This is a continuation of the dialogue among Albert Ellis, Jeffrey T. Guterman, Earl Ginter, Sandra A. Rigazio-DiGilio, Allen E. Ivey, and Don C. Locke that has been appearing in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling on ethical issues of counseling in the postmodern era. Specifically addresses the ethical, constructivist, multicultural, and…

Judgments under uncertainty are often mediated by intuitive heuristics that are not bound by the conjunction rule of probability. Representativeness and availability heuristics can make a conjunction appear more probable than one of its constituents. Alternative interpretations of this conjunction fallacy are discussed and attempts to combat it…

A literature review examined these questions: How do workers make judgments about fairness? Why are workers concerned with organizational justice? and What is organizational justice? The relationship between two paradigms--reaction to events and appraisal of social entities--formed the basis of an integrative model of organizational justice.…

Qualitative evaluation can be used to facilitate change in the immediate higher education professional environment. This evaluation method enriches the collection and interpretation of data by involving all groups and persons who have a share in the problem. In contrast to qualitative research, qualitative evaluation assists in situation-specific…

Too often in American psychology, researchers have sought mastery (explanation) of phenomena through prediction and control, thereby eliminating the problems of interpretation by simply eliminating interpretation. This tactic is in contrast to the interpretive works of psychologists, such as Freud, who expect symbols to have double meanings…

In information skills instruction, changing from lecture-based to resource-based instruction requires not only recognition of its value but also a strong will to implement new methods (Loertscher, 1988). Based on this review of the literature, teachers seem not to be fully aware of the value of this change. It seems that teachers are uncertain…

The amount and type of decision-making activities available to and used by adolescents are examined. Adolescents' effectiveness in making decisions, methods they employ while doing so, and various decision-making models that may help adolescents perfect decision-making skills are discussed. (CJ)

It is widely believed that evaluations can deliver certain, definitive, and absolutely convincing assessments of social programs. It would be wise to insist only that evaluation findings be credible rather than certain, arguable rather than definite, and persuasive rather than absolutely convincing. (CJ)

This discussion of some of the research literature that is relevant to the issue of teaching thinking provides descriptions of hypothetical, ideal thinkers, and problem solvers; considers the problem of teaching thinking and problem solving; and explores the issue of evaluating programs so that they can be revised and improved. Following Bransford…

Several theories of sequential changes in intellectual functioning during adolescence and adulthood are addressed in this article. Methodological difficulties of testing these theories through longitudinal research are summarized. Educational implications of the Reflective Judgment Theory on research in intellectual development during college…

Biases in social comparative judgments, such as those illustrated by above-average and comparative-optimism effects, are often regarded as products of motivated reasoning (e.g., self-enhancement). These effects, however, can also be produced by information-processing limitations or aspects of judgment processes that are not necessarily biased by…

Reviews the subjective probability estimation literature of six schools of human judgement and decision making: decision theory, behavioral decision theory, psychological decision theory, social judgement theory, information integration theory, and attribution theory. Implications for probabilistic information retrieval are discussed, including…

Causes of evaluator bias are: overemphasizing concrete, salient, and retrievable information; reporting only evidence which confirms hypothesis; focusing on stable personality factors, rather than on situation and environment; developing positive perceptions of a program as both an evaluator and a highly involved participant; statistical naivete;…

Examines the statistical distribution of relevance judgments by reviewing and comparing the results of several studies over the last three decades. A characteristic distribution is examined, and a hypothesis is offered to explain it based on human judging characteristics and the nature of relevance experimentation. (Contains 13 references.) (LRW)

Examines social constructivism as an intellectual movement in the mental health field that directs a social consensual interpretation of reality. Presents a social constructivism approach to counseling which redefines the ethical decision-making process as an interactive rather than individual or intrapsychic process. Explores how the process…