Several studies suggest that college counselors believe anxiety has been rising in recent decades. However, these surveys do not allow counselors to give nuanced answers or explicate their reasons, leaving it unclear why counselors estimate such change and how they explain its etiology. Do counselors have more nuanced beliefs than surveys suggest?…

This paper considers the implications for training and practice of counsellors' responses to the notion of challenging clients' prejudices. It explores tensions in counselling discourse between social responsibility, responsibility to the client and responsibility for one's self as counsellor. Three focus groups of counsellors were asked whether a…

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship among counselors' self-reported multicultural counseling competence and their attitudes of the geriatric population. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between participants' attitudes of the geriatric population and their self-reported multicultural counseling…

This paper introduces a model of multicultural competence targeted at school counselors who work or may work with gifted and talented children. The model is designed as an extension of the Multicultural Counseling Competence framework (Sue, D. W., 2001). The present model outlines three competencies believed to be important to efficacious…

Notes that counselors' vulnerability to inferential bias during counseling process may result in misdiagnosis and improper interventions. Discusses these inferential biases: availability and representativeness heuristics; fundamental attribution error; anchoring, prior knowledge, and labeling; confirmatory hypothesis testing; and reconstructive…

Mental health counselors (MHCs) are generally perceived as empathic, caring professionals. However, the terms that mental health counselors use to describe their clients sometimes contribute little to the valid assessment and treatment of psychological problems and are disrespectful to clients. This article reviews the literature on counselor…

Counselor educators can utilize the ideas of philosopher Michel Foucault in preparing preservice school counselors for their work with K-12 students in public schools. The Foucaultian ideas of "governmentality," "technologies of domination," "received truths," "power/knowledge," "discontinuity," and "archaeology" can contribute to students'…

Discusses implications of dramatic increase in number of elderly for the marital and family therapist. Claims therapist will be dealing with the complex problems of a population who traditionally have underutilized services and have been viewed with negative bias. Features method of "exaggerated engagement" and gives brief attention to general…

Identifies 10 of the most frequently encountered examples of cultural bias that consistently emerge in the literature about multicultural counseling and development. Assumptions are described in the areas of normal behavior, individualism, limits of academic disciplines, dependence on abstract words, independence, client support systems, linear…

Offender status had a negative effect on dimensions involving acceptance of the client for therapy but little effect on assessment of personality variables. (Author)

Examined mental health service providers' (N=80) evaluation of deaf patients in various programs. Found staff at specialized inpatient mental health programs for the deaf had more positive attitudes than staff serving the general population. Found mental health staff evaluated some deaf patients differently from hearing patients with respect to…

Reexamines a previous study of biases in social workers, which found that, contrary to common expectations, social workers' clinical judgments tended to be biased in favor of female clients. However, this replication produced some contradictory results. (Author)

To estimate the overall effectiveness of counselor training, tested student counselors to explore "response-shift bias." Results from three groups of trainees spanning three years revealed the presence of a response-shift bias, confirmed the effectiveness of the training program, and demonstrated that students continually analyzed their…

The psychoeducational processes school diagnosticians use in decisions about students were studied. Bogus referral problem information for one of 16 "cases" was provided: assessment data indicated average performance. Fifty-two percent of the subjects recommended special education for the average child; these decisions were a function of referral…

Vocational rehabilitation students rated three physically handicapped groups and three nonphysically handicapped groups on the Personal Attribute Inventory. Groups were ranked in the order students prefered to work with them. Results indicated students described the handicapped groups more positively, but preferred to work with the nonhandicapped…