Anxiety and Empathy in a Counseling and Guidance Institute

This article investigates the relationship between anxiety and the development of empathy in counselor trainees during a full-year counseling and guidance institute. Anxiety was assessed three times during the program and empathy twice. It was found that anxiety decreased significantly during the course of the institute. No significant relationship was found between anxiety and empathy changes. It appears that such changes in trainees may be related to length of training. It is suggested that research concerning effects of training be longitudinal and focus on trainee change throughout the training period.     

Equality of Opportunity for Education: One‐off or Lifelong?

Adult education has long been the Cinderella of the education system. This is not helped by the fact that there is currently an impasse between employers, government and individuals over who should finance such training. So what, if anything, can philosophers do to help resolve the normative question of who ought to pay, setting aside for the moment the practical question of how this might be put into effect? An important strand of contemporary egalitarian philosophy argues that equality of opportunity for education should be implemented in such a way that children with the same level of talent and the same willingness to make an effort have the same opportunity to attain skills and qualifications such that they are each able (at the onset of adult life) to compete effectively with others for advantageous positions and rewards in society. But what about children or teenagers who drop out of education or make such little effort that they achieve wholly inadequate exam results? Should they be offered second and third chances for free education as adults funded by the state? A case is made for lifelong as opposed to one‐off equality of opportunity for education on a number of grounds, including efficiency, utility, the value of choice, the social bases of self‐respect and responsibility‐catering prioritarianism. This last view supports lifelong access to education (for reasons of priority) but with the additional (responsibility‐catering) stipulation that adults should contribute at least some of the costs themselves in so far as they are accountable for not making enough effort the first time around.     

Indirect evidence of human skeletal muscle damage and collagen breakdown after eccentric muscle actions

Indirect markers of muscle damage and collagen breakdown were recorded for up to 9 days after a bout of concentric, followed by a bout of eccentric, muscle actions. Nine untrained participants performed two bouts of 50 maximum effort repetitions on an isokinetic dynamometer (angular velocity 1.05 rad.s-1, range of motion 1.75 rad). An initial concentric bout of muscle actions was followed by an eccentric bout 21 days later, using the same knee extensors. Concentric actions induced no changes in maximum voluntary isometric contraction force (MVC),nor induced any changes in the serum enzyme activities of creatine kinase, a lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme (LDH-1), or alkaline phosphatase. Similarly, concentric actions induced no change in markers of collagen breakdown,namely plasma hydroxyproline and serum type 1 collagen concentration.In contrast,eccentric actions induced a 23.5 ± 19.0% (mean ± s) decrease in MVC immediately post-exercise (P< 0.05), and increased the serum enzyme activities of creatine kinase and LDH-1 to 486 ± 792 and 90 ± 11 IU.l-1 respectively on day 3 post-exercise, and to 189 ± 159 and 96 ±13 IU.l-1 respectively on day 7 post-exercise (all P < 0.05). Eccentric actions induced no significant changes in plasma hydroxyproline, but increased collagen concentration on days 1 and 9 post-exercise (48.6% and 44.3% increases above pre-exercise on days 1 and 9 respectively; both P < 0.05). We conclude that eccentric but not concentric actions may result in temporary muscle damage, and that collagen breakdown may also be affected by eccentric actions. With caution, indices of collagen breakdown may be used to identify exercise-induced damage to connective tissue.     

All-Inclusive Conceptualization as a Dimension of Trainee Empathic Responding

Investigations into the personality characteristic all-inclusive conceptualization (AIC) indicated that this variable was related to the ability to integrate facilitative interpersonal behaviors. A test of AIC was administered to 28 counseling practicum students who also submitted audiotapes of an initial, middle, and final counseling session. The sessions were rated, using a 5-point Carkhuff scale, as to the level of empathic understanding present. Significant negative correlations were found between scores on the test and rated levels of empathic understanding in each counseling session. The correlations indicated that those trainees who scored higher on the test of AIC offered their clients lower levels of empathic understanding than did their lower scoring colleagues. Implications for this finding are discussed.