Answer Any 2 of the Following 3 Questions
Thursday Morning, August 24, 2006
8:30-12:00
Answer any 2 of the following 3 questions:
1. Describe the concepts of “transference” and “countertransference” as postulated in the traditional theory of counseling and psychotherapy from which they emerged. How, if at all, are these concepts or modern variants of them relevant to the contemporary practice of psychotherapy?
2. Brown and Krane (2000) reported that the research data on career counseling suggest that career interventions need to focus on helping clients build networks of people who are supportive of clients’ career plans. Discuss this finding in relation to career theories, interventions, and other research findings.
3. APA-approved Counseling Psychology training programs most typically take a scientist-practitioner approach to applied training. This training model is endorsed by the profession and emphasizes that good counseling practice is informed by scientifically derived knowledge, and important science is informed by issues identified in counseling practice. What are the ethical implications of not incorporating the scientist-practitioner model of training into one’s counseling practice and/or scientific activities?
Thursday Afternoon, August 24, 2006
1:00-4:30
Answer any 2 of the following 3 questions:
4. Choose an empirical study that you believe is significantly flawed but still useful. Describe the study, enumerate its flaws (referring specifically to issues related to the research conceptualization, design, methodology, and measurement), and then explain,and support, how and why you think it is still useful.
5. Counseling psychology researchers often test developmental theories (e.g., Helms’ White Racial Identity Theory, Social Cognitive Career Theory, Objectification Theory) using cross-sectional (usually correlational) designs. Discuss some potential benefits and limitations of this approach.
6. Emic-based multicultural psychology and the common factors approach to therapy can be argued to be contradictory to and mutually exclusive of one another. Yet, Counseling Psychology embraces both. How can these two systems of conceptualizing client experience operate simultaneously?
Friday Morning, August 25, 2006
8:30-12:00
Answer any 2 of the following 3 questions:
7. An argument can be made that The Counseling Psychologist serves as a barometer of the field’s priorities, concerns and future directions. Given your analysis of the last 3 years of this journal (supplemented as you see fit with other literature), where is the profession of Counseling Psychology headed? Be sure to refer to specific literature and to specify how you arrived at your conclusions.
8. Currently, several constituencies in Counseling Psychology are suggesting that we have another national conference in 2008. The last national conference (the 4th) took place in Houston in 2001.
a. Based on your interpretation of the focus of, and the extended outgrowth from, the Houston 2001 National Counseling Psychology conference, what do you believe is the lasting legacy from that conference? Describe that legacy and support your position.
b. Based on your current reading of the literature, the foci of the four previous national counseling psychology conferences (Northwestern, 1951; Greyston, 1964; Georgia, 1987; Houston, 2001) and your consideration of our field, make a case for what you would consider to be important focal points for a 5th National Counseling Psychology Conference in 2008.
9. How do/should religion and culture intersect in terms of clinical practice? Use the literature to justify your answer.
Friday Afternoon, August 25, 2006
1:00-4:30
Answer any 2 of the following 3 questions:
10.You are supervising a European American counseling trainee at a university counseling center. Your supervisee has expressed uncertainty about her ability to provide effective therapy to her new client, “Robert.” “Robert” is a 19 year old African American first year student who has been diagnosed with depression that is serious enough to affect his everyday functioning.
Despite moving several hours from his rural hometown to an unfamiliar urban area, “Robert” had an outstanding first semester. He earned a 4.0 grade point average, was active in student organizations, and began his first serious romantic relationship. A series of stressful events occurred early in “Robert’s” second semester. “Robert” reported that a group of fellow students in his psychology course repeatedly implied that Blacks were intellectually inferior to Whites and that the professor seemed to subtly encourage them; that in his chemistry course he received the first failing test grade of his life; that his mother, with whom he had always had a conflicted relationship, was not returning his calls; and that his girlfriend seemed to be withdrawing from him.
“Robert” stated to his therapist, your supervisee, that he was fine until he entered the university environment, and that nobody in that environment could do anything to help him. He added that he only sought therapy because his girlfriend said she would break up with him if he did not get help for his moodiness. After two unproductive sessions, your supervisee has said that she thinks she should terminate therapy with “Robert” because he is not ready to change.
You believe that successful therapy is possible with “Robert” and that your supervisee is eager to terminate in part because she feels unprepared to work with him. In order to assist her, you point her to literature that may help her to: 1) build a relationship with “Robert;” 2) conceptualize his issues; and 3) plan effective interventions.
Develop a reading list for your supervisee in which you list key sources in each area and describe how they are relevant to work with “Robert.” Finally, note at least one source that would provide guidance to you, as a supervisor, in your work with this trainee.
11.You are treating a court ordered male client for anger management. He was referred because, while disciplining his child, he injured his child to the extent that a hospital exam was necessary and CSB became involved. At the conclusion of treatment, the judge on the case asks you to indicate whether the man will hurt the child again if the child is allowed back in the home.
The client has attended and been engaged in therapy, you believe a good rapport and treatment relationship has been established between you and the client, the client reports learning and employing his new anger management skills (and demonstrates these in session), he has shown no sign of being dangerous in supervised visits with his child during treatment, and he states that he has never before and will never again harm his child in anger.
However, his post-treatment results on the State-Trait Anger Scale and MMPI-II indicate profiles and scores clearly and repeatedly shown by previous research with men similar to him to be highly indicative of individuals with poor impulse control and problems with aggressively acting out when angry.
What recommendation would you forward to the judge about the child returning to the home? What is your rationale for your recommendation?
12.Over the past few years, a number of qualitative studies have appeared in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP), and an entire issue of the journal was devoted to qualitative research methods. Choose one of the qualitative studies that you read in JCP in preparation for this Comprehensive Exam, and describe this study in terms of topic, methodology, results and discussion. Following your description of the study, provide a critical analysis of the contribution of the article based on your knowledge of general principles of research design and the content of the JCP special issue.