In the applications section of Chapter 1, several rules of thumb are provided to guide helping professionals incorporate developmental knowledge into their work. Choose three of the guidelines and, for each of these, provide either a) a detailed and specific example of how helping professionals incorporate the guideline in a practice setting, or b) a specific and detailed example of how you will incorporate this guideline into your practice.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

One of the guidelines suggested in the text book is that helping professionals take a multidimensional view of developmental processes. With respect to the traditional dilemmas in development, it is most consistent with current research that helpers refrain from taking an either-or position in favor of a both-and stance in regards to understanding the importance of nature and nurture. It is suggested that having an awareness of the interacting contributions of genetics and environment can allow helpers to take a more reasoned and accurate view of problems. The current trend toward “over-biologizing” (Tavris, 1998) many kinds of physical and psychological conditions can lead people to the false belief that our genes control our behavior. In fact, they may produce tendencies for people to respond to environments in certain ways. One system, proposed by Sadler and Hulgus (1994), would incorporate three levels of symptom assessment into treatment planning. Examples of these three levels include:

1. Syndromes related to personal history (such as early parental deprivation)
2. Syndromes related to interpersonal environments (such as victimization or divorce)
3. Syndromes related to extrapersonal environments (such as job loss or systemic discrimination).

What these approaches share is the desire to shift the prevailing theoretical paradigm from a model of pathology “within the individual” to a more integrative model that incorporates critical developmental principles such as the importance of contextual features. For example, a counselor would be encouraged to not overly rely on biological theory to explain an adolescent’s risk taking behaviors. Although the adolescent’s temperament may influence her desire for novelty and risk-taking, her temperament and behaviors also influence her selection of peers. The situation becomes more complex because her peer group shapes her self-concept and identity.

One of the “rules of thumb” comes from Steenbarger (1991), who cautions against thinking about developmental progress as movement through a fixed set of stages that are the same for all people. Such an excessively rigid interpretation of problems does not account for the complexities of person–environment interactions. At the other extreme of the debate, some radical constructivist views abandon all sense of developmental stage progressions, which may be too extreme for the helper who needs to construct a developmental map of the client. Thus, the rule of thumb is to rely n an informed middle ground. For example, it may be useful to rely upon some stages of psychosocial development that not entirely dependent on chronological age and maturational attainments.

Another guideline to keep in mind is the scientific meaning of theory. A theory represents a synthesis of hypotheses that have been tested and supported by careful research, such as the theory of relativity or evolution. We can think of a theory as referring to one’s personal opinion, such as one’s opinion about the best way to counsel the elderly or explains why someone is extroverted is social situations. Scientific theories evolve and they can be disproved with the accumulation of evidence. Skilled helping professionals need to keep themselves well informed about current research findings, but they must also avoid overgeneralizing from single studies and not rely too much on speculation.

Anther rule of thumb for effective helping professionals is to be selective about their sources of information they rely upon in their practice. We need to keep in mind that knowledge builds relatively slowly and is accumulated over time by repeated observations of similar results. Helping professional who take too simplistic of an approach to developmental issues can miss the complexities of interacting factors, including contextual and historical influences. They are also cautioned against making quick direct causal connections between experiences and outcomes that may make for an easy prediction but might misrepresent the phenomenon under study.

Finally, helping professionals need to be committed to ongoing education in the field. Counselors and other helping professionals need to keep an open mind and continually work to accommodate new information as they practice reflection in action. Thus, it is important to talk with colleagues, attend professional meetings and conferences, and read scientific journals within our profession.