Client self-acceptance is a crucial element of mental health and a goal of psychotherapy. It has been demonstrated that client self-disclosure in psychotherapy is instrumental in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical therapist responses frequently are used to elicit self-disclosure. Cognitive dissonance theory was used to provide a theoretical understanding of these techniques and their use in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical responses were conceptualized as providing a client with different perceptions of choice over self-disclosure that may affect the occurrence of self-acceptance. This study compared the effects of the reflection, probing, and paradoxical techniques on self-acceptance and anxiety following self-disclosure.

Personal construct psychology, as formulated by George Kelly (1955), contributed substantial knowledge to the study of psychopathology. The small amount of research in the area of depression has focused generally on the content of self-constructs and the cognitive complexity characteristic. The purpose of this study was to examine the construct system of the depressed patient specifically by investigating the endogenicity, exogenicity, and severity of depressive symptoms in relationship to construct content as applied to others, cognitive complexity, and ordination.

Much research conducted on stepmothers has not been racially representative. This includes Janice Nadler's (1976) research on three psychological stresses (anxiety, depression, and anger) of stepmotherhood. To investigate the stress of black stepmotherhood, this study replicated a portion of Nadler's investigation on a black sample. It was hypothesized that 1) black stepmothers would report more stress than black natural mothers; and that 2) black stepmothers would report more stress than the white stepmothers in Nadler's study. The data indicated no significant difference in the levels of stress experienced by black stepmothers and black natural mothers. Overall, white stepmothers reported more stress than black stepmothers. The former may be attributable to black stepmothers and natural mothers having the same support system, the black extended family.

The purpose of this project was to clarify the methodological considerations involved in the posttreatment follow-up evaluation of alcohol-abuse patients. A two-part project was undertaken in an attempt to answer the follow-up questions of how and when to measure treatment effects with discharged alcoholics. In Part I, a large-scale survey was utilized to examine return rates across various program evaluation methods and time frames. In Part II, the predictive validity of scores received at short-term follow-up in relation to scores received at 1-year follow-up was assessed for measures of psychosocial functioning and alcohol consumption.