Assessing the Relationship between Competence and Job Role and Identity among Direct Service Counseling Psychologists

The relationship between competence and identity and job roles/activities of direct service counseling psychologists was investigated by assessing differences in job role and identity among two groups of eminent psychologists (American Board of Professional Psychology [ABPP] diplomates and a peer-nominated Exemplary group) and a group of general psychologists (Rank and File). The three groups ( N = 189) were compared using the Counseling Psychology Task Inventory (CPTI)—a 73-item instrument measuring eight broad work areas (Counseling, Research, Supervision and Training, Teaching and Training, Administration, Consultation, Writing and Editing, and Professional Development) across three dependent variables: task importance, relevance to professional identity, and relative amount of time spent in each task. The Exemplary group differed significantly from the Rank and File group only in the amount of time spent in Professional Development ( p < .0 1). No significant differences were found between the two eminent groups or the ABPP and Rank and File groups. Follow-up analyses led to two additional conclusions. First, when divided into groups by percent of time spent in Counseling in seven of eight work areas, significant differences were noted. For each of the 20 significant comparisons (p < .01), an inverse relationship was noted between the mean values within work areas and percentage of time spent in Counseling. That is, those who spent relatively more time in Counseling yielded lower task importance, relevance to professional identity, and time on task scores for the areas of Research, Supervision and Training, Teaching and Training, Administration, Consultation, Writing and Editing, and Professional Development. Second, when mean values were rank ordered, a consistent pattern of three work areas was prioritized by respondents to comprise a nucleus of tasks consistent with the “life span development” ethos of counseling psychology. These work areas were Supervision and Training, Counseling, and Professional Development.

Primary Prevention in Counseling Psychology

This study examined primary prevention articles published in four counseling journals from 1985 to 1999. The authors’ results indicated a relative paucity of prevention-focused literature in counseling journals. Specifically, 52 (1.29%) of the 4,028 articles published over this 15-year period focused on primary prevention. The 52 articles were reviewed for type of article, article topic, setting, and general populations sampled. The lack of prevention articles in counseling journals is problematic as journals reflect issues relevant and important to the field. Implications of the results and recommendations for how counseling psychologists can become more involved in prevention are discussed.

On Myopia, Rhetoric, and Reality in Counseling Psychology

This article considers two basic issues about counseling psychology: (1) that a specialty whose predominant focus is on developmental/educational and preventive interventions for relatively "normal" or mildly distressed individuals may become increasingly irrelevant and unmarketable in our current mental health system and (2) that aparadox seems to exist between the contemporary practice of counseling psychology and the literature that defines the specialty. The need to remedy this paradox and adopt an expanded model of counsel psychology is considered.

In Search of a Professional Identity

This study examined the professional identity of counseling psychologists in Australia. Subjects were 114 members of the Board of Counselling Psychologists within the Australian Psychological Society who responded to a survey questionnaire that tapped demographic and professional activity information. Respondents rated the importance of activities to their present and ideal positions as counseling psychologists. Factor analysis of ratings showed a structure of activities of which consultation and education, goal-directed counseling, depth psychotherapy, and program development and evaluation were most important. Research and assessment activities were seen as least important. Differences in importance ratings were found as a function of respondent employment setting. Results show similarities to earlier studies and suggest that the professional identity of counseling psychologists based on activities extends across national boundaries.

Internship: The Applied Training of a Counseling Psychologist

The objectives of this article were (I) to provide a comprehensive view of the predoctoral internship, (2) to delineate relevant issues in intern training, (3) to stimulate the field of counseling psychology to examine critically the effectiveness of internship training programs; section 3 compares the major types of internship provide direction for future practices and research in internship programs. The article is organized into five primary areas. Section 1 provides a brief history and definition of the internship; section 2 describes the organization and management of internship training programs; section 3 compares the major types of internship settings chosen by counseling psychology students and includes the results of a national survey conducted by the authors; section 4 addresses the influence and impact of pressures from within and outside the profession on internship training; finally, section 5 summarizes questions and concerns relevant to the internship of the future.

Counseling Psychologists' Uses of and Opinions about Psychological Tests

Since counseling psychology's inception, psychological testing has traditionally been considered an integral aspect of the specialty. However, contemporary information on the testing practices of counseling psychologists is quite limited. In an effort to gather current information about counseling psychologists 'uses of and opinions about psychological tests, we sent a five-page questionnaire to 1,000 members of Division 17 (Counseling). The questionnaire assessed information on four variables: personal and professional characteristics, opinions about test usage, recommended tests to include in graduate training, and current test usage. Approximately 70%0 of the sample returned questionnaires, with 63% of them being usable. Information about the four variables evaluated by the questionnaire is presented, and implications of the psychological test data in regard to training and practice in counseling psychology are considered.

College and University Counseling Centers in the 1990s

Counseling centers, along with the American system of higher education, face serious challenges in the coming decade. This article explores the challenges facing counseling centers, particularly as centers encounter a changing and unstable social and financial environment and consider undertaking a greater or lesser degree and variety of tasks. A strategic agenda is suggested for consideration in the 1990s.

Counseling Psychology's Focus on Positive Aspects of Human Functioning

The Major Contribution aims to provide interrelated articles that examine how counseling psychology's past and the complex world we live and work in bear on our professional understanding of human strengths and positive life outcomes. In this article, the authors examine the historical underpinnings of the positive in psychology, analyze the focus on the positive in counseling psychology scholarship through the decades (via a content analysis), and review scholarship that has shaped the strength-based work of professionals throughout applied psychology. The content analysis of a random selection of 20% (N = 1,135) of the articles published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP), The Counseling Psychologist (TCP ), theJournal of Career Assessment (JCA ), and theJournal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD) revealed that about 29% have a positive focus. This article calls attention to the positive in counseling psychology, and the authors encourage its members to reaffirm its unique positive focus by focusing more on strength in practice and research.

Counseling Psychology in Israel

This article discusses the status of counseling psychology in Israel in the context of its unique characteristics. Despite the respected status of psychology as a profession in Israel and its overall acceptance and involvement in numerous social issues, counseling psychology as a separate specialty is nonexistent, especially because of resistance to the clinical psychology specialty. In addition to general subjects where counseling may be applied, special problem areas—including continuous security threats, massive immigration, non-Jewish minorities, issues concerning religiosity, and effects of the Holocaust—create the necessity for counseling psychology interventions. Nevertheless, actual, successful, professional accomplishments make this either unnecessary or call for a change in the counseling-related training of clinical psychologists.

Factors Relating to Professional Development in Beginning Graduate Students in Counseling Psychology

Beginning graduate students in programs in counseling psychology approved by the American Psychological Association were surveyed to determine salient demographic characteristics, motivational factors influencing their decisions to enter graduate training in counseling psychology, their perceptions of the appropriate roles and functions of professionals in the field, and their goals and expectations regarding their future employment settings. Median or modal demographic data suggest that the "typical" beginning doctoral student in counseling psychology is a 25- to 35-year-old white female who has done previous graduate work and who has had prior mental-health-related work experience. Reasons for entering graduate school in counseling psychology were found to vary as a function of age. Although students 'perceptions of the field were found to be similar to those of seasoned professionals, they did vary somewhat depending on the students' professional goals. A very strong preference was expressed for private practice as a career goal.

Are college students more disturbed today? Stability in the acuity and qualitative character of psychopathology of college counseling center clients: 1992-1993 through 2001-2002

Are clients at college counseling centers more disturbed today than they were 5, 10, or 20 years ago? Since the mid-1980s, counseling center personnel have consistently perceived student clients as more distressed or reported acutely distressed clients as more prevalent than they did 1, 3, or 5 years ago. Only 3 studies employing a systematic, data-based methodology have addressed this question. Two researchers used different actuarial measures of the acuity or character of client pathology and concluded that current student clients are not more disturbed than were earlier ones. One researcher used clinical judgments rendered at the end of therapy and concluded that current students were more distressed. Using the Personality Assessment Inventory, the author found the actuarially determined quantitative and qualitative indices of pathology unchanged for 3,400 counseling center clients seen during 10 consecutive years. Over the same period, the use of medications increased fivefold. An actuarial measure of client distress appears crucial to both accurate diagnosis and treatment and to the adequate preparation of future counseling center professionals.

Comparison of recent graduates of clinical versus counseling psychology programs

Recent graduates from clinical (N = 65) and counseling (N = 64) psychology programs were surveyed to assess similarities and differences of aspects of their programs and job-related activity. Results revealed only minor differences. Counseling psychologists were more likely to provide group therapy, career counseling and assessment, public lectures and workshops, to have more knowledge of the Strong Interest Inventory, to be more likely to work in university counseling centers, and to endorse humanistic theoretical orientations. Clinical psychologists were more likely to work in medical school settings, to ascribe human behavior to internal states rather than to social causes, and to have greater knowledge of the Rorschach. However, the similarities between the two specialities relative to work setting, theoretical orientation, service, research, and teaching activities, far outweighed these minor differences. Implications of these findings are placed in the context of previous research that has suggested the possible merger of the two specialities.

Comparison of PhD programs in clinical and counseling psychology

This survey of training directors of all APA-accredited PhD programs in clinical and in counseling psychology explored differences in curricula, program characteristics, predoctoral internships, and postdoctoral placements between the two programs. Minor differences emerged between the two types of programs with regard to curricular emphases, but these differences are far outweighed by similarities. Implications are discussed and support provided for the conclusion that a merger of the two specialties may be possible and desirable.