This study was designed to measure ten demographic membership variables of the Texas Association for Counseling and Development (TACD) and the respective relationships of those variables to ethical knowledge. It was also an effort to conduct a global study of the most recent revision (1988) of the AACD Ethical Standards and to find the relative knowledge of these standards by a random sample of 357 counselors in one state counseling organization.

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between parental empathy (PE) and parental acceptance (PA) and the effect of filial therapy training (FTT) on this relationship. Filial therapy training is a parent education program in which the goal is the development of PE and PA. The Measurement of Empathy in Adult-Child Interaction (MEACI) and the Porter Parental Acceptance Scale (PPAS) are two widely used instruments in filial therapy studies to measure PE and PA, respectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between parental empathy and parental acceptance, and the effect of filial therapy training on this relationship. Specifically, this study was designed to investigate the correlations between the MEACI and the PPAS.

This study was designed to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy as a play therapy training model for beginning play therapy students. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy training on play therapy trainees in (a) improving positive attitudes and beliefs toward children; (b) improving knowledge of child-centered play therapy; (c) improving confidence in applying child-centered play therapy skills; (d) reducing dominance tendencies in trainees' personality as measured by the California Psychological Inventory; and (e) increasing tolerance levels in trainees' personality as measured by the CPI. The experimental group, consisting of 37 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received 45 clock hours of introduction to play therapy graduate course training at the University of North Texas, Denton. The control group, consisting of 29 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received other counseling graduate courses training but no play therapy training at the time of their participation in this study at the University of North Texas. Both experimental and control group students completed the pretest and the posttest on the Play Therapy Attitude Knowledge Skills Survey and the California Psychological Inventory at the beginning and the end …

This study resulted in the development of the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA), an assessment instrument for the Adlerian construct of discouragement in adults more than 18 years of age. The DSA is a 60-item instrument that contains five sub-scales corresponding to five life tasks identified in Adlerian literature as work, love, society, self, and spirituality. Age, gender, and ethnicity norms were established for the DSA using a diverse sample (N=586). Additional normative data was developed with a presumed discouraged sample (N=47), and a special sample of traditional college students aged 18-27 years (N=531). Findings on the norm sample indicated that females are less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and on society and spirituality sub-scales. The 18-34 year old group was more discouraged than other age groups on the Total DSA and on work, society, and spirituality sub-scales. Presumed discouraged sample findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the society sub-scale. College student findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and sub-scales of love, society, spirituality, and work. A significant difference was found among ethnic groups in self sub-scales. Students with no absences per week were less discouraged than …

The possibility of a relationship between Adlerian life style, as measured by the Life Style Personality Inventory (LSPI), and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was examined by this research. The goal of this study was to clarify the relationship between these instruments to broaden the applicability of both instruments for both research and clinical endeavors. Life style is a concept which is vital to therapeutic intervention from an Adlerian frame of reference. Assessment of life style typically involves lengthy therapist interviews. Both the LSPI and the MBTI are questionnaires designed to measure personality variables. The 117 subjects for this study were solicited from individuals seeking counseling from an urban community counseling center. The individuals served by this agency are primarily those diagnosed with Adjustment Disorders. The LSPI and the MBTI were administered individually to each subject. Means and standard deviations were computed for the seven LSPI themes and the MBTI total. Due to a lack of research support for Theme 4 by the LSPI author, the data for this theme were disregarded. The same research indicated a strong bipolar relationship for Themes 7 and 8 (Displaying Inadequacy and Social Interest), which prompted the inclusion of Theme 8 in subsequent data …

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy as a method of intervention for non-offending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. Filial therapy is a didactic/dynamic approach used by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents with their children. Parents are taught basic child-centered play therapy skills and the utilization of these skills in weekly play sessions with their children. Parents learn to create a special environment which enhances and strengthens the parent-child relationship, thus assisting in personal growth and change for both the parent and child. The purpose of this study was to determine if filial therapy is effective in: (a) increasing the acceptance of non-offending parents of their sexually abused children; (b) reducing the stress level of non-offending parents; (c) improving empathic behaviors of non-offending parents toward their sexually abused child; (d) decreasing the anxiety of sexually abused children; (e) enhancing the self-concept of sexually abused children; (f) decreasing behavior problems of sexually abused children as reported by their non-offending parents; and (g) enhancing the emotional adjustment of sexually abused children.

The problem of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of systematic desensitization on test anxiety, general anxiety, and attitude toward school among fifth-grade elementary-school children.

This study utilized a qualitative/phenomenological research methodology to examine the generational and transgenerational issues of five identified Japanese American families. To be included in this study, families were identified to contain at least one member who was interned during World War II or who had parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents who were interned. Semistructured interviews, including Adlerian lifestyle assessments, were conducted with the 28 research informants who represented the second, third, and fourth generations of their families.

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Child Life Style Scale (CLSS) and clarify the underlying dimensions of the scale. Dr. Kathleen Stiles designed the 90 item CLSS to quantitatively identify life style typologies for children between eight and twelve. This questionnaire consisted of 6 scales based on Adlerian constructs of personality. They are pleasing, getting, controlling, rebelling, inadequacy, and socially useful. Ten items were deleted after an inter-judge reliability/validity study. The 80 item CLSS was administered to 314 third, fourth, and fifth graders in public and private schools in Dallas, Texas. Internal consistency coefficients for the six subscales ranged from .72 to .76 and test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from .70 to .80 (p < .001). Results from a factor analysis confirmed the original six scales but factors five and six were not strong. Exploratory factor analysis found four clear factors with internal consistency coefficients ranging from .76 to .84 and test-retest reliability coefficients ranging from .73 to .83 (p < .001). Underlying dimensions of the factors, which reflect Alfred Adler's four typologies exactly, were: Factor 1: Rebelliousness Factor 2: Social Usefulness Factor 3: Control Factor 4: Fear of Failure. Results of analysis …

This investigation was designed to determine the relationships among single parents' parental stress, empathy, level of acceptance, perception of child problems, and child gender, and the effect of filial therapy training on these relationships. Filial therapy is a parent training approach utilized by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents of change with their own children using child-centered play therapy skills. Parents are taught and given support in a group format. Data from a previous filial therapy study with single parents was utilized in this investigation. Correlational research methods were employed to examine the relationships among the variables measured. Correlation coefficients were obtained between each of the following five variables: parental stress, level of acceptance, empathy, perceived problems of the child, and child gender. Additionally, multiple and logistic regression was utilized in search of a possible predictive model. Significant correlations were found between parental stress and acceptance, parental stress and perception of child problems, parental empathy and acceptance, parental empathy and perception of child problems, and between parental acceptance and perception of child problems. No significant correlations were found between child gender and any of the variables. Significant correlation changes were found in several of the measured variables …

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of the 10-week filial therapy model as an intervention for Native American parents and their children residing on the Flathead Reservation in Montana. Filial therapy is an approach used by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents with their own children. Parents are taught basic child-centered play therapy skills and practice those skills during weekly play sessions with their children. The purpose of this study was to determine if filial therapy is effective in: 1) increasing parental acceptance of Native Americans residing on the Flathead Reservation of their children; 2) reducing the stress level of those parents; 3) improving empathic behaviors of those parents toward their children; 4) changing the play behaviors of children with their parents who participated in the training; and, 5) enhancing the self-concept of those children. The experimental group parents (N=11) received 10 weekly 2-hour filial therapy training sessions and participated in weekly 30-minute play sessions with one of their children. The control group (N=10) received no treatment during the 10 weeks. All adult participants completed the Porter Parental Acceptance Scale and the Parenting Stress Index. Child participants completed the Joseph Pre-school and Primary Self Concept …

This study investigated whether students in an Alternative School differed significantly from students who remain on a regular high school campus on measures of goals of misbehavior which included the factors of attention, power, revenge, inadequacy, and on measures of social interest. This study also investigated whether the attitudes of parents of Alternative School students differed significantly from the attitudes of parents of regular campus students on the factors of confidence, causation, acceptance, understanding and trust.

Play therapy in a school setting was studied to determine its therapeutic effectiveness on students' reading achievement, self-concept, and locus of control. The sample consisted of 24 students in two first grade classes who had been retained because of low achievement in reading. Instruments used in the study were the Gates MacGinite Reading Test, the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Questionnaire. Analysis of covariance, used to test the significance of the difference between the adjusted post-test means of the experimental and control groups, showed that participants in play therapy scored significantly higher in self-concept than did those who were not exposed to treatment. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in reading achievement or locus of control. Since research has shown that low achievers in reading tend to have low self-concepts, it seems reasonable to assume that improved self-concept would be related to improved reading scores. The nature of such a possible relationship needs further study. Recommendations were made for integrating affective components into academic remediation programs, and suggestions for further research were made.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned is that of treating agoraphobia with cognitive-behavioral group therapy and cognitive-behavioral group therapy combined with the drug alprazolam (Xanax). The purpose of the research was twofold. The first goal was to determine the relative effectiveness of the two treatment conditions on phobic behavior, anxiety, and depression. A second goal was to analyze the results and make recommendations concerning each of these modalities available to agoraphobics, their families, and to treatment specialists. The research design of this study was a randomized, pretest-posttest, experimental group design. The sample (N = 15) consisted of Group I (N = 7), who received behavioral-cognitive group therapy combined with the medication alprazolam, and Group II (N = 8), who received behavioral-cognitive group therapy only. The treatment included 15, 2-hour weekly group sessions, with the addition of a brief medication evaluation prior to each group meeting for Group I. During these sessions, the subjects received information about agoraphobia in the form of brief didactic segments, treatment materials, homework assignments, group interaction, and various forms of desensitization. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. Multidimensional behavioral-cognitive group therapy can significantly reduce phobic avoidance, anxiety, …

Depression is believed to be the most prevalent mental dysfunction among older adults, and depression and anger are frequently linked in theory and in therapy. This study was undertaken to determine whether participation in group counseling sessions would increase awareness and expression of anger and decrease depression levels in women aged 65 and older. Treatment group members were compared to a matching control group. Both groups completed the Anger Self Report Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory. Comparison of the ASR subscale scores, Awareness of Anger, Expression of Anger, Guilt, Condemnation of Anger, and Mistrust, revealed no significant differences between the treatment and control groups. However, the treatment group scored significantly higher on the BDI than did the control group. Analysis of variance of the ASR and the BDI, and the variables upon which the treatment and control groups were matched revealed some significant differences, and comparison of the women in this study with the two groups upon whom the ASR was validated showed this study's older women scored significantly lower than the validation groups on the ASR. The author concluded that six sessions is not long enough to effect change in either anger awareness or expression in older women, …

In this study, a computerized marriage enrichment program that gave couples instruction on communication skills and problem-solving was developed and tested. Couples completed the marriage enrichment courseware together on a computer. Forty couples from a metropolitan area in North Texas volunteered to complete the marriage enrichment courseware. Ten couples were randomly assigned to each of the following four groups: an experimental group that received the pretest followed by treatment and a post-test, a control-wait group that completed pre- and post-tests, an experimental group that received treatment followed by a post-test, and a post-test only control-wait: group. Three hypotheses were generated predicting that experimental subjects would significantly increase their marital communication skills following the treatment and that wives in the pre-test and experimental groups would achieve higher marital communication scores than would husbands. The dependent variable was the score on the Marital Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1970). Analyses of variance did not reveal any differences between husbands, wives, and couples at the pre- or post-tests. A three way analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for treatment (p < .04), but no interaction effects were found. In related findings, a t-test on the post-test minus pre-test difference for wife's scores was …

This research study was designed to investigate the relationship between participation in a nursing education program and the factors of stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept experienced by the participants. Also, the study examined the relationship between age of participants and these same factors. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine if beginning and ending nursing students differ in stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (2) to examine the relationship between age of nursing students and stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (3) to provide information that may help develop a theoretical base concerning stressful life events and illness in nursing students, and (4) to provide information that may be beneficial with regard to future research involving stress, physical illness, anxiety, self-concept, and age in nursing students.

The initial session play therapy behaviors of maladjusted and adjusted children were compared to investigate the value of children's play for diagnostic purposes. The frequency and the intensity of 13 categories of play behaviors were considered as factors in discriminating maladjusted children from adjusted children. The 15 children in the maladjusted group had been referred by their parents for counseling but had not been in counseling previously, and their teachers had reported that they had exhibited two or more behaviors indicative of emotional disturbance. The 15 children in the adjusted group were rated by their teachers as exhibiting none of the behaviors Indicating emotional disturbance, and their parents recognized no need for counseling. All subjects were 5 to 9 years of age, and the two groups were matched for age and sex. The Play Behaviors Adjustment Rating Scale (PBARS) was used to rate each child's play behaviors in an initial videotaped 36-minute play therapy session. The frequency and the intensity were rated for thirteen play categories: exploratory, incidental, creative or coping, dramatic or role, relationship building, relationship testing, self-accepting, self-rejecting, acceptance of environment, nonacceptance of environment, positive attitudinal, ambivalent attitudinal, and negative attitudinal. The results of the chi-square analysis indicated …

This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of counseling to favorably change self-concept; the effectiveness of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) in measuring self-concept change; and whether the TSCS is consistent with other self-concept instruments in measuring self-concept change when used in the same research study. The meta-analysis inclusion criteria were: one or more psychotherapy or counseling treatments administered to the subjects; comparison of two groups, including an alternate treatment or control condition; investigated self-concept change; pre-post-test measurements of self-concept dependent variable were reported; sample was randomized and/or matched for equivalence; and sufficient information was reported to calculate or reconstruct an effect size.

This study evaluated the relationship between two supervision models (live or delayed) to structural family therapy outcome. Eighteen families participated in this study for a maximum of ten family therapy sessions. Two indices of change were measured before and after family treatment, resolution or non-resolution of the family's presenting problem, and changes in family structure as measured by the FIAT. The Family Interaction Apperception Technique was used as the pre- and post-treatment measure of family structure. Presenting problem resolution or non-resolution was determined by the family's report and demonstration within the counseling session that the presenting problem was no longer a family concern. Problem resolution was judged by the case supervisor and reported on the Session and Problem Checklist.

The problem of this study was to assess sociometric status and selected variables relative to the selection and training of counselors. The relationship of sociometric status and six variables were investigated. The six variables were counselor evaluation rating, grade earned in a graduate course in group counseling, GRE score, chronological age, gender, and possibility of modification of preliminary perceptions of social choice by a graduate level course in group counseling. It was concluded that sociometrically highly chosen counselors-in-training tend to receive high counselor evaluation ratings. Those individuals who received high grades in a group counseling course that is part lecture and part experiential (participation in a laboratory group) also tended to receive high sociometric scores. This was not true for the students enrolled in a graduate admission seminar course that was all lecture. The sociometric status of counselors-in-training does not appear to be related to GRE scores, age, or gender. The mean sociometric status score of the group studied was not significantly modified by a graduate course in group counseling.

The relationship "between touch "behavior, marital satisfaction, and touch expectation in stable marriages was explored. Subjects included couples, married a minimum of seven years, chosen at random from a community of middle-class families. Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Jourard's Body Accessibility Questionnaire, and a touch expectation question on the data sheet were utilized to measure each subject's level of marital satisfaction, touch behavior, and touch expectation. These instruments were hand delivered to each couple and returned by mail to the experimenter.

This study investigated the Adlerian concept of social interest m entering community college students to determine the predictive value of social interest for academic achievement and to determine the relationship between social interest and ethnicity and gender. Data for this study included age, gender, ethnic origin, high school class quarter, financial aid status, ACT Composite, grade point average, and scores on the Social Interest Scale. The results of stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that the social interest scores did not contribute significantly to the prediction of academic achievement. The results of an analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in the social interest scores of Anglo-American, Black-American, and Mexican-American students but the Scheffe test for multiple comparisons did not indicate any significant differences among or between the three ethnic groups. The results of a two-tailed t-test for independent samples indicated no significant difference in the social interest scores of males and females.

This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a military counselor s attire on potential clients expressed perceptions of and preferences for a counselor. Ninety volunteer participants were selected from a large southwestern Air Force base. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 46 years, with 68 male and 22 female volunteers. Rank was divided into 69 enlisted personnel (56 males and 13 females) and 21 officers (12 males and 9 females). Three videotapes were made depicting a counselor in three attire conditions: civilian; military officer; and military enlisted. A pilot study was completed which validated the research assumption that the videotapes differed only in the counselor's attire conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. After each group was shown a videotape portraying the counselor in one of the three attire conditions, the participants were administered the Counselor Rating Form and the Referral Questionaire. The Counselor Rating Form is composed of three scales which assess perceptions of a counselors' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertness. The Referral Questionaire assesses subjects preferences to see a specific counselor in the event counseling is desired. Two main hypotheses, each having three subhypotheses, were developed for the study. The first hypothesis compared participants …