On Statistical Wizardry, Construct Proliferation, and Other Challenges for Our Science
Research in counseling psychology (and most social sciences) has come to rely on powerful data analytic strategies and computer software that allow researchers to test complex multivariate models quickly and easily. New constructs also appear in our literature with regularity. Although complex models and new constructs have benefits for advancing knowledge and application, they also have drawbacks. The purpose of this article is to caution readers to (a) choose designs and data analytic strategies that are minimally sufficient to address their research questions, and (b) ensure that new constructs are empirically as well a...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Brown, S. D. Tags: 2014 Leona Tyler Award Address Source Type: research
Enhanced Psychological Health Among Chronic Pain Clients Engaged in Hope-Focused Group Counseling
This article presents studies that examined the extent to which a hope-focused group counseling intervention enhances hope and well-being in two community-based samples of participants (N =10 and N = 24) experiencing chronic pain. A pilot study (Study 1a) and a main study (Study 1b) both used a one-group, pretest–posttest design to determine whether participants experienced changes regarding their hope, well-being, acceptance of pain, and catastrophizing of pain. Both studies showed that participants experienced numerous and significant changes from pre- to post-intervention, including improvements in well-being and ...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Howell, A. J., Jacobson, R. M., Larsen, D. J. Tags: Positive Psychology Special Issue Source Type: research
Purpose and Meaning in Career Development Applications
Purpose and meaning in career development is a rapidly growing, cross-disciplinary area of research and practice in which counseling and vocational psychology aligns with positive psychology to yield promising applications to career counseling. We provide a brief overview of theory related to purpose and meaning in work, then review six specific areas of application: strengths, positive emotions and flow, gratitude, work hope, job crafting, and perceiving and living a calling. The links of these applications to theory and research are emphasized, and recommendations are offered for how counseling and vocational psychologis...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Dik, B. J., Duffy, R. D., Allan, B. A., O'Donnell, M. B., Shim, Y., Steger, M. F. Tags: Positive Psychology Special Issue Source Type: research
Positive Psychological Interventions in Counseling: What Every Counseling Psychologist Should Know
Counseling psychologists are in a prime position to claim preeminence in the field of applied positive psychology. A number of misunderstandings or misconceptions of positive psychology seem to interfere, however, with the focus (or lack thereof) that has been placed upon training counseling psychologists to utilize and contribute to positive psychological scholarship and applications. In this article, the most commonly reported misconceptions are addressed, and foundational information regarding positive psychological constructs, theories, and processes most relevant to the applied work of counseling psychologists is revi...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Magyar-Moe, J. L., Owens, R. L., Conoley, C. W. Tags: Positive Psychology Special Issue Source Type: research
Applications of Positive Psychology in Counseling Psychology: Current Status and Future Directions
A distinctive feature and unifying theme of the work of counseling psychologists is a focus on client strengths, assets, and potentialities regardless of the degree of psychopathology. As such, positive psychology appears to have a natural home within counseling psychology. Evidence from content analyses of flagship journals of the field as well as from surveys of Members and Student Affiliates from the Society of Counseling Psychology (Division 17) of the American Psychological Association suggests, however, that a distinctive disconnect exists between the philosophical stance taken by many counseling psychologists toward...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Magyar-Moe, J. L., Owens, R. L., Scheel, M. J. Tags: Positive Psychology Special Issue Source Type: research
Earn Continuing Education Credit for Reading Articles in The Counseling Psychologist!
(Source: The Counseling Psychologist)
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - April 21, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Mental Health, Self-Stigma, and Help-Seeking Intentions Among Emerging Adults: An Attachment Perspective
Many college students experience common mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, but do not seek psychological help. The present study proposed an attachment theory–driven model interrelating adult attachment, mental health concerns, and self-stigma in predicting intentions to seek counseling with a college student sample (N = 1,682). Structural equation modeling revealed that attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, directly and positively predicted intentions to seek counseling. However, mediation analyses indicated that attachment anxiety was also indirectly and negatively linked to help-se...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cheng, H.-L., McDermott, R. C., Lopez, F. G. Tags: Regular Manuscripts Source Type: research
"YOU Were Adopted?!": Microaggressions Toward Adolescent Adopted Individuals in Same-Race Families
This study delineated a microaggressions typology and corresponding intensity levels that occur to adopted adolescents. The microaggressions framework by Sue et al. was adapted to identify this adoptive microaggression typology. Interviews with 153 (males = 79, females = 74) non-Latino/a White adolescent adopted individuals in same-race families were analyzed. Thematic analysis was used to discover 16 themes: (a) Silence, (b) Overly Intrusive Questions, (c) Assumption of Bionormativity, (d) Recurring Confusion/Ignorance, (e) In-House Divisions, (f) Public "Outing," (g) Using Adoption, (h) Questioning Authenticity, (i) Unac...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Garber, K. J., Grotevant, H. D. Tags: Regular Manuscripts Source Type: research
Trans Men's Positive Emotions: The Interaction of Gender Identity and Emotion Labels
The current study used grounded theory methods to analyze trans men’s positive emotions. The sample included 11 participants who were assigned a female sex at birth and currently identify with a binary male identity. Results yielded eight positive emotion themes emerging for trans men, which included the following: confidence, comfort, connection, feeling alive, amazement, pride, happiness, and interpersonal reactionary emotions. Participants reported specific gender experiences within these themes, including a sense of brotherhood, excitement related to taking testosterone, authentic pride in identifying as a man, a...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Budge, S. L., Orovecz, J. J., Thai, J. L. Tags: Regular Manuscripts Source Type: research
Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Extending the Conversation
In this rejoinder, we address three responses to our major contribution in this issue, "Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Bridging Two Disciplinary Discourses." These responses support our contention that not only are the potentially harmful therapy and multicultural counseling and psychotherapy literatures quite disparate, but that this compartmentalization is a symptom of broad and serious problems in the discipline. We explore further some of the underlying complexities the responding authors have raised, including (a) systemic ways that the current landscape of psychotherapy research maintains t...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Wendt, D. C., Gone, J. P., Nagata, D. K. Tags: Rejoinder Source Type: research
Beyond Harms: Exploring the Individual and Shared Goods of Psychotherapy
Wendt, Gone, and Nagata raise some very important questions about harm in psychotherapy and initiate a valuable dialogue between scholars of potentially harmful therapy and multicultural counseling and psychotherapy. This comment enlarges upon the authors’ view that harms cannot be understood independently of goods by providing an argument that goods have an inherent place in psychotherapy and in multicultural viewpoints. The goods of psychotherapy (e.g., justice, respect) are ordinary and widely endorsed rather than esoteric or objectionable. Identifying these goods makes it possible to organize them into a coherent...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Fowers, B. J., Anderson, A. R., Lefevor, G. T., Lang, S. Tags: Reactions Source Type: research
Multicultural Counseling Meets Potentially Harmful Therapy: The Complexity of Bridging Two Discourses
This reaction includes an appraisal of contributions, limitations, and questions raised in Wendt, Gone, & Nagata’s major contribution regarding potentially harmful therapy (PHT) and multicultural counseling. The authors are commended for initiating a convergent dialogue between the PHT and multicultural counseling literatures, creating a strong argument for their integration, and contextualizing the prior division. Commentary is provided in response to the narrow emphasis on an ethnoracial domain of culture, and suggestions for broadening the PHT/multicultural counseling dialogue through inclusion of multiple ide...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Davidson, M. M., Hauser, C. T. Tags: Reactions Source Type: research
Therapeutic Harm and Cultural Oppression
The divergent discourses between scholars from the potentially harmful treatment and multicultural psychology camps are accurately observed by Wendt, Gone, and Nagata. I argue that the differences in perspectives between the two groups are more about a clash of therapeutic worldviews, that they are often antagonistic to one another, that conversations have been a one-way process (with one side "not wanting to hear"), and that sociopolitical forces play a significant role in preventing a true dialogue from occurring. I conclude that the ultimate harm to groups of color is cultural oppression. (Source: The Counseling Psychologist)
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Sue, D. W. Tags: Reactions Source Type: research
Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Bridging Two Disciplinary Discourses
In recent years, psychologists have been increasingly concerned about potentially harmful therapy (PHT), yet this recent discourse has not addressed issues that have long been voiced by the multicultural counseling and psychotherapy movement. We aim to begin to bring these seemingly disparate discourses of harm into greater conversation with one another, in the service of placing the discipline on a firmer foothold in its considerations of PHT. After reviewing the two discourses and exploring reasons for their divergence, we argue that they operate according to differing assumptions pertaining to the sources, objects, and ...
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Wendt, D. C., Gone, J. P., Nagata, D. K. Tags: Major Contribution Source Type: research
Earn Continuing Education Credit for Reading Articles in The Counseling Psychologist!
(Source: The Counseling Psychologist)
Source: The Counseling Psychologist - March 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Articles Source Type: research
