The importance of high levels of involvement in counseling has been related to theories of interpersonal influence. To examine differing effects of counselor credibility as a function of how personally involved counselors are, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of attitude change was applied to counseling pretreatment. Students (N=256) were…

This paper reviews the main research in the area of human reasoning and rational thinking to determine if man is either an "innately inefficient thinking machine" or if man's irrationality is "rooted in basic human nature," as Ellis (1976) suggests. The paper focuses on the work of two English theorists, Wason and…

Dependable Strengths Articulation Process (DSAP) is a self-development process designed to facilitate positive self-constructions and improved personal functioning through a systematic intervention that enables participants to recognize, articulate, communicate and use their Dependable Strengths. Because it is a peer-assisted process, each…

Expanding the treatment system from the individual to the couple or family carries with it some unique challenges and fundamental clinical dilemmas for the marital and family therapist. Marital and couple therapy is explored with a focus on the dilemmas that dyadic relationships bring to the treatment context. The couples central relationship…

The world of work has changed dramatically over the years. Many researchers have enhanced career development theories, and recently there have been efforts to explore the possible convergence of the major theories or, at least, more effectively bridge theory and practice. This document explains several theories that can be used to revise current…

The following article provides a look at the creative process through the eyes of positive psychology. It describes first how creativity fits into the theory behind this field, then goes on to trace how a positive psychologist might consider this construct: observing how it functions therapeutically in the natural environment, then theorizing…

This paper highlights the use of analogies and metaphors in counseling sessions with a focus on the college freshman experience as a living, contemporary example of how clients may experience mythic themes in their lives. Drawing from the ideas of Joseph Campbell, characters found in classical Greek mythology, as well as contemporary myths as…

Describes diagnostic perspectives for viewing dysfunctional families. Presents three general types of models (process, structural, and historical) and organized them along a continuum from most descriptive to most inferential. Presented at the 39th Annual Conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, October-November…

Last decade has seen some major impacts of feminism on institution of psychotherapy regarding theories, treatment techniques, and assessment instruments. Changes in attitudes toward women as therapists and as clients have reflected general advances of women's movement. Presented at American Psychological Association Convention, Toronto, Canada,…

The assessment process can be integrated with treatment and evaluation for helping teenage suicide attempters and families in short term psychiatric hospitalization programs. The method is an extremely efficient way for the therapist to work within a given time constraint. During family assessment sufficient information can be gathered to…

In order to develop competence in cross-cultural counseling, awareness of one's own culture must be developed. To survive, cultures incorporate both obvious mechanisms, like a distinctive language, and less obvious mechanisms, like patterns of thought. Culture acts as an invisible veil which prevents us from being aware of the cultural filters…

Counseling psychology has neglected elderly adults. Developmental transitions from gainful employment to retirement or from active parenthood to former parenthood can be difficult. For older adults, religion can be a useful means for organizing the self-concept and developing a context of meaning for one's life in an effective way. Religion can…

Psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in general do not apprehend the data of their field in any strict literal sense. Rather, they prefigure psychopathological data at a precognitive level. This prefiguration employs one or more of the poetic tropes of metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony. Each psychotherapy achieves its particular explanatory…

It is postulated that the standard framework for psychotherapy, a cooperative transference neurosis, does not validly carry over to the successful psychotherapy of a two-generation family group. In many disturbed families, the necessary and sufficient dynamics for change must be initiated, controlled, and augmented by a group dynamic power-play,…

Super's life-span life-space theory offers a developmental framework for career counseling. This paper provides a brief overview of Super's theory of Life Career Rainbow (LCR) segment. The LCR feature is useful for identifying the stage of a client's career development and in formulating goals for counseling. The assessment is accomplished by…