Microcounseling: Techniques in Assessing Clients' Attitudes toward Guidance Tests

Microcounseling techniques were used to conduct an experimental study. The objective was to train naive college students who were interested in counseling to assess clients' attitudes toward guidance tests. A correlation of .797 was obtained between clients' ratings of attitudes toward tests and the trainees' ratings of clients' attitudes toward tests. Findings were consistent with the results of other microcounseling studies. Individual differences among the trainees were noted and comparisons were made between the trainees' own ratings, judges' ratings, and clients' ratings of trainees. Lack of a control group imposes a serious limitation on interpretation of the results.     

Designing the Physical Aspects of On-Campus Counselor Education Clinics

A state-of-the-art on-campus counselor education clinic is described. Recommendations are offered to other counselor educators undertaking the design of similar clinics.     

Standardized testing and the construction of governable persons

While debates over standardized testing are ubiquitous, there has been relatively little consideration of how today's standardized testing practices have arisen. The current study provides a chronology of standardized testing within Alberta, Canada. Starting from prior work by Foucault and others on ‘governmentality’, we propose that the movement to standardized testing be viewed as part of a larger societal movement toward techniques of government that operate indirectly and at a distance. These techniques of government seek to ‘manage’ populations through the use of measurement tools and numerical calculations. We suggest that, although these techniques are directed toward populations, they also have specific effects on individual students, parents, teachers, and other participants in the education system. In particular, we contend that standardized testing programmes, by rendering the participants visible and subjecting them to public scrutiny, contribute to the construction of governable persons.     

TAXONOMY OF VOCATIONAL INTERESTS OF ACADEMIC MAJOR AREAS

This study appraised the degree to which student profiles on the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS) for different academic majors could be clustered in a meaningful way. From an initial sample of 10,134 students, a matrix of mean scores for 131 academic majors on each of 34 JVIS basic interest scales was computed. This matrix was subjected to a singular value decomposition with subsequent orthogonal and oblique rotations of 17 reference axes. The 17 clusters so defined reflected distinct sets of academic major fields, with separate clusters for majors in engineering, computer science, performing arts, communicative arts, human services, and others. Male and female groups entered into the definition of every cluster. Based on the salient representations of academic majors on these reference axes, modal cluster profiles were computed and decomposed into five orthogonal higher-order dimensions. The implications of these findings for the psychology of occupational choice, career development, and vocational interest measurement are outlined.     

Decision training: The effects of complex instruction,variable practice and reduced delayed feedback on the acquisition and transfer of a motor skill

Novice, intermediate and advanced baseball hitters followed a 7–week training programme, in which they received either behavioural training or decision training. Participants in the behavioural training group received simple-to-complex instruction, variable practice and an abundance of feedback throughout the acquisition period; the decision training group received complex instruction, variable practice and reduced delayed feedback. As predicted, the intermediate and advanced hitters who received decision training hit at a lower level (%) during acquisition but at a higher level during a transfer test in week 7. Novices in the behavioural training group were better than novices in the decision training group over both acquisition and transfer trials.     

Consultant Training in Counselor Education Programs

Although the role of consultant has received increasing professional attention recently, little has been reported regarding the emphasis in counselor education programs given to consultation in the preparation of counselors. This study involved a survey of 31% of the existing counselor training programs. Findings indicated that 44% of the programs offered formal courses in consultation; the counselor as consultant was ranked second only to counseling as a major counselor role. Consultant training was reported as mainly focusing toward work with individual consultees and small groups.     

Sex and Age as Factors Relating to Counselor Attitude Change

This study investigated attitude changes of 229 counselor students. The constant variables were sex and age. The Test of Counselor Attitudes was administered in pre- and post-Institute sessions to year-long NDEA Institute counseling students. At the start of the Institutes, students' attitudes differed based on sex and age variables, but at the conclusion neither variable appeared to play a part.     

Counseling Attitudes of American and Welsh Counselor Education Students

The purpose of this study was to look at the attitudes of those students entering a new counselor education program in Wales to see if changes in counselor attitudes took place as a result of a year-long program. Minimal change appeared to have taken place. The second portion of this investigation compared these students with a sample of United States students. There were significant differences between the two groups at both the beginning and the end of the programs.