The relationship between social support and goal pursuit among Chinese college students: The mediating role of just-world beliefs

Based on the self-determination theory, this study examined the mechanisms underlying the influence of social support on goal pursuit among college students and focused on the mediating role played by just-world beliefs. The Aspiration Index Scale, Just-World Beliefs Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale were used to assess relationships among 424 college students' just-world beliefs, social support, and goal pursuit; additionally, the underlying mechanisms of those relationships were examined. The results showed that (1) there was a significant positive correlation between social support, just-world beliefs, and goal pursuit; (2) social support had a significant positive influence on goal pursuit; (3) just-world beliefs played a fully mediating role in the influence of social support on goal pursuit, with a mediating effect of 36.38%; and (4) personal just-world beliefs rather than general just-world beliefs fully mediated the effect of social support on goal pursuit, with a mediating effect of 39.00%. In conclusion, we found that for Chinese college students, social support has a significant positive effect on goal pursuit, and personal just-world beliefs play a fully mediating role in the effect of social support on goal pursuit.

Social Justice Identity Development for International Counseling Psychology Students

Despite the inclusion of social justice and international issues in counseling psychology, there are no conceptual models or research to date that focus on social justice identity development and training issues for international counseling psychology students. The unique cross-cultural experiences and systemic injustices facing many international counseling psychology students may inform their social justice identity development in a distinctive manner. Thus, by incorporating biculturalism and transformative learning theories, this article proposes a theoretical model to illustrate the psychological processes and outcomes of social justice identity development for international counseling psychology students with the following four phases: (a) cultural and social awareness of privilege and oppression, (b) critical analysis of systemic oppression across cultures, (c) synergistic development of social justice competence and bicultural competence, and (d) integration of social justice identity and competence across cultures. We provide recommendations for future practice, advocacy, education, training, and research.

Who’s Multiculturally Competent? Everybody and Nobody: A Multimethod Examination

This study was a social dominance theory-driven multimethod investigation of multicultural competence. Given the concerns with self-report, we examined the relationship between study variables and both self-report and performance-based multicultural competence. We also tested competing hypotheses regarding the relationship between the multicultural competence measures. We examined two samples: one of counselor trainees ( N = 93), and one of practicing therapists ( N = 107). The overwhelming performance floor effect in the context of self-report ceiling effects was striking and unexpected in its severity. Awareness of privilege was the most consistent predictor, and the only variable related to most multicultural competence measures. Results related to social dominance orientation, just-world beliefs, and empathy differed by sample. A key finding was the failure by a substantial proportion of participants in both samples to even minimally address clients’ sociocultural context. Thus, we focus our discussion on the implications of this result.

Social Justice Mentoring and Scholarship: Building a Community of Leaders and Advocates

In this 2018 Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship keynote address, I speak about the importance of social justice mentoring and scholarship as a way to build communities of leaders and advocates. First, I contextualize my journey as an international student and an Asian Indian woman existing within multiple social and cultural locations. Second, I highlight those individuals who have influenced me on my academic journey. Finally, I share how my experiences, research, and clinical work have shaped my mentoring style and my desire to “pay it forward.”

Implementing Social Change: A Qualitative Analysis of Counseling Psychologists’ Engagement in Advocacy

In recent years, many counseling psychology training programs in the United States have adopted social justice principles into training. Although previous studies have provided thought-provoking discussions on social justice advocacy, they mostly reflected the voices of psychologists in academia; therefore, the advocacy work of practitioners has been neglected. In order to explore the advocacy experiences of counseling psychologists in practice, we utilized qualitative content analysis to analyze semistructured interviews with 11 practitioners who were trained in social justice-oriented counseling psychology doctoral programs. The findings were clustered under three domains: (a) participants’ development of a social justice orientation, (b) different ways of implementing advocacy in practice, and (c) positioning advocacy in psychology. The interviews depicted resources and challenges with regard to integrating advocacy into practice indicating that counseling psychologists continue to struggle with systemic barriers that limit their advocacy actions. We discuss implications for research, practice, and training in counseling psychology.