After acquiescing to a small initial request, people typically are more susceptible to a later call for assistance. This foot-in-the-door phenomenon was examined based on principles of social reinforcement. In Experiment 1, subjects induced to perform the same initial prosocial behaviors were found to be differentially susceptible to a later…

Examines the effect on a recipient of another's effort to provide help. Two variables, locus of responsibility for initiating a help attempt and type of outcome resulting from the help attempt, were manipulated in a three x two factorial design. Results indicated that the Requested help condition yielded the strongest obligation to help others.…

When facing terminal illness, the dying individual needs to accept death and his feelings about it, deal with potential isolation from friends and relatives, and find meaning in his remaining time. Family members need also to accept death. Family counseling offers a treatment method for responding to these needs. (Author)

This paper explores the role of empathic arousal in mediating helping behavior. Undergraduates listened to a recording of a radio newscast that described the situation of a young woman whose parents had been killed in an automobile accident. Subjects were instructed either to imagine how the woman felt about her situation (imagine condition), or…

Examined effects of presentation of a peer-in-need stimulus to preschool children in real versus hypothetical contexts, with results indicating a significantly higher incidence of helping behavior in real situations. Nature of helping response as a preoperational reaction to concrete contextual cues is verified. (Author/DST)

The relationships between feedback, its source, and the increases or decreases of the behavior associated with it were investigated to apply predictions of the credibility gap regarding the effects of feedback on the acquisition of an individual skill. Subjects (N=45) were randomly assigned to one of five treatment conditions and provided…

Assuming that counseling is an interlocking system of mutual influence and that the effect of various counselor/client responses on the behavior of the other is probabilistic, then it becomes important to understand what categories of factors contribute to the probabilistic tendencies of counselor and client to respond in different ways. One…

The norms of social responsibility and reciprocity govern altruistic behavior. Children and adults show a consistent developmental trend in comparisons of their responses to positive reciprocal situations and their subsequent altruism. Research indicates, however, that children, given the choice to behaviorally aid a needy individual, choose more…

This paper reports research studies on the determinants of children's helping of another child in distress. Effects of age and various environmental conditions were investigated. Experiments had a similar design: subjects were given a task and made aware that a child was alone in an adjoining room. The experimenter then left the room and subjects…

The author provides eight general guidelines which counselors should use when dealing with grieving clients. A synthesis of current theories about grief and a six-stage process of grief are also described. (Author/HLM)

Skills training, personal-emotional development, and cognitive development are areas of importance in counselor training and education. Emotion, defined as the counselor's experiencing a strong feeling accompanied by physiological activity and the interruption, however momentary, of the counselor's ongoing cognition, is a critical factor in…