Examined effectiveness of 4 self-help books given randomly to 64 participants who had recently experienced divorce or breakup. Books were either behaviorally oriented, based on stage theories, or focused on general life crises. All groups significantly improved in depressive, general psychiatric, and loss-specific symptoms from pretest to posttest…

Pleasant imagery relieves pain and may account for much of the effectiveness of stress inoculation training. Women who used imagery controlled their pain better; women who did not use imagery had longer tolerance when they heard pain conceptualized as a multistage process. Self-instruction did not affect pain control. (Author)

Examined differential effectiveness of leader-led versus self-directed career and life planning workshops for 98 middle-aged and older adults. Found that participants improved on attitudinal and behavioral variables regardless of treatment condition, although participants in leader-led group had greater posttest employment research interview…

Forty-three undergraduates underwent stress induction and were then assigned to a paradoxical, stress management, or self-help treatment. In the stress management and self-help groups, better performance was exhibited by less stress-prone subjects. Initial stress proneness, continued stress, and resistance facilitated performance in the…

Studied participants identified as either people- oriented or task-oriented given group vocational counseling using a learning through interaction method, or a learning through individual problem solving method. Results show counseling approaches that were congruent with personality types were more effective in terms of amount of information…

Studies the possibility of developing systematic dilemma counseling into an autonomous mode. Experimental comparisons explore the pervasive situation in which a client successfully concludes a treatment program, only to find some subsequent problem developing in postcounseling life. (Author)

Used Holland high-point code and Self-Directed Search scale scores to predict benefit from a self-help career counseling intervention for 52 students undecided as to career. Participants with realistic, investigative, or conventional high-point codes showed greater changes in vocational identity when compared with participants with artistic,…

Compared the interpretive format of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), the Self-Directed Search (SDS), and the Vocational Card Sort (VCS). The SDS and VCS Holland themes were more closely related to the expressed choices of subjects. Few treatment differences existed. (Author)

Examined stressors (length of unemployment, financial concerns, social support), stress symptoms (self-esteem, depression, physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, locus of control), and job seeking behaviors of 35 members of self-help organization for unemployed professionals over age 40. Results indicated that financial concerns and social…

Tested mildly depressed undergraduates (N=52) in treatment for depression using cognitive-behavioral, self-help manual. Results suggest that Holland's Realistic personality types are most successful in terms of reduction of depression scores, whereas Enterprising types are least successful in terms of attrition. Low superiority, high generalized…