Showing papers in "Journal of Counseling Psychology in 1979"

Evaluative Reaction to Interpersonal Touch in a Counseling Interview.

Abstract: A counseling analogue study investigated the effects of the use of touch gestures by counselors on client evaluative responses to the counseling experience. Specifically, a 2 (touch vs. no touch) X 2 (male vs. female client) X 2 (male vs. female counselor) between-subjects design was used. Results indicate that clients who were touched evaluated the counseling experience more positively than no-touch control subjects. However, the magnitude of the effect of touch was affected by the sex composition of the counseling dyad, with stronger effects occurring when clients were touched by an opposite-sex counselor. The results are discussed in terms of conceptual implications and with respect to applied relevance for therapeutic practice and the training of counselors. Nonverbal behaviors are receiving increased attention from researchers interested in context variables that may influence a client's progress in counseling. Readers of professional journals encounter a growing number of theoretical (e.g., Argyle & Dean, 1965; Patterson, 1976) and empirical attempts to explain the way nonverbal gestures are interpreted and to predict how such behaviors may affect the counseling process (e.g., Hill & Gormally, 1977; Tepper &

Effects of Assertion Training on Aggressive Behavior of Adolescents.

Abstract: VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Lee et al. was to examine the effects of assertion training on the aggressive behavior of adolescents. METHODOLOGY: An experimental design was used in this study. In ninth-grade classes at a large vocational high school, peer rating was used to identify aggressive students. The students who were rated by their peers to be aggressive (30 total, 24 males, 6 females) were randomly assigned to three groups: assertion training, placebo, or no-treatment control group. The experimental group received 50-minute assertion training sessions once a week for 8 weeks, the placebo group received sessions about decision-making, and the control group received no contact. In the treatment group, the participants observed their own and others behavior, kept track of their assertive behaviors, reviewed their responses to particular situations, considered alternative responses to the situation, tried out the chosen response, and received feedback. To measure aggressiveness in the high school, 265 students received an overall aggression score to rate their peers. The researchers used an aggression scale ranging from 1 (low) to 5 (high) for: swearing, name-calling, threats, getting angry easily, throwing or slamming objects, and starting fights and hitting others back. Students also rated themselves on this scale for a self-rating of aggression and they completed a self-report assertiveness questionnaire, which measured their assertiveness by having them respond to various situations and interactions. The data was analyzed by comparing the aggression (self- and peer-rated) and assertion scores among the three groups. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Assertion training had little effect on peer-judged aggression. The experiment found that for peer-rated aggression, there were no statistically significant differences among the three groups. However, those who received the assertion training seemed to perceive themselves as somewhat less aggressive. In addition, the assertion group scored significantly higher on the assertion scale than the other two groups. The author noted that self-rated aggression correlated only marginally with peer-rated aggression. AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors suggested that follow-up observation and testing could determine if there is an incubation period for the desired behavioral change of peer-rated aggressive adolescents. The authors recommended further study to explore the results that show that participants in the assertion training showed significant improvement in their ability to express socially acceptable assertive behaviors. There were problems with the use of the same self-report measure and with the use of a written report, and not real-life situations, to measure assertion improvement. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) Juvenile Aggression Training Program Prosocial Attitudes and Behavior Social Skills Training Aggression Treatment Treatment Program Assertiveness Training Early Adolescence 09-99

The Impact Message Inventory: A New Measure of Relationship in Counseling/Psychotherapy and Other Dyads.

Abstract: The Impact Message Inventory assesses momentary emotional and other engagements of one person by another during ongoing transactions in counseling/psychotherapy and other dyads. A 259-item form of the inventory was administered to 451 undergraduates of both sexes. Fifteen groups of approximately 30 subjects each recorded their impacts to 1 of 15 paragraph descriptions of stylistically "pure" interpersonal types adapted from Lorr and McNair's Interpersonal Behavior Inventory items. Item and factor-analytic procedures, cross-validated on split samples, yielded an 82-item revised inventory of high internal consistency reliability. Results offer strong support for circumplex ordering of the inventory's 15 interpersonal subscales, whereas inconsistent support is found for the prediction that impact messages occupy a two-factor space around the axes of status and affiliation. Applications of the inventory in counseling/psychotherapy research and practice are discussed. In counseling theory and research, relationship has remained a controversial and elusive construct. What has been missing is a relevant measure tied to a systematic and comprehensive theory. This report presents the development and initial validation of an inventory designed to assess relationship behaviors in dyads, including counselor-client and husband-wife, as well as pairs of interactants in other social contexts. The Impact Message Inventory (Kiesler et al., 1975, 1976) taps the momentary affective, cognitive, and behavioral covert engagements of one person by another during ongoing face-to-face communication. The inventory shows promise for single-case and group studies of counseling practice and for counselor training and supervision. It can be used as a dependent variable measure by which the counselor, observers, and significant others in the client's life record their sequential impact responses to the client over the course of counseling and follow-up periods. In marital counseling it can serve as a repeated measure filled out by each partner on the other and also can be in

Is It the Cognitive or the Behavioral Component Which Makes Cognitive-Behavior Modification Effective in Test Anxiety?.

Abstract: Components of Meichenbaum's cognitive-behavior modification treatment for test anxiety were varied in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Desensitization and cognitive treatments were either given or not given. The resultant conditions were (a) desensitization only, (b) cognitive only, (c) the combination cognitive plus desensitization,, and (d) neither cognitive nor desensitization (control). Each test-anxious subject was randomly assigned to one of the four groups. On a variety of test anxiety and self-rating measures the combined treatment and desensitization were less effective than the cognitive-only treatment. The results are discussed as consistent with traditional theories of test anxiety and antithetical to a recent behavioral reformulation of test anxiety theory.