EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADES FOR PREDICTING COLLEGE GRADES OF BLACK STUDENTS: A REVIEW AND DISCUSSION1

The purpose of this study was to reexamine the value of high school grades (relative to standardized test scores) for predicting college grades of black students. Data from previous studies and from a predominantly black university were analyzed. Results tend to indicate that high school grades do not consistently make the greatest contribution in predicting college grades of black students, perhaps particularly of men, whereas they do for whites. Unreliability of grade reporting, invalidity of grades in high school, restriction in range due to selection processes, and intergroup differences in personality characteristics were advanced to explain this phenomenon. Further research on this problem was suggested in view of the fact that many selective institutions are relying heavily on high school grades in their selection of black students.     

Training Counselors in Persuasion

The interpersonal influence model of counseling has implications for counselor training. The behaviors and other cues used to establish counselor expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness—qualities associated with persuasiveness—are described.     

Perceptions of Counselor Expertness: The Effects of Interpretation Content,Discrepancy, and Type

This study addresses limitations of previous research examining the effects of the counselor's use of interpretation on participants' perceptions of counselor expertness. Three factors (interpretation content, degree of interpretation discrepancy, and interpretation type) were crossed in a 2×2×2 factorial design. A main effect for interpretation type (propositional versus semantic interpretation) and an interacton between degree of discrepancy and interpretation type were found. These findings suggest that the relationship between the use of interpretations and perceptions of counselor expertness may be more complex than indicated by earlier research.     

Memory Research in Counseling: A Perspective and Some Hypotheses

The purpose of this article is to outline a perspective for memory research in counseling. The primary audiences were graduate students and supervisors of students planning research plus counseling researchers interested in investigating memory issues in counseling. The importance of memory processes in counseling is briefly reviewed. The authors then present a broad perspective for memory research in counseling and levels of processing, and examine a series of hypotheses that are tied into current work in counseling. The overall heuristic of levels of processing is followed by an examination of the reformulations of the position and how these may result in testable counseling hypotheses. This type of thinking should be valuable to counselor educators as they conduct their own research and help their students plan research programs. In addition, there is potential for applications of memory research to training and practice.