This chapter provides an overview of the nonprofit organization in the United States, the main characteristics of nonprofit organizations, and the reality of the nonprofit sector today. It describes the differences between a nonprofit and a for-profit corporation. Nonprofit organizations have existed for many centuries, especially through religious groups or religious-based activities. The nongovernmental sector is growing throughout the world. Increasingly, these organizations are playing key roles in the economic and social contexts of their countries. Unlike private-sector organizations concerned primarily with making a profit, nonprofit organizations are focused on carrying out a specific public-service mission. Successful nonprofit organizations require substantial capability in key areas of management: developing strong boards of directors, recruiting and motivating talented staff and volunteers, creating plans to focus resources on relevant goals and innovative programs, winning the support of diverse stakeholders, raising funds, and wisely managing fiscal and human resources.

This chapter discusses the term “service delivery” and describes a service delivery system in the context of a nonprofit organization. Servitization is the process whereby an organization develops creative and innovative ways to create a product-service system that integrates value-based products and service offerings. The chapter discusses the roles of client-centeredness, decision making, scheduling, priority setting, effective and efficient flow of services or activities, quality assurance, and continuing quality improvement, and how these factors contribute in their own context to influence positively or negatively the financial sustainability of a nonprofit organization. A customer-centric service design is a service delivery system that focuses on providing the best quality service possible to customers or clients or the service target, based on a service concept, a service decision path, service sustainability, and service quality. The chapter explains the relationship between service delivery and financial sustainability.

Divorce is a lengthy developmental process and, in the case of children and adolescents, one that can encompass most of their young lives. This chapter explores the experience of divorce from the perspective of the children, reviews the evidence base and empirical support for interventions. It provides examples of three evidence-based intervention programs, namely, Children in Between, Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP), and New Beginnings, appropriate for use with children, adolescents, and their parents. Promoting protective factors and limiting risk factors during childhood and adolescence can prevent many mental, emotional, and behavioral problems and disorders during those years and into adulthood. The Children in Between program is listed on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices. The CODIP and the New Beginnings program are also listed on the SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

Children and youth with serious emotional, behavioral, and social difficulties present challenges for teachers, parents, and peers. Youth who are at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are particularly vulnerable in the areas of peer and adult social relationships. The emphasis on meeting academic standards and outcomes for children and youth in schools has unfortunately pushed the topic of social-emotional development to the proverbial back burner. This chapter emphasizes that social skills might be considered academic enablers because these positive social behaviors predict short-term and long-term academic achievement. Evidence-based practices are employed with the goal of preventing or ameliorating the effects of disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) in children and youth. An important distinction in designing and delivering social skills interventions (SSI) is differentiating between different types of social skills deficits. Social skills deficits may be either acquisition deficits or performance deficits.

Eating disorders (EDs) are a complex and comparatively dangerous set of mental disorders that deeply affect the quality of life and well-being of the child or adolescent who is struggling with this problem as well as those who love and care for him or her. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines specific criteria for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and other specified feeding or ED. Treatment of eating disordered behavior typically involves a three-facet approach: medical assessment and monitoring, nutritional counseling, and psychological and behavioral treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) are also evidence-based approaches to treatment for AN. The treatment of EDs should be viewed as a team effort that integrates medical, nutritional, and mental health service providers.

An individual’s identity development, including his or her preferred gender identity, is a lifelong process, which starts with the earliest interactions with the world. The concepts of gender identity have been explored, studied, debated, and discussed for decades and are currently going through a resurgence of examination, especially in Western cultures. This chapter provides an overview of gender identity development, beginning with an explanation of terms, followed by an exploration of theoretical perspectives which includes cognitive developmental theory, social learning theory, gender schema theory and feminist theory. Topics include current research and perspectives on how gender identity evolves in children and recent shifts in understanding atypical gender identities, including transgender, gender neutral, and gender fluid identification. Finally, implications and strategies for mental health professionals are discussed, especially related to counseling those who are experiencing conflict or distress surrounding issues of gender and gender identity.

This chapter explores how practicum training may be enhanced through effective collaboration between trainers and field supervisors. Successful practicum training requires strong collaboration between the trainee’s university or institution and the supervising field psychologist. Successful collaboration between the university and field site includes consideration of site development and maintenance, effective communication, and training and support across settings. Field placement and coordination play a critical role in the training of school psychologists. The individual fulfilling this role may be recognized with a variety of formal titles, such as field placement coordinator, clinical professor, or director of clinical training (DCT). One of the primary responsibilities of the DCT is the coordination and supervision of practica-related activities, including the placement of candidates in appropriate training sites. The chapter focuses on how supervisors can address trainee problems of professional competence, develop and use remediation plans successfully, and help trainees balance fieldwork with coursework.

This chapter presents an overview of the restorative justice movement in the twenty-first century. Restorative justice, on the other hand, offers a very different way of understanding and responding to crime. Instead of viewing the state as the primary victim of criminal acts and placing victims, offenders, and the community in passive roles, restorative justice recognizes crime as being directed against individual people. The values of restorative justice are also deeply rooted in the ancient principles of Judeo-Christian culture. A small and scattered group of community activists, justice system personnel, and a few scholars began to advocate, often independently of each other, for the implementation of restorative justice principles and a practice called victim-offender reconciliation (VORP) during the mid to late 1970s. Some proponents are hopeful that a restorative justice framework can be used to foster systemic change. Facilitation of restorative justice dialogues rests on the use of humanistic mediation.

This chapter describes some of the recent restorative justice innovations and research that substantiates their usefulness. It explores developments in the conceptualization of restorative justice based on emergence of new practices and reasons for the effectiveness of restorative justice as a movement and restorative dialogue as application. Chaos theory offers a better way to view the coincidental timeliness of the emergence of restorative justice as a deeper way of dealing with human conflict. The chapter reviews restorative justice practices that have opened up areas for future growth. Those practices include the use of restorative practices for student misconduct in institutions of higher education, the establishment of surrogate dialogue programs in prison settings between unrelated crime victims and offenders. They also include the creation of restorative justice initiatives for domestic violence and the development of methods for engagement between crime victims and members of defense teams who represent the accused offender.

This chapter discusses both successes and failures in affiliation and collaboration techniques among nonprofits, including details on what the parties involved found to be the most valuable or most problematic aspects of the affiliations. It explores an overview of what has been and is versus what could be in the business models for both the nonprofit and the for-profit sectors, with the aim of shaking things up in the nonprofit world’s business-as-usual model. Clearly, a new business model is needed for the new paradigm, one that enables nonprofit organizations to adapt to the industry’s greater demands and the emerging market for corporate control without sacrificing core values. Capitalizing on the opportunities presented by the new human service paradigm will require nonprofit providers to adopt a new business model that is both capable of pursuing traditional consolidation strategies and supported by innovative organizational and financial designs.

This chapter focuses on a series of case studies and best practices for partnerships that discuss in detail the provision of back-office support for nonprofit partners. Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a nonprofit public health institute that creates and sustains healthier communities using best practices to improve community health through direct service, partnership, innovation, policy, research, technical assistance, and a prepared work force. Traditional back-office services are usually designed to address many of the challenges of today’s changing nonprofit environment. Services depend on the level of organizational need and affordability, but are usually identified through a comprehensive organizational assessment of the nonprofit client. The Urban Affairs Coalition (UAC) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that was founded in 1969 following a historic meeting between the city’s business and community leaders. Most nonprofits never rise to the scale of having a full internal administrative staff and purchased equipment.

For nonprofit agencies, there are generally two ways of growing: organically, which takes longer and is more detailed, or through strategic partnerships with other nonprofits. This chapter focuses on a wide range of strategic partnerships. Few nonprofits in the sector, other than hospitals and insurers, enter into strategic partnerships, and far fewer merge or affiliate with other nonprofits. The Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), however, is one of the rare nonprofit health and human service organizations that has been engaged in mergers and affiliations in the past 20 years. Environmental factors such as increased organizational competition or decreased foundation or donor funding encourage nonprofits to contemplate mergers. Nonprofit mergers provide a variety of benefits including the opportunity for expanded social impact. Merged nonprofits can roll together annual audits, combine insurance programs, and consolidate staffs and boards. Mergers and affiliations are one way that organizations are attempting to temper competition.

As everyone knows, true creativity comes from simple formulas and the memorization of data. This chapter focuses on divergent thinking tests, which are still the most common way that creativity is measured. Guilford derived the core ideas behind divergent thinking as well as many popular measures. The people who score the Torrance Tests are specifically trained to distinguish responses that are truly original from those that are just bizarre. There are other tests that measure creativity, but most are either a variation on divergent thinking or use some type of raters. For example, the Evaluation of Potential Creativity (EPOC) has begun to be used in some studies and may be promising, but is still largely rooted in a mix of divergent thinking scoring and raters. Another test is the Finke Creative Invention Task, which is clever but also requires raters for scoring.

The Big Five, which this chapter discusses in more detail, are extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Each of these five factors represents a continuum of behavior, traits, and inclinations. There are some popular personality measures that use different theories, such as Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire, which looks at extraversion and neuroticism as well as psychoticism. The personality factor most associated with creativity is openness to experience. Indeed, one way that researchers study creativity is by giving creative personality tests. Being open to new experiences may also help creative people be more productive. King found that people who were creative and high on openness to experience were more likely to report creative accomplishments. DeYoung and S. B. Kaufman, of course, are not the only people to blend or split different factors of personality to present new models. Fürst, Ghisletta, and Lubart suggest three factors: plasticity, divergence, and convergence.

This chapter explores three ’classic’ studies of creativity and mental illness. The first is Jamison whose focus is on the connection between bipolar disorder and creativity. The second is Andreasen, who used structured interviews to analyze 30 creative writers, 30 matched controls, and first-degree relatives of each group. The writers had a higher rate of mental illness, with a particular tendency toward bipolar and other affective disorders. The third major work is Ludwig, who utilized the historiometric technique. All three studies have come under serious criticism. Many of the studies of Big-C creators are historiometric, akin to Ludwig’s work. Some such studies claim that eminent creators show higher rates of mental illness. A much more common approach is to look at everyday people and give them measures of creativity and mental health. Typically, researchers look at what are called subclinical disorders—in other words, they’re not clinically significant.

One school admissions area that already uses creativity is gifted admissions—which students are chosen to enter gifted classes, programs, or after-school activities. Both education and business play great lip service to creativity. Puccio and Cabra review the literature on creativity and organizations and do a nice job of highlighting how every couple of years, a new report from industry emphasizes the importance of creativity. It is important to note that there is a large inconsistency between gender differences on creativity tests and actual creative accomplishment. Although gender differences on creativity tests are minor or nonexistent, differences in real-world creative accomplishment are large and significant. This chapter shows how creativity can play a role in admissions and hiring. Hiring measures tend to have better validity, even the general mental ability (GMA) measures; even if minorities score lower, the accuracy of prediction is consistent by ethnicity.

Creative people are also often seen as being outsiders and eccentric. Sen and Sharma’s examination of creativity beliefs in India tested beliefs about the Four P’s and found that creativity was more likely to be described as a holistic essence of an individual, and less likely to be focused on the product or process. Romo and Alfonso studied Spanish painters and found that one of the implicit theories that the painters held about creativity involved the role of psychological disorders. Plucker and Dana found that past histories of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco usage were not correlated with creative achievements; familial drug and alcohol use also was not significantly associated with creative accomplishments or creative personality attributes. Humphrey, McKay, Primi, and Kaufman did find that illegal drug use predicted self-reported creative behaviors even when openness to experience was controlled.

Many developmental models view human growth from a space of lack or abundance, a perpetual fulcrum swinging from the word survive at one end to thrive at the other. This chapter discusses Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development to conceptualize female adolescent and young adult development. The contextual focus of this theory provides a global framework for counselors to view young women as individuals who both influence, and are influenced by, their surroundings. Customs, beliefs, and the government all play a role in the development of children and adolescents. When young females overcome the stigma associated with mental health services, they typically seek treatment in one of two primary settings: community mental health centers and schools. Relational-cultural theory (RCT) is an evolving feminist model of human development that views connection to others as essential to growth and disconnection as a major cause of disrupted functioning.

This chapter describes the relevance of critical thinking and the related process and philosophy of evidence-based practice (EBP) to cognitive behavior therapy and suggests choices that lie ahead in integrating these areas. Critical thinking in the helping professions involves the careful appraisal of beliefs and actions to arrive at well-reasoned ones that maximize the likelihood of helping clients and avoiding harm. Critical-thinking values, skills and knowledge, and evidence-based practice are suggested as guides to making ethical, professional decisions. Sources such as the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations and other avenues for diffusion, together with helping practitioners and clients to acquire critical appraisal skills, will make it increasingly difficult to mislead people about “what we know”. Values, skills, and knowledge related to both critical thinking and EBP such as valuing honest brokering of knowledge, ignorance and uncertainty is and will be reflected in literature describing cognitive behavior methods to different degrees.

This chapter describes the Coping Skills Program, an innovative, school-based, universal curriculum for elementary-school aged children that is rooted in cognitive behavior theory. Rooted in cognitive behavior theory, the Coping Skills Program consists of carefully constructed metaphorical fables that are designed to teach children about their thinking; about the connections among their thoughts, feelings, and behavior; and about how to change what they are thinking, feeling, and doing when their behavior causes them problems. The chapter provides a thorough description of the Coping Skills Program and how it is implemented through a discussion of relevant research-based literature, and the theoretical underpinnings underlying this cognitive behavior approach with school-aged children. It also includes the results of preliminary testing of the Coping Skills Program. The research-based literature shows that cognitive behavior approaches are among the interventions commonly used by social workers to help young children in school settings.

Traditionally, there has been a division of labor in higher education between academics and student affairs. This chapter is designed to focus on the plausibility of using theory to facilitate communication across the many departments and divisions of higher education. It is important to remember that the student affairs profession “grew from the campus up, not from theory down”. Early institutions of higher education followed the Oxbridge model with historically based residential living systems in which educators resided in residence halls with the students. This concept of faculty–student integration remains a valuable component in student success today, and is discussed in greater detail in this chapter. One useful “language” for student affairs practitioners is found in Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Erik Erikson pioneered a theoretical framework and proposes an eight-staged life-span model through which developing individuals permeate starting at birth and eventually ending with death.

This chapter describes the current trends toward greater gender equality in couple relationships, what keeps old patterns of gendered power alive, and why equality is so important for successful relationships. Relationship vignettes like the ones just described are common. Sharing family and outside work more equitably is only part of the gender-equality story. Gender ideologies are replicated in the way men and women communicate with each other and influence the kind of emotional and relational symptoms men and women present in therapy. Stereotypic gender patterns and power differences between partners work against the shared worlds and egalitarian ideals that women and men increasingly seek. The concept of relationship equality rests on the ideology of equality articulated in philosophical, legal, psychological, and social standards present today in American and world cultures. The four dimensions of the relationship equality model are relative status, attention to the other, accommodation patterns, and well-being.

This chapter explores the relationship between gender and power. Gendered power in couple relationships arises from a social context that has given men power over women for centuries. When practitioners fail to take account of social context, however, they may run the risk of inadvertently pathologizing clients for legitimate responses to oppressive experiences. The term gender is a socially created concept that consists of expectations, characteristics, and behaviors that members of a culture consider appropriate for males or females. Consequently, an individual’s ideas about gender may feel deeply personal even though they are a product of social relationships and structures. Strong social forces work to keep social power structures, including gender inequality, in place. The continued presence of gendered power structures in economic, social, and political institutions still limits how far many couples can move toward equality. Today, ideals of equality compete with the institutional practices that maintain gender inequality.

This chapter examines the cultural and relational contexts of postpartum depression. Postpartum depression (PPD) is a debilitating, multidimensional mental health problem that affects 10"-15” of new mothers and has serious consequences for women, children, families, and marriages. Although women’s experience of postpartum depression has been the subject of considerable recent study, nearly all of this work has been interpreted within a medical or psychological frame. The chapter looks at a social constructionist lens to this body of research through a meta-data-analysis of recent qualitative studies of PPD. Though hormonal changes as a result of childbirth are related to depressive symptoms after childbirth, biological explanations alone cannot explain postpartum depression. A social constructionist approach to postpartum depression focuses on how the condition arises in the context of ongoing interpersonal and societal interaction. Climbing out of postpartum depression is an interpersonal experience that requires reconnection with others.

This chapter links facets of personality, and other individual differences among people, to aspects of their sense of humor, including the way that they use comedy in their lives and the kinds of jokes they generate and appreciate. The study of personality back in the 1940s had grown quite convoluted. It had started in ancient times, when Hippocrates, of the legendary oath, proposed four temperaments. He thought that personality arose from different proportions of fluids in the body, creating a popular link between personality and physiology. By the late 1800s, Sir Francis Galton, brilliant half-cousin of Charles Darwin and noted polymath, reasoned that any important aspect of personality ought to make it into the language. He fashioned a taxonomy based on a dictionary. Humor and creativity relate to each other in curious ways. But both are also correlated with extraversion and intelligence.

Clinical social workers have an opportunity to position themselves at the forefront of historic, philosophical change in 21st-century medicine. As is so often true for social work, the opportunity is associated with need. For social workers, in their role as advocates and clinicians, this unmet need would seem to create an obligation. This chapter argues that, if choosing to accept the obligation, social workers can become catalysts for vitally needed change within the medical field. While studies using the most advanced medical technology show the impact of emotional suffering on physical disease, other studies using the same technology are demonstrating Cognitive behavior therapy’s (CBT) effectiveness in relieving not just emotional suffering but physical suffering among medically ill patients. While this chapter discusses the clinical benefits and techniques of CBT, it also acknowledges the likelihood that social work will have to campaign for its implementation in many medical settings.

One of the most trying aspects of training professionals to work with couples using solution-focused therapy is expecting professionals to go slowly and to develop a connection with their couples before moving on. In fact, the therapist is working to uncover the positive aspects of the couple’s life, and how they were living before their problem. Lipchik calls this process listening with a constructive ear probing for evidence of strengths, resources, and past success, learning what life was like before or without the problem, what the clients want, or anything at all that can be reinforced as a positive aspect of the client’s lives going forward. Every couple comes from a past when the relationship was working much better. The therapist listens for clues about how the relationship was built to understand what worked in the past and continues to work today.

This chapter includes the guiding tenets of solution-focused therapy (SFT). Solution-focused (SF) practice differs from other therapeutic approaches in its use of solution building rather than problem solving. The solution-building process is about creating what is most desired by the couple, and not about problem solving. For a couple to be seeking therapy together, there has to have been a time in the past when the relationship was working better for both the parties. By focusing on the relationship and the skills that each partner uses to contribute to the relationship, the therapist conveys a level of hope to the couple. Solution-building conversations must be co-constructed with input from all participants. Motivation should never be in doubt, even if one member of the couple claims that he or she is only there because the other partner “made” them come to therapy.

School social workers provide direct treatment for a multitude of problems that affect child and adolescent development and learning; these problems include mood disorders, attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), disruptive behavior disorders, and learning disorders, as well as child abuse and neglect, foster care, poverty, school drop out, substance abuse, and truancy, to name but a few. This chapter examines four constructs that are important when working with students. These constructs include: assessment and cognitive case conceptualization, the working alliance, self-regulated learning, and social problem solving. The chapter discusses the development of attainable and realistic goals is a critical component both of self-regulated learning and social problem solving. The chapter examines the problem of academic underachievement and four constructs that are critically important when working with children and adolescents in school settings. Academic underachievement is a serious problem affecting the lives of many children.

This chapter explains a set of guidelines to help mental health professionals and clients move away from the gender stereotypes that perpetuate inequality and illness. Identifying dominance requires conscious awareness and understanding of how gender mediates between mental health and relationship issues. An understanding of what limits equality is significantly increased when we examine how gendered power plays out in a particular relationship and consider how it intersects with other social positions such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. To contextualize emotion, the therapist draws on knowledge of societal and cultural patterns, such as gendered power structures and ideals for masculinity and femininity that touch all people’s lives in a particular society. Therapists who seek to support women and men equally take an active position that allows the non-neutral aspects of gendered lives to become visible.

Holland theorized six distinct worker personalities (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional). This is often referred to as RIASEC. The theory includes six work environments that correspond to the same personality types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional). Although people possess aspects of each type, the general thesis of the theory is that salient types (work personalities) will emerge in each individual. Holland’s work represents a significant contribution to career development and counseling. Understanding Holland’s focus on interests as expressions of personality aids career counselors and student development specialists in helping students gain critical self-understanding. Exploring the match between personalities and work environments is a fundamental aspect of applying this theory to student development. Helping students to explore and learn about different careers that may be of interest to them is congruent with the goals of higher education institutions and student development theories.

Most Behavioral Group Therapy (BGT) with children and adolescents include aspects of problem solving or social skills training or both. This chapter describes group workers can make an important contribution to children, families, and schools through preventive and remedial approaches. Social skills training grew out of the clinical observation and research that found a relationship between poor peer relationships and later psychological difficulties. The social skills program taught the following four skills: participation, cooperation, communication, and validation/support. The chapter focuses on the unique application of behavioral treatment using groups with an emphasis on assessment, principles of effective treatment, and guidelines for the practitioner. It also focuses on the use of the group in describing these aspects of BGT. The primary goal of using BGT with children is enhancing the socialization process of children, teaching social skills and problem solving, and promoting social competence.

This chapter presents the most salient psychological theories of personality. Personality is a core determinant of individual differences in everyday behaviors. The chapter discusses the difference between what psychologists broadly refer to as normal and what they regard as abnormal or clinical/mental illness. If one looks for an Elvis among personality psychologists, Sigmund Freud would be the one. During the mid-20th century, behaviorism emerged as a dominant paradigm for understanding human behavior, including personality. Although the social cognitive theory of personality has its origins in the radical behaviorist tradition, it emerged in clear opposition to it. According to the lexical hypothesis, historically, the most important and socially relevant behaviors that people display will eventually become encoded into language. Indeed, personality disorders are defined as long-standing, pervasive, and inflexible patterns of behavior and inner experience that deviate from the expectations of a person’s culture.

This chapter provides insight into the dilemmas couples face when ideals of equality intersect with societal structures that maintain gendered power. It examines how Iranian couples construct gender and negotiate power within their culture, political structure, and Islamic values. Gender equality may express itself differently in a culture such as Iran that not only emphasizes collective goals and achievements, strong feelings of interdependence, and social harmony. Collectivism typically maintains social order through a gender hierarchy. Contemporary Iranian couples draw from diverse cultural legacies. Although some couples seemed to accept the traditional gender hierarchy and a few others appeared to manage relatively equally within it, other couples were quite aware of gendered-power issues and attempted to address them in their personal lives. Some couples describe trying to maintain an equal relationship in their personal lives despite men’s greater legal authority.

This chapter examines how 12 White, middle-class couples negotiated the issue of equality in their relationships during their first year of marriage. The social context both supports and inhibits the development of marital equality. To be included in the present study, complete transcripts with both the husband and wife present had to be available, both members of the couple had to express ideals of gender equality, and both had to express commitment to careers for wives as well as husbands. Most of the couples classified as creating a myth of equality, spoke as though their relationships were equal but described unequal relationship conditions. The other couples classified in the myth-of-equality category described similar contradictions between their ideals of gender equality and their behavior. Gender-equality issues raise political and ethical concerns for all of us who are family practitioners and teachers.

The general racial/ethnic identity theories offer some insight into possible ways to approach diversity education within all aspects of student affairs. Student affairs professionals and faculty could facilitate educational programs, seminars, and workshops that challenge students to confront issues of prejudice and racism as well as to cultivate racial or ethnic pride. These programs should address the external conditions in which students explore their identity and how to make meaning of shifting thoughts as they progress in their racial or ethnic identity development. By looking at diversity through the lens of racial or ethnic orientation, professionals can meet students where they are and help them not only understand other cultures, but also how they fit into their own race/ethnicity. Practitioners might also use these models as a way to gain insight as to where students might be in their racial/ethnic identity development.

This chapter differentiates intelligence and related constructs such as creativity and intellectual giftedness, which helps people to better understand each construct. Sternberg proposed a way to classify the various approaches to studying the intelligence-creativity relationship. Guilford’s Structure of the Intellect (SOI) model is probably the most explicit, with divergent thinking specifically identified as one of his five cognitive operations. The relationship between intelligence and giftedness has also received substantial attention. Every gifted education program has a formal assessment procedure to identify potential participants, and creativity assessments are often included in the battery of measures in these identification systems. The Marland Definition suggests that giftedness and talent are manifest in six areas: general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, creative or productive thinking, leadership ability, visual and performing arts, and psychomotor ability. It has been extremely influential and is still used by many school districts in their identification of talented students.

At its core, Kolb’s construct of experiential learning is more than simply a theory. Experiential learning theory (ELT) holds that learning is “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”. Although ELT is often used in formal classroom settings, there are many out-of-classroom environments in student affairs that use and benefit from it as well. One way in which colleges and universities use experiential learning is through service-learning courses and projects. Several scholars have reported that using service learning in conjunction with ELT provides students with meaningful ways to engage not only with the community, but also to come to know more about diversity and social justice. Because out-of-classroom learning is such a key component in higher education and in the holistic development of students, using Kolb’s experiential learning model can aid students in meaning making as it facilitates personal growth.

This chapter reviews a number of questions a therapist can ask to establish a best hope for each of their client couples. Couples rarely agree on the problem that brings them to therapy, and spending time trying to reach agreement only slows down the therapeutic process. The task of a couple’s therapist in establishing best hopes is to have a positive conversation about the future. The therapist should choose a response that acknowledges the problem but moves the conversation toward a more positive discussion of the future. Think of establishing a best hope as selecting a destination rather than setting a goal. In establishing the direction of therapy with a couple, the therapist must be disciplined and stay on task until the proper best hopes have been identified, because that will be the basis for subsequent conversations. The therapist will have built on the client’s response and restate the question.

So here the authors are, caught between two worldviews. In one camp, they have educators and academics, attempting to overthrow the “old guard”—those of them who define giftedness through the narrow lens of IQ tests. They are hoping to establish a raison d’etre for gifted education—a field with a wobbly foundation. In the other camp, the authors have parents and the psychologists who specialize in working with the gifted, railing against the externalizing of giftedness. They want the inner world of the gifted to be recognized and appreciated. Controversy has dogged the study of giftedness since its inception, and is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Multiple views will somehow have to learn to coexist. The psychology of giftedness is a fledgling. An impressive number of people think they know more about the gifted than one does and they are delighted to share their opinions.

Scales are an important part of the solution-building process. Scaling questions are dynamic because they use the client’s words and their description of their preferred future to move the conversation on to task development. In using scales or any other tool of solution-focused therapy properly, clinicians must trust our clients and their skills. There are four important points on a well-defined scale: the most-desired point, representing the preferred future; the least-desired point; the point representing where the couple is today; and the point representing where the couple will be when they realize there’s no need for further therapy. Solution-focused practitioners use scales to chart a client’s progress toward a desired future, to highlight exceptions, develop tasks, and identify strengths. Brief therapies tend to be highly strategic and seek to accomplish a client’s goal in the fewest number of sessions possible.

In our success-oriented culture, optimal development of giftedness often is construed as fulfilling one’s potential for greatness. In humanistic psychology, optimal development has been conceptualized differently. Self-realization can be understood in terms of Maslow’s self-actualization, Dabrowski’s secondary integration, Jung’s individuation, or other theoretical perspectives of human development. The goals of inner development involve deepening the personality, overcoming conflicts, and actualizing one’s potential for becoming one’s best self. Many parents of the gifted complain that their children are the ones exerting the pressure. Their speed of learning and quest for knowledge often exceed their parents’ comfort level. The purpose of parent guidance is to foster “optimal development” through early intervention and prevention of social and emotional problems. Assessment can act as a prelude to family therapy. Family therapy usually involves a commitment to several successive sessions to deal with family interactions.

Community-based epidemiological studies find that when grouped together, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health conditions in the United States apart from substance use disorders. Anxiety disorders are also associated with substantial impairments in overall health and well-being, family functioning, social functioning, and vocational outcomes. This chapter includes a brief description of the anxiety disorders followed by a more detailed review of the cognitive behavior interventions indicated for these conditions. Social phobia is the most common anxiety disorder in the United States. Panic attacks are sudden surges of intense anxiety that reach their peak with 10 minutes and involve at least 4 of a list of 13 symptoms. Another somewhat less common anxiety disorder is obsessive compulsive disorder. The chapter discusses the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Two anxiety management procedures, breathing retraining and deep muscle relaxation, have been subject to some level of empirical investigation for certain anxiety disorder.

The Myers–Briggs type indicator (MBTI) was designed to help people understand themselves and others by helping them appreciate the diverse strengths of different personality types. It has been widely used in counseling as well as business to work on team building and relationships. There is, therefore, room for using this assessment within the field of student affairs to help build teams and groups both for professionals in the field and for students. This chapter discusses the basic information about the MBTI and implications for student affairs. The instrument is considered as a personality assessment for normal individuals designed to assess personality type. The MBTI offers strength-based guidance in every realm of living concerning individual growth to interpersonal relationships, in academic matters to spiritual terrains. From the office of the president to the chaplain, the MBTI is a useful and effective tool on a college campus.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with children addresses four main aims: to decrease behavior, to increase behavior, to remove anxiety, and to facilitate development. Each of these aims targets one of the four main groups of children referred to treatment. This chapter suggests a route for applying effective interventions in the day-to-day work of social workers who are involved in direct interventions with children and their families. An effective intervention is one that links developmental components with evidence-based practice to help enable clients to live with, accept, cope with, resolve, and overcome their distress and to improve their subjective well-being. CBT offers a promising approach to address such needs for treatment efficacy, on the condition that social workers adapt basic CBT to the specific needs of children and design the intervention holistically to foster change in children. Adolescent therapy covers rehabilitative activities and reduces the disability arising from an established disorder.

The study of human development, broad in scope and diverse in nature, has been the focus of research by psychologists, sociologists, educators, human ecologists, and many others since the early to mid-20th century. This chapter provides an overview of identity development in young adults. Initial theories across multiple domains of development (e.g., cognitive, psychological) have focused primarily on child and adolescent changes based on the assumption that most development slowed considerably or crystallized and stopped completely after late adolescence. As a result, developmental issues in young adulthood (approximately ages 18–24 years) received greater scrutiny, and theoretical frameworks for understanding these aspects emerged. The chapter examines some of the issues and theories that impact identity development during this period in life. Psychosocial developmental theories offer frameworks for conceptualizing the issues individuals encounter at various points across the life span and have provided structure for more recent research as well.

This chapter focuses on the racial identity development of Black or African American college students and of students who identity as biracial or multiracial. Although racial identity development theories do not support biological distinction between racial groups in the United States, they recognize how different conditions of domination or oppression of various groups have influenced their construction of self. In this chapter Black is used to refer to the racial identity of U.S.-born persons of African descent who may categorize themselves as Black, Black American, African American, or Afro Caribbean. The term biracial is used to describe persons with two parents of differing monoracial or multiracial descents. It is worth noting that some individuals may claim Black racial identity although neither of their parents identify as Black, such as the case of civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal. This chapter goes in depth into such alternative experiences of Black identity development.

Social work professionals are in key roles for providing effective education, treatment, training, and services for adult survivors. This chapter helps the social workers to equip with an evidence-based treatment framework to effectively enhance their work with this population of adult survivors. A community study of the long-term impact of the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse of children concluded that a history of any form of abuse was associated with increased rates of psychopathology, sexual difficulties, decreased self-esteem, and interpersonal problems. There is well-established and increasing empirical evidence that cognitive and cognitive behavior therapies are effective for the treatment of disorders that are typical among adult survivors of sexual and physical abuse. The chapter presents some basic cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) strategies that social workers can use in whatever roles they play in working with the multidisordered adult survivor. There are three types of schema avoidance: cognitive, emotional and behavioral.

This chapter reviews the questions that are frequently asked in solution-focused therapy (SFT) and how they can be used with couples. It discusses the miracle question, the scaling question, and exception-finding questions, many of which have been written about extensively over the years. Solution-focused questions spring from a therapist’s curiosity curiosity is the foundation of solution building. Deciding which partner to question at a particular moment in the session is an important skill for a couple’s counselor. Solution building is a process of co-constructing a conversation between the couple and the therapist, and all three must take their turn in the conversation. Third-person questions are also a powerful way to bring a couple’s entire support system into the session. Presumptive language is very important in developing solution-building questions. Some questions are crafted to create a picture of the preferred future and to fill it with as many details as possible.

Eliciting a description of a couple’s ideal future without getting sucked into the problem story is one of the hardest tasks in solution-focused therapy. In order to stick to a description of the “future” a therapist must have the discipline to refrain from following the client’s lead toward the use of “problem language”. The process of gathering details about a preferred future is therapeutic in itself. Often nothing more needs to happen for the couple to make significant and lasting changes in their lives and in their relationship, and the more thorough their description of their future, the more good it’s likely to do. The role of a solution-focused marriage counselor is to remind couples of the process that was in play when they first fell in love, and what skills each partner brought to the relationship in its early days.

When Charles, a 46-year-old divorced male with an extensive psychiatric history of depression, substance abuse, and disordered eating resulting in a suicide attempt, erratic employment, and two failed marriages, began treatment with a clinical social worker trained in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), he was an angry, dysphoric individual beginning yet another cycle of destructive behavior. This chapter provides the reader with an overview of the standard DBT model as developed by Linehan. Dialectical behavior therapy, which engages vulnerable individuals early in its treatment cycle by acknowledging suffering and the intensity of the biosocial forces to be overcome and then attending to resulting symptoms, appears to be the model most congruent with and responsive to the cumulative scientific and theoretical research indicating the need for the development of self-regulatory abilities prior to discussions of traumatic material or deeply held schema.

This chapter discusses the implications of using personality inventories in the context of identifying bad or problematic traits, such as narcissism, machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Evolutionary theory states that behaviors, traits, and genetic materials survive only if they are adaptive to the environment the organism finds itself in. As evidence has revealed, conduct disorder in children is a good marker for predicting psychopathy and antisocial outcomes in later years. Although personality tests are rarely used for the purpose of educational selection, scores on these tests correlate with several educational performance outcomes. The chapter examines current trends in online personality profiling in the context of consumer behavior. The market for online dating is huge and growing and an increasing number of single individuals subscribe to these services in order to find their ideal partners. Faking is an important criticism as many organizations will ask new applicants to undergo a personality assessment.

This chapter offers a brief and focused review of human development, with specific emphasis on cognition and emotion. It is essential that the reader distinguishes between cognitive development, cognitive psychology, and cognitive therapy. Both short-term and long-term memory improve, partly as a result of other cognitive developments such as learning strategies. Adolescents have the cognitive ability to develop hypotheses, or guesses, about how to solve problems. The pattern of cognitive decline varies widely and the differences can be related to environmental factors, lifestyle factors, and heredity. Wisdom is a hypothesized cognitive characteristic of older adults that includes accumulated knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge to practical problems of living. Cognitive style and format make the mysterious understandable for the individual. Equally, an understanding of an individual’s cognitive style and content help the clinician better understand the client and structure therapeutic experiences that have the greatest likelihood of success.

As diverse student populations gain visibility in colleges and universities across the United States, higher education counselors and student affairs professionals aim to effectively serve and meet the needs of these students. Individuals with disabilities (IWDs) represent one of these previously segregated diverse voices and perspectives that have recently experienced positive developments from inclusive college experiences. College students with disabilities represent an important segment of the growing student population. In 1997, Gill proposed a Disability Identity Integration Model (DIIM) for people with disabilities at the individual and group levels. The DIIM model aims to understand the integration process for people with disabilities into society in a process that involves identity development as part of the disabled minority group. The DIIM offers four types of integration: (a) coming to feel we belong, (b) coming home, (c) coming together, and (d) coming out. This integration process promotes personal empowerment and disability rights.

Wrapping up a solution-building session is about trusting the clients and trusting the process. Reflection teams play an important role in solution-focused therapy at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, but by taking a break to develop well thought-out compliments and suggestions for a couple, individual therapists can act as their own reflection teams. Using the couple’s own words is the most important step in formulating helpful feedback. It requires that the therapist pay close attention to the language used throughout the conversation and to stick with it. Feedback should be related to the couple’s strengths and the traits that have the potential to lead them away from their problem toward the preferred future. In early family therapy literature as well as early solution-focused literature, making suggestions and invitations was referred to as assigning tasks.

Social workers are committed to the protection and empowerment of weak populations, of those people who are least powerful. Gradually, social work started to rely more on problem-solving methods, client-focused therapy, family theories, and, more recently, cognitive behavior theories, constructivist theories, and positive psychology developments. Clinical social work today operates in a variety of settings in the statutory, voluntary, and private sectors. Clinical social workers have always been interested in helping clients change effectively. The importance of empirical study, valid information, and intervention effectiveness has always been accentuated by the social work field’s central objectives of increasing accountability, maintaining exemplary ethics and norms, and establishing clear definitions and goals. Cognitive behavior theory emphasizes several components. First and foremost, human learning involves cognitive mediational processes. Social workers need to look for effective methods for change, and CBT methods are very promising in this respect.

This chapter suggests some new directions that personality research is, or should be, taking as well as the future agenda of this research. In contrast, personality psychology provides us with a solid evidence base that people can lean on when searching for answers about human nature. Personality refers to the stable and consistent patterns we observe in how people behave, feel, and think. Associations between personality and intelligence have been found on the measurement level and hypothesized at a conceptual level. It is supposedly human nature not to trust humankind to provide the unselfish responses in questionnaires, or to possess an adequate level of self-awareness. Admittedly, this trend has been changing. An increasing number of organizations are using self-report personality measures and even laypeople seem to accept the notion of questionnaires more kindly than before.

Over the past 25 years there has been a growing recognition of the importance of working with families of persons with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and treatment-refractory depression. Family intervention can be provided by a wide range of professionals, including social workers, psychologists, nurses, psychiatrists, and counselors. This chapter provides an overview of two empirically supported family intervention models for major mental illness: behavioral family therapy (BFT) and multifamily groups (MFGs), both of which employ a combination of education and cognitive behavior techniques such as problem solving training. Some families have excellent communication skills and need only a brief review, as provided in the psychoeductional stage in the handout “Keys to Good Communication”. One of the main goals of BFT is to teach families a systematic method of solving their own problems.

This chapter discusses the treatment of comorbid chronic depression and personality disorders. It then discusses recent treatment advances in the cognitive behavior field relevant to this population. Recently, research has been done comparing schema therapy to Otto Kernberg’s latest model. Because of severe emotional distress, patient often experience suicidal and/or parasuicidal behaviors. The chapter explores the benefits of mode work with these particular difficulties while maintaining a therapeutic approach of connection and compassion; this alliance is crucial for the approach to be effective. It focuses on the five most common modes for those with chronic depression and personality disorders namely the abandoned/abused mode, the detached protector mode, the angry mode, the punitive mode and the healthy adult mode. The interventions described in schema mode therapy have cognitive, experiential, and behavioral components. Identification of the mode the patient is in when suicidal is essential when managing a crisis.

This chapter reviews the basic tenets of evidence-based practice (EBP), and discusses the potential applications of this model of practice and training for the field of clinical social work. It also presents some actual illustrations of its use. The chapter describes the major forms of clinical outcome studies: Anecdotal Case Reports, Single-System Designs With Weak Internal Validity, Quasi-Experimental Group Outcome Studies, Single, Randomized Controlled Trial, Multisite Randomized Controlled Trials and Metaanalyses that comprise the priority sources of information underpinning EBP. As the human services increasingly develop robust evidence regarding the effectiveness of various psychosocial treatments for various clinical disorders and life problems, it becomes increasingly incumbent upon individual practitioners to become proficient in, and to provide, as first choice treatments, these various forms of evidence-based practice. It is also increasingly evident that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and practice represents a strongly supported approach to social work education and practice.

Comparison studies have long found that same-sex partners maintain more equal relationships than their heterosexual counterparts, largely because they do not divide roles and responsibilities based on gender. Thus the study of samesex couples offers the ability to examine the processes that create and maintain equality when gender differences do not organize couple relationships. However, same-sex partners emphasize the satisfaction of intimacy needs, rather than moral obligation or societal expectations, as their reason for maintaining the relationship. This primary focus on the relationship itself, which is also becoming more common among heterosexual couples, tends to be associated with egalitarian ideals that are not necessarily easy to translate into practice. A distinguishing characteristic of couples who were classified as demonstrating attuned inequality is the indebtedness that the benefiting partner feels to the other. Attuned couples describe conscious strategies for managing their relationships.

Over the years, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been applied to a variety of client populations in a range of treatment settings and to the range of clinical problems. This chapter provides a general overview of the cognitive behavior history, model, and techniques and their application to clinical social work practice. It begins with a brief history and description, provides a basic conceptual framework for the approach, highlights the empirical base of the model, and then discusses the use of cognitive, behavior, and emotive/affective interventions. Cognitive behavior therapy is based on several principles namely cognitions affect behavior and emotion; certain experiences can evoke cognitions, explanation, and attributions about that situation; cognitions may be made aware, monitored, and altered; desired emotional and behavioral change can be achieved through cognitive change. CBT employs a number of distinct and unique therapeutic strategies in its practice.

Student developmental models that can be used to understand various students in groups and their development include identity models, such as Chickering and Reisser’s model, as well as Levinson’s model; psychosocial models, such as Erikson’s model; intellectual and ethical developmental models, such as Perry’s model; moral developmental models, such as Kohlberg’s model; cognitive models, such as Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s models; and experiential models, such as Kolb’s model. For a broad and universal understanding, these and other student developmental theories are integrated into the group theory. This chapter provides a discussion of group theory in relation to various salient student development theories. It addresses a brief introduction about the need for inclusion and multicultural awareness for students and student groups. The chapter discusses aspects for understanding successful student group development regarding group types, group leader guidelines, group processes, and learning reflection of student groups through a multicultural lens.

The ideas of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato all contribute to the foundation of our understanding of the nature of human intelligence. Their ideas on topics as diverse as the origin of ability, the mind-body relationship, and general inquiry methods continued to inspire thinkers centuries later and influenced those who shaped modern psychology and intelligence theory. This chapter provides an overview of recent research on how people’s beliefs about intelligence impact their behaviors, a body of research that has significant implications for education. The emergence of reliable genetic and neurological research methodologies is creating a new area of study in which environmental, biological, and psychological facets of intelligence are studied simultaneously. Structure of Intellect (SOI) model represents a very different approach to theories of intelligence. Recent technological advances have encouraged explorations into the relationship between brain function and specific types of cognitive functioning.

The role of honeymoon talk in solution-focused therapy is to re-establish brilliance by reviewing past successes and allowing each partner to take credit for those successes. The task of the therapist when reviewing a couple’s successful past is to identify and discuss even the most intimate details of that time in their lives. Hope is what the therapist must bring into the conversation. The therapist’s goal should not be just to identify the details of the couple’s successful past, but to invite the clients to take credit for that success. Examining a couple’s past is an incredibly powerful step in the therapeutic process that allows an eventual conversation about the future to happen in a more helpful and effective way. Discussing a successful past often drastically changes the mood of the conversation. It is almost as if couples transform themselves back into people who were previously happy and in love.

The procedure for follow-up sessions isn’t dissimilar from that of first sessions except that the steps are followed in a slightly different order. As the session moved on, therapist worked together to explore the couple’s successful past, developed a picture of the preferred future, scaled their distance from their preferred future the couple felt they were between two and three and reviewed the feedback and suggestions. When couples begin to explore the details of progress and talk about the skills they possess that led to the progress, it is almost as if they are complimenting each other for the way they behaved between sessions. The scale in the follow-up session is used exactly the way it was used in the first session. Scales are an important part of solution building because they allow the clinician to assess the effectiveness of the work being done in concert with the couple themselves.

Students may enter higher education with a strong set of ideals, firm models of career options, and certain confidence in their ultimate direction; however, it is not uncommon for students to begin college unprepared for life after graduation, let alone housing assignments and first semester coursework. This chapter focuses on the difficulties surrounding the major choice, the factors that influence decision making, career theories in student affairs, and campus and community resources available to assist students in gathering important data about their major and career choices. Selecting a college major and making career decisions are not easy, and require self-knowledge, self-examination, and research on what is available in the world of work. Essential to student success is the ability of student affairs professionals to accurately recognize when students are struggling and make an appropriate referral for career counseling, academic support services, or personal counseling.

This chapter presents a combined creative-corrective approach to working with the bereaved by emphasizing on cognitive assessment as a tool for social workers. It determines how best to facilitate an adaptive grief process with individuals who experience traumatic loss or complicated grief. Cognitive therapies (CT) and cognitive behavior therapies (CBTs) were found suitable with individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and chronic or traumatic grief. Grief as a process of reorganizing one’s life and searching for a meaning following a loss through death is a painful experience. The Adversity Beliefs Consequences (ABC) model is based on a cognitive theoretical model to be applied in treatment of bereaved individuals. Like other cognitive models, rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) emphasizes the centrality of cognitive processes in understanding emotional disturbance, distinguishing between two sets of cognitions that people construct, rational and irrational ones and their related emotional and behavioral consequences that differ qualitatively.

One of the more comprehensive and enduring theories of psychosocial development was created by Erik Erikson (Erikson, 1968). He developed a map of human psychosocial development that covered the crises and touch points humans experience from birth to death. This chapter provides brief descriptions of each stage of Erikson’s chronologically organized model. Erikson’s model of sequential development implies that incomplete resolution of one developmental crisis may hinder future developmental progress regardless of an individual’s chronological age. Thus, “arrested development” may lead to a variety of concerns, behavioral problems, or adverse events for students, regardless of their ages. Awareness of the role that psychosocial development can play in a student’s maturity level or his or her adherence to rules and expectations can help student affairs professionals recognize and respond to student issues. The chapter outlines the ways in which obstructed development may create challenges for students on campus.

This chapter discusses some of the critical issues surrounding culture and cognitive behavioral methods in order to better inform the advancement of culturally responsive social work practice. It focuses on one such treatment modality, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). The chapter reviews relevant theoretical frameworks, existent empirical studies on CBT with diverse cultural groups, strengths and limitations of this modality across cultures, and suggestions for culturally responsive CBT practice, in order to better inform social work practice. While cognitive behavior therapy was developed with universal assumptions and without consideration to the diversity of the cultural contexts of consumers, it is grounded in theory that is likely to have “some universal basis across populations”. Several studies have described the use of cognitive behavior methods with gay and lesbian clients, particularly the use of rational emotive therapy, cognitive restructuring, and behavior experiments.

The treatment of the suicidal individual is perhaps the most weighty and difficult of any of the problems confronted by the clinical social worker. Some frequent comorbid pathology with suicidal behavior includes alcoholism, panic attacks, drug abuse, chronic schizophrenia, conduct disorder in children and adolescents, impulse control deficits, schizophrenia, and problem-solving deficits. Suicidal harmful behavior appears in all ages and characterizes clients in a large spectrum of life. There are four types of suicidal behavior namely rational suicider, psychotic suicider, hopeless suicider and impulsive or histrionic suicider. This chapter presents some primarily cognitive techniques for challenging suicidal automatic thoughts. Recent reports suggest that individuals suffering from alcohol or substance abuse are at an increased risk both for attempting, and for successfully completing, a suicidal act. The therapist must develop an armamentarium of cognitive techniques, and the skills to use these effectively in ways that are appropriate for each individual client.

Attention to the dimensions of culture in restorative justice practices refers to differences among peoples and also to the broader contextual issues including societal prescriptions and the vicissitudes of power, privilege, and oppression that earmark relationships between peoples. The first dimension focuses on issues practitioners must be sensitive to when they are working with people who are different from themselves and different from each other. The second dimension centers on the nature of the crime or wrongdoing, specifically hate crimes and interethnic conflict. The third dimension concentrates on the emerging interest in restorative justice by non-Westernized cultures often located in diverse corners of the world. Paralanguage or other vocal cues, such as hesitations, inflections, silences, loudness of voice, and pace of speaking, also provide ample opportunity for misinterpretation across cultures. Asians and Native Americans will often use many more words to say the same thing as their White colleagues.

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the linguistic and cultural issues to consider when assessing children and adolescents from diverse backgrounds, with a major focus on immigrants and refugees. It addresses research on the typical developmental trajectory of language and literacy of children and adolescents who must learn in a language that is not the language of their home, and the implications of that research for distinguishing whether their learning difficulties are due to inadequate proficiency in the societal language or due to a learning disability. The book describes the methods for assessing children and adolescents’ oral language proficiency (OLP) in their first and second languages. It then discusses the issues involved and methods for assessing intelligence, academic achievement, and behavioral, social, and emotional functioning.

This chapter covers the history and development of the practice, the issues involved in implementation of a victim-offender mediation (VOM) program. Experimentation in bringing together victims and offenders with a trained mediator to talk through what happened and to decide together what to do about what happened began in the early 1970s and 1980s. These efforts to humanize the restorative justice process through holding young offenders directly accountable to the victim of their crime were called Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (VORPs). A broad base of community support is necessary to counter the predictable initial skepticism that accompanies the start of a new program that allows the victim to meet with the person who victimized them. Securing public funds is one of the most difficult jobs. VOM programs report that 34” of case referrals are true diversion, occurring after an offender has been apprehended but prior to any formal finding of guilt.

This chapter examines the differences in facilitating a settlement-driven versus dialogue-driven mediation. It also examines the concept of introducing a humanistic approach to mediation and dialogue. The chapter presents the characteristics and qualities of an effective mediator in relation to the victim and offender, the facilitator’s responsibilities during preparation, the dialogue itself, and follow-up, including the significance of self-care. Nowhere else in the restorative justice process is the principle of respect and being non-judgmental more critical than in how the facilitator treats victim, offender, and other key stakeholders. Settlement-driven mediation is generally practiced within a conflict resolution context. In contrast, dialogue-driven mediation recognizes that most conflicts develop within a larger emotional and relational context characterized by powerful feelings of disrespect, betrayal, and abuse. Besides the governing values that define humanistic mediation, mediators must cultivate their emotional commitment to and connection with the highest principles they assign to the dialogue work.

This chapter distinguishes between spirituality and religiosity. It reports on a study that begins to deconstruct the elements in restorative justice that might be considered spiritual. Spirituality is defined as a reverence for life. Sacred reverence is defined as being in awe of and deep regard or veneration. Religious leaders are often strong promoters at the forefront of many rehabilitative justice practices including restorative justice. By delineating specific spiritual components, the concept of spirituality is made clearer and more usable by social workers and other mediators of restorative justice practice. Bender and Armour examined texts about restorative justice using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Nine components of spirituality emerged from the research on the restorative justice literature such as: internal transformation, connectedness, common human bond, repentance, forgiveness, making right a wrong, balance or harmony, rituals and the spirit or supernatural.

This chapter provides an introduction to the three basic dialogue practices like victim-offender mediation (VOM), family group conferencing (FGC) and peacemaking circles and the expansion of VOM to include severely violent crime. It describes the components of a restorative justice dialogue that are a part of all approaches. The chapter delineates the stages in developing a dialogue including referral, preparation, dialogue meeting, and follow-up. Again these stages demonstrate how restorative justice values, principles, and core concepts are actualized in the process. The chapter describes the conditions necessary for creating the context that enables change during the dialogue. Those conditions include a process orientation, safety establishment, respectful interaction, and the flow of positive energy. Besides embodying restorative justice values, these conditions represent spiritual components. The components include: personal accountability in response to the harm, inclusivity, voluntarism, preparation for the dialogue, and the telling of story as personal truth.

This chapter explains how to determine whether learning difficulties of second-language (L2) learners are a result of inadequate proficiency in the societal language, or due to a learning disability (LD). It begins with a model that helps to organize information about the development of literacy and language skills of typically and atypically developing L2 children and adolescents, and that provides a backdrop for understanding the challenges faced by L2 learners who, in addition to having to develop language and literacy skills in the L2, may also have a LD. The chapter provides an overview of research on typical and atypical language and literacy development of L2 learners and the implications for assessment of LD in L2. It concludes with a table that provides a summary of key research findings, and a table that lists fundamental questions that school and clinical child psychologists should consider in their work with L2 learners.

This chapter examines the history and development of circles and delineates the attributes of the circle process. Circles as a restorative justice approach, is distinct from Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) and Family Group Conferencing (FGC) in its continual attention to the details that must be in place and tended in order for the work of the circle to be productive. Regardless of the context in which circles are used, the purpose of circles is to create a safe, nonjudgmental place to engage in a sharing of authentic personal reactions and feelings that are owned by each individual and acknowledged by others, related to a conflict, crisis, issue, or even to reactions to a speaker or film. The outer supports of a circle process consist of five structural elements: ritual, behavioral guidelines, a talking piece, circle keeping, and consensus decision making. Circles, regardless of type, are often referred to as peacemaking circles.

This chapter reviews the historic relationship between social work and the criminal justice system and the significance of restorative justice to the social work profession. It demonstrates the strong implicit relationship between social work and restorative justice by reviewing the core social work values and how those values are manifest in restorative justice philosophy and practices. As long as rehabilitation was the guiding retributive philosophy, there was a natural affinity between social work and criminal justice. Social work is unique among the mental health professions because it is the only one built on a fundamental set of values. Social workers respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person. Self-determination is an extension of human worth and holds that individuals ought to take part in the decisions that affect their lives. Social workers recognize the central importance of human relationships.

Assessment of intelligence and diagnosis of intellectual disability in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents are controversial and challenging. This chapter discusses some of these controversial and challenging issues, and describes methods of assessing intelligence in CLD children and adolescents, that is, individuals whose language and cultural backgrounds are significantly different from the normative group of most standardized Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests. It addresses several issues that psychologists need to consider when evaluating intelligence, including developing rapport; fluid and crystallized intelligence; adaptive behavior; using IQ tests to establish IQ/achievement discrepancies to diagnose learning disabilities; and determining when to use formal IQ tests. The chapter then turns to a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of assessment techniques, including several types of intelligence tests, and offers alternative approaches for evaluating intelligence that can help to overcome some of the difficulties, including modifying test administration, dynamic assessment, and ecological assessment.

This chapter explains Victim-Offender Dialogue (VOD), its history and development, its characteristics, and its procedures. Concerns about victim forgiveness, are more explicit in VOD because the nature of the crimes involves the taking of human life or other heinous act and the impossibility of ever returning life to the one murdered or restoring a survivor’s life to what it was before the murder. Part of the cautiousness about the use of restorative justice for violent crime was concern that it might revictimize victims. VOD is an outgrowth of victim-offender mediation (VOM) and is similar in its central focus on the relationship between victim and offender. Victims, family members, and offenders describe the process of the meeting as a conversation. Although the dialogue belongs to the victim and offender, the facilitator begins the process, helps with transitions, invites breaks as needed, and remains a constant, readily alert, and cementing presence throughout.

Assessment of academic achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics is a crucial part of most assessments of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents. This chapter discusses general issues that psychologists and other practitioners need to consider, including timing of the assessment in the second language (L2), cultural knowledge and bias, impact of oral language proficiency (OLP) on performance, and previous experience with the types of achievement testing done in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) immigrant-receiving countries. It explains specific academic assessment strategies, and interprets assessment results. The chapter provides a discussion of the diagnosis of learning disabilities (LDs). It analyses the strengths and problems associated with using discrepancy definitions, response to intervention (RTI), and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and shows how the research on typical development and differentiating L2 and LD can be applied.

This chapter provides guidelines for psychologists to use when assessing behavioral, social, and emotional functioning of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents. It begins by describing the typical methods psychologists use to assess these areas, and analyzing them in terms of their effectiveness and validity with CLD children and teens. The chapter then proposes that psychologists use an adaptation of Mash and Hunsley’s developmental systems approach (DSA) to assess CLD children and adolescents. It then discusses specific issues involved in assessment of CLD children and adolescents who display inattentive and hyperactive–impulsive behaviors, externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and severe social problems. The chapter specifically addresses questions involving the use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders with CLD children and adolescents to diagnose specific disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder, anxiety and mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

This chapter proposes a clarification of what social entrepreneurship is and how it differs from other socially oriented and entrepreneurially oriented activities. It also proposes that one of the more productive uses of the term implies a certain mind-set. The chapter highlights some versions of social entrepreneurship as case examples and argues that social entrepreneurship can be studied at a university. Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs in the methods they use, but different as they are motivated by social goals rather than material profits. The social entrepreneur, in contrast to the traditional entrepreneur, public servant, or nongovernmental organization (NGO) executive, is purpose driven and impact oriented. Market orientation is a key feature that differentiates social entrepreneurship ventures from other social organizations, such as nonprofit social service delivery or advocacy.

Medieval universities were structured as urban centers providing technical training in medicine, law, and, most importantly, theology. Colleges and universities are uniquely situated within communities, often influencing many facets of a community’s life, including costs and structure of housing, types of amenities and businesses, and the presence of law enforcement. During the rapid industrialization of Victorian London, urban poverty in the East End became a growing concern. In partnership with Vicar Barnett, Arnold Toynbee conceptualized a model of community engagement whereby students from universities such as Cambridge and Oxford would take up residence in London’s East End to collaborate with residents and address social problems. Understanding the historical rationale for campus-community partnership is critical for determining the future of community engagement. The engaged campus plays an important role in both maintaining and promoting civil society and fostering civic engagement among emerging adults.

Historically, service-learning practice and literature have focused more heavily on student experiences rather than those of the community partner. Although research focused on community partners’ experiences has increased, it has generally not taken into account shifting demographics of students in the U.S. higher education system, specifically the rapid internationalization of colleges and universities. Beginning in 1938 with Dewey’s introduction to experiential learning and democratic education, service learning has gained momentum as a pedagogical technique and as a high-impact practice. The number of nonprofit organizations in the U.S. hosting international service-learning students is unknown, but given trends in international exchange programs and the demographic nature of clients served by nonprofit organizations in the U.S., the mutually beneficial possibilities of international service learners in U.S. organizations are vast. Through an analysis of the qualitative data, researchers have identified cultural and linguistic barriers as a consistent theme.

Field education is an integral aspect of every social work student’s training. Whether a student is obtaining a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) in the hope of pursuing a career in generalist practice or working toward a master’s degree in social work (MSW) to prepare for advanced or independent work, learning skills and practice techniques in community settings is essential. The work that is performed by students in the field is supervised by social workers in many different organizational and practice settings. The relationship between the field instructor and the social work student provides fertile ground for socialization as a member of a profession and the acquisition of practice skills. Whether we are working in health care, child protection, mental health services, corrections, education, gerontology, or another area of social work practice, we have much important knowledge to share with a student.

Child welfare practitioners at all levels play a vital role in shaping outcomes and the well-being of children who reside in kinship care. Child welfare educators will be well served to use innovative approaches to student recruitment and retention in efforts to build a cadre of professionals who have the desire, value orientation, and background to be trained to become competent practitioners. One strategy that child welfare educators can consider is the use of “geodemographic planning”. To ensure an adequate supply of future child welfare professionals, it is imperative that educators and academic leaders implement strategic retention plans. Intensive supervision models, mentoring/coaching, and using youth-and family-representative-informed care are modalities that child welfare educators should consider in workforce development. Field education should incorporate technology-enhanced training resources and methods in order to maximize student supervision. The use of computer-facilitated assessments and standardized screenings could be encouraged with kinship families.

Serving as a field instructor is usually a delightful and rewarding experience. Most of our students are bright, motivated, and eager to develop into skilled professionals. However, there are times when a practicum student may be ill-suited to the internship. Field supervision is both a process and a relationship. Several frameworks have been discussed in the social work literature about the nature of the field instructor-student relationship. These include the developmental model, attachment-based approaches to supervision, and the relational approach. Program faculty can also work with you to help in the process of integrating classroom knowledge and theory with interventions in the practicum setting. Some areas where students may particularly struggle are the following: emotional self-care, professionalism, setting appropriate professional boundaries, integrating classroom knowledge with fieldwork, professional writing skills, accepting constructive feedback, and asking for help.

Nearly all social work professionals remember their field instructors. Field instructors clearly play a critical role in social work education. This chapter is for those field instructors who would like to broaden their repertoire of tools for helping students become more adept at integrating theory, models, and skills in a coherent manner. It briefly reviews the literature, then identifies barriers, and makes recommendations about strategies for theory and practice integration. The literature suggests that students have appreciated the systematic integration of theory and practice by field instructors. The literature about how to foster integration in field education has a different focus when comparing academic field faculty and agency-based field instructors. For more experienced field instructors, the literature recommended training centered on topics such as enhancing students’ critical thinking, group work, and communication skills, as well as conflict resolution skills.

This chapter explores the circumstances of happiness. It evaluates whether things such as gender, age, income, work, and leisure have an impact on happiness. It shows that the circumstances of our gender, where we live, our age, and our income don’t contribute much to our subjective well-being (SWB). The first circumstance is whether one’s gender has any impact on one’s happiness. The chapter examines whether geography is related to happiness. It looks at the relationship between income and happiness, there is one important interpretation to consider: It is possible that happiness actually creates more income. The natural interpretation of the positive relationship between wealth and well-being is to assume that prosperity produces SWB, but it is important to consider the reverse direction of causation. The chapter focuses on the circumstances of work that predict job satisfaction but there are factors within the person that are at least as important.

One of the most important areas of practice that field instructors discuss with their students is teaching and reinforcing the ethics and values of the social work profession. Students are introduced to the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) early in their social work education, but it is up to academic faculty and also field instructors to ensure that social work students can make connections between the content of the ethical code and real-life practice situations. There are a number of topics that frequently arise as ethical challenges in the practicum. These include mandated reporter responsibilities, mental health treatment and involuntary commitment, worker-client boundaries, specific boundary concerns related to self-disclosure, and disclosure of student status. There are a number of other approaches to resolving ethical dilemmas. These include the use of principle-based ethics and virtue ethics.

Relationships are important to our happiness but, as it turns out, things are not quite as straightforward as this proposition would seem to imply. The first important observation that we can make of this association is that the perception of social support appears to be more significant to happiness than objective indicators of social support. Objective indicators of social support such as number of friends and frequency of social activity show small and sometimes nonsignificant relationships with happiness. One possibility is that the correlation between satisfaction with one’s relationships and satisfaction with life is simply a product of method invariance. The chapter focuses on how different types of relationships affect happiness. But this approach has a tendency to ignore the common relationship dynamics that might impact happiness across relationships. It also focuses on three dynamics of happy relationships: capitalization, gratitude, and forgiveness.

This chapter explores the connection between cognition and happiness and describes the cognitive characteristics of happy people. It examines each of three stages of cognition such as attention, interpretation, and memory in turn, and discusses how they relate to happiness. It follows this discussion with research on affective forecasting, and how inaccurately forecasting our emotional future might inhibit our happiness. Research also suggests that happiness might help us get out of the shackles of self-preoccupation so that we can see beyond ourselves. Moreover, the relationship between negative emotion and self-preoccupation appears to be reciprocal: When we are in a negative mood we tend to be more self-preoccupied; but when we are focused on yourself this tends to promote negative moods. Finally, the chapter explores how affective forecasting errors can impact our happiness.

In order to be an effective manager, the key ingredient is to understand that the world, as it is perceived, is the world that is behaviorally important. As a manager, it is important to be able to differentiate between fact and inference. Managers should identify staff with high-power needs and understand that when those people feel powerless or not in control of a situation, they are more likely to be frustrated. As many managers view the appraisal process as intruding into their “regular” responsibilities, they tend to not want to go out of their way to concentrate on gathering, thoroughly evaluating, and digesting all the information needed to accurately assess a staff member’s performance. An ongoing and open dialogue between staff and management is critical to ensure that the manager is conducting him- or herself in a manner that fits into the parameters of social justice.

This chapter explores four ways, goals, sources of funds, determinants of scale, and boundaries, in which nonprofits differ financially from their for-profit cousins. It looks at financial data systems and financial decision making in the nonprofit environment. Within the current finance paradigm, the goal of the for-profit organization is to maximize its financial value to its owners. As the largest for-profits are organized as corporations whose shareholders are considered their “owners”, this goal is often stated as “Shareholder Wealth Maximization (SWM)”. The accounting system is how an organization keeps track of its financial activities. The role of the external auditor is only to review the financial statements in the context of its accounting processes and procedures to determine if the statements are ‘free from material misstatement’. The chapter considers how the financial differences between nonprofits and for-profits create an emerging and very exciting opportunity for nonprofit organizations.

This chapter entails a review of “system readiness”, and discusses methods for conducting evaluations and research related to capacity building through system change. Moreover, with advocacy research being paramount in kinship care practice, its use in kinship care is addressed, covering the use of advocacy research strategies and methods for translating research findings into kinship care policy and practice. When service systems are ready for change, they are best served by a trained and supported workforce that is able to intervene and support families using culturally appropriate, evidence-based practice models. A probe into how evidence-based practices can become more effective in realm kinship care is offered. Children in kinship care not only need effective and supportive caregivers, but also need effective child welfare policies and programs. System of Care has been one approach used in child welfare to bring about necessary changes to local programming.

This chapter gives an overview of the conditions and child vulnerabilities that can disrupt relationship building. In the context of parenting and/or adult-to-child caregiving, theoretical understanding of the importance of human relationships, connections, and alliances has been guided by major models, including evolutionary psychology, attachment theory, social learning, social cognition theory, social development theory, and social control theory, bioecological systems theory and human behavioral genetics theory. Relationship formation is critical in positioning caregivers to serve in a “curative” role in assisting children to make gains and recover from the experiences of not having normal parental experiences. Kinship caregivers are in a unique position to help children develop relational competence. Relational competence is a person’s ability to appropriately interact with others and to develop meaningful relationships and connections. The caregiver can help the child reconnect or restore broken relationships.