of the sessions. Both the videotape and the program guide are intended to supplement the book Cognitive Therapy with Couples (Dattilio and Padesky, 1990). Actors portraying a white married couple are shown meeting with Dattilio for an initial conjoint session, two individual sessions (one with the wife and one with the husband), another conjoint session, and a final follow-up session several weeks later. The five session excerpts range in length from a very brief 3 minute follow-up session to longer session excerpts lasting approximately 14 minutes. In the opening pages of the program guide, Dattilio offers a brief summary of his use of cognitive therapy with couples. He focuses on the expectations that each partner brings to the relationship and how these expectations may grow increasingly negative over time resulting in a breakdown of communication. In order to explore these expectations, Dattilio presents a variety of techniques including the comparison of current negative frames with former positive frames, the use of the "downward arrow" technique to identify personal meanings, the use of the dysfunctional thought record to identify and record automatic thoughts, the identification of feelings, and the assignment of homework, primarily from the book Love is Never Enough (Beck, (1988). In his closing statements, Dattilio notes that the video is designed to be an introduction to the techniques discussed in Cognitive Therapy with Couples (Dattilio and Padesky, 1990). The degree to which this video is successful in introducing these techniques will be discussed from three perspectives: the perspectives of the student, the practitioner, and the consumer. This video was watched and reviewed within the context of a supervised practicum experience for doctoral students in counseling psychology. From the perspective of student trainees, the context within which to use the techniques presented is unclear. Dattilio successfully demonstrates the cognitive therapy techniques mentioned above, but because this is done through a series of relatively short session excerpts, the larger contexts of the complete therapy sessions are lost. As a consequence, trainees may feel confused as to when to apply these techniques. Dattilio could have avoided this problem by either presenting the techniques in one full-length session or by presenting the techniques in isolation as microskills. The therapist models some positive skills that may be helpful to the student trainee such as using humor to reduce rising tensions and focusing on strengths in the relationship between the couple. However, Dattilio displays some behaviors that may be inconsistent with those commonly taught to students. For example, Dattilio often uses the technique of challenging negative automatic thoughts, but he does not follow those challenges with empathic support for the client's experience of emotion. This process is particularly evident in the individual session with the wife. The therapist uses the downward arrow technique with the client to arrive at a core belief. Once this core belief is unearthed, she begins to cry, but Dattilio does not offer empathic support for the client's emotional reaction. More experienced therapists should understand that in the real world of therapy, this display of emotion would likely be acknowledged and explored by asking a question such as "How are you feeling right now?" However, based upon the demonstration of techniques in this video, novice student therapists may come away believing that cognitive therapists ignore clients' emotions. …

Factor Structure of the Research Training Environment Scale-Revised:

The factor structure of the Research Training Environment Scale-Revised was examined in a sample of 270 graduate students in counseling psychology. This confirmatory factor analysis assessed the fit of a nine-factor model corresponding to the respective subscales on the measure, as well as the fit of a second-order factor structure suggested by an exploratory factor analysis of data. The second-order factor structure fit very well when conducted on manifest (i.e., observed) subscale total scores; the results were more ambiguous when first-order latent factors were included in the factor structure. The analyses suggested that an instructional dimension and an interpersonal dimension are global factors of the research training environment.

Increasing Research Involvement and Interests among Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology

Increasing Research Involvement and Interests among Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology

Students' Perceptions of Multicultural Training in Counseling Psychology Programs

The Multicultural Competency Checklist (Ponterotto, Alexander, &amp; Grieger, 1995) was used to assess counseling psychology students' perceptions of multicultural training in their programs. Results revealed that most students perceived their programs to (a) have a required multicultural counseling course, (b) employ diverse teaching strategies and procedures, (c) use varied methods of evaluating performance, and (d) have faculty members whose primary research interest was in multicultural issues. Alternatively, many students reported that their programs did not (a) have appropriate representation of bilingual individuals on the faculty, (b) demonstrate adequate leadership and support with regard to multicultural issues, (c) use assessment instruments in evaluating their level of multicultural competency, and (d) make available a “multicultural resource center” for their use. The importance of integrating multicultural issues throughout academic programs is also discussed.

Getting a foot in the door: The written internship application.

For graduate students in counseling and clinical psychology, the predoctoral internship represents one of last opportunities to obtain extensive supervision and training. Articles concerning the predoctoral internship application process have focused a great deal on how prospective interns can evaluate and select internship sites (Grace, 1985; Kurz, Fuchs, Dabek, Kurtz, & Helfrich, 1982). Generally, a brief overview of each step in the application process is given, from gathering information about specific internship programs to what to do if the applicant receives no offers on the notification day (Belar & Orgel, 1980; Brill, Wolkin, & McKeel, 1985). Although this approach helps applicants anticipate what to expect at various stages of the process, the focus is more on style than substance. Regardless of the type of internship setting, applicants are generally required to provide basic information about their education, clinical experience, teaching, affiliation with professional organizations, and research experience (Casey Jacob, 1987). However, it is also important to focus attention on how an application can be strengthened by going beyond the basics. This article provides an in-depth discussion of how increasing the substantive information in the written application can influence how an applicant is perceived by the internship site. The absence of a thorough and informative written application may make time spent gathering information about the internship site or preparing for the interview