Guilt, shame, and/or both? Further validation of the White Racial Affect Scale.

In this study we assessed the construct validity of the recently published White Racial Affect Scale (Grzanka et al., 2020). Specifically, we assessed the convergent, criterion-related, and incremental evidence for construct validity of the White guilt, White shame, and White defensiveness (called "White negation" in the original article) factors. We used a video stimulus to trigger state guilt and shame in participants as part of the construct validity investigation. White adults in the United States signed up for the study online (N = 262) and watched a 5-min video stimulus and completed questionnaires before and after the video. Results of this study replicated many of the findings from the original White Racial Affect Scale validation study (Grzanka et al., 2020). We found strong evidence of construct validity for the White guilt and White defensiveness factors and mixed evidence for the White shame factor. We discuss directions for future research and implications for potential interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The integrated behavioral model of mental health help seeking (IBM-HS): A health services utilization theory of planned behavior for accessing care.

This article introduces the integrated behavioral model of mental health help seeking (IBM-HS), a theoretical model for understanding the constructs (e.g., systemic, predisposing, and enabling factors; mental health literacy; illness perceptions; perceived need; stigma; shame; perceived benefits, motivation) that influence people's decision making around seeking professional mental health care and their ultimate access to formal treatment. The IBM-HS is a help-seeking-specific adaptation of the empirically supported integrated behavioral model and integrative model, which are themselves evolutions of the theory of planned behavior and theory of reasoned action. The IBM-HS posits that help-seeking determinants (e.g., structural forces; cultural influences; past help-seeking experience; evaluated need; mental health perceptions, knowledge, and skills; social support) influence help-seeking beliefs (i.e., outcome beliefs, experiential beliefs, beliefs about others' expectations, beliefs about others' behavior, logistical beliefs), which in turn determine their respective help-seeking mechanisms (i.e., attitude, perceived norm, personal agency). These mechanisms collectively influence help-seeking intention, which drives prospective help-seeking behavior, subject to the moderating effects of determinants. Finally, prospective behavior has reciprocal feedback loop effects on certain determinants and beliefs. This article describes the need for the IBM-HS, the model's constructs and their interrelations, measurement considerations, and how the model can be used by scholarly and applied users to systematically understand people's intention to seek professional mental health care services and what helps or hinders them from utilizing this care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Beyond the individual: Sexual minority help-seeking and the consequences of structural barriers.

Sexual minorities report more psychological distress, unmet mental health needs, and barriers to mental health care compared with heterosexuals, yet little is known about their barriers to seeking out mental health care. The present study reports the factors that influence intentions to seek out mental health care of a national survey of 398 sexual minorities. Structural equation modeling identified structural barriers, such as cost, time, and knowing how to access services, as the strongest predictor of sexual minorities' help-seeking intentions. Latent moderators indicated sexual minorities' help-seeking intentions varied depending upon their degree of psychological distress. This revealed a pattern where the most vulnerable participants (i.e., those with high structural barriers and negative help-seeking attitudes) were willing to pursue mental health care only when they were experiencing significant distress. Furthermore, nearly 40% of participants reported unmet mental health needs, and structural barriers were the primary reasons for this deficit. Findings from this study contrast with previous mental health help-seeking research by emphasizing the importance of structural vulnerability, which refers to the external forces that frame and constrain choices, thereby impeding decision-making and limiting life options for those who are in systemically disadvantaged social positions. These findings are discussed in terms of counseling psychology training, practice, social justice advocacy, and future health care research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The hidden curriculum of academic writing: Toward demystifying manuscript preparation in counseling psychology.

In this article, we aim to unpack some of the hidden curriculum in publishing successfully in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) and other academic outlets. The many unspoken and implicit considerations behind writing a successful academic article can reinforce epistemic exclusions around class, gender, race, sexuality, and other axes of power that ultimately limit who gets to publish in academic journals and about what. Thus, we work to articulate the processes behind writing an academic article. Specifically, we offer suggestions for (a) writing compelling, precise, and parsimonious introductions, (b) clearly addressing the goals of the study via an accurate and detailed description of the method, (c) aligning analytic decisions with the research questions or hypotheses and the data parameters at hand, and (d) discussing the story of data in the context of prior scholarship, study limitations, and real-world implications. Where applicable, we provide concrete examples of published studies to "unhide" writing processes and to illustrate the invisible narratives and intentions behind key writing practices. We also present a checklist as an easy-to-reference companion to this article to help demystify the writing process. This article aligns with the commitment of JCP's editorial leadership to play an active role in opening up the scholarly publication process so that the pipeline of manuscripts submitted to and accepted by JCP shapes a more inclusive future for the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The shape of knowledge: Situational analysis in counseling psychology research.

Situational analysis (SA) is a powerful method for visually mapping qualitative data. As an extension of constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz and others, Clarke's situational analysis encourages researchers to transform qualitative data into various visual maps that can illuminate dynamics that may be obscured by more traditional analytic approaches. Fifteen years since Fassinger's landmark article on grounded theory in counseling psychology research, I make an argument for SA's potential uses in counseling psychology using data from a mixed-methods dissertation on White racial affect. I outline the exigency of SA and its epistemological and methodological underpinnings in detail, with a focus on SA as a critical, structural analysis. Each primary mapping procedure-situational, positional, and social worlds/arenas maps-is introduced and examples are provided that illustrate SA's unique analytic capacities and insights. By way of SA, I argue for a "critical-cartographic" turn in counseling psychology along four axes: promoting systems-level research and advocacy, deepening consideration of intersectionality, cultivating alternative epistemologies beyond post-positivism, and invigorating qualitative research on counseling and psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The qualitative imagination in counseling psychology: Enhancing methodological rigor across methods.

Fifteen years have passed since the publication of a landmark issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology on qualitative and mixed methods research (Haverkamp et al., 2005), which signaled a methodological shift in counseling psychology and related fields. At the time, qualitative research was certainly less popular in the field and arguably less respected than it is now. This special issue charts advances in qualitative and mixed methods research since the publication of that issue, reflects on how these diverse approaches are conducted today, and points toward new methodological frontiers. The articles in this special issue include a range of methodological tools and theoretical perspectives that extend thinking about the ethics, practice, evaluation, and implications of psychological research. Notably, the articles are linked by a shared commitment to conducting psychological research critically-that is, to both critique dominant norms in the discipline and to sensitize psychological methods to power and inequality-and to advancing social justice. In this introduction, the guest editors survey authors' contributions and synthesize their insights to offer recommendations for future qualitative and mixed methods work in the field, particularly in terms of interdisciplinarity, methodological rigor, critical psychology, and social justice. They propose that counseling psychologists should cultivate a "qualitative imagination" with respect to all forms of empirical research (qualitative and quantitative) and offer specific guidance for enhancing methodological sophistication and sensitivity to power. Accordingly, this special issue is an important opportunity to set an agenda for the next decade-plus of critical inquiry in counseling psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Can White Guilt Motivate Action? The Role of Civic Beliefs.

Limited research has investigated factors that shape White youth's civic action aimed at social change. Investigating the relation between Whiteness and civic action is an essential step toward identifying and cultivating environments that encourage White youth to use their racial privilege to combat inequality through civic engagement. To address this gap in the literature, across two distinct samples, this study investigates the role of White guilt in motivating civic action and the moderating role of civic beliefs. Participants included all young adults who self-identified as White from two online survey studies (Study 1, N = 219 college students, 71.9% Women, 28.1% Men, mean age = 19.6; Study 2, N = 185, 50% current college students, 54.6% Women, 45.4% Men, mean age = 23.9). In Study 1, White guilt related to more civic action. In the context of high social responsibility, White guilt related to more civic action; in the context of low social responsibility, White guilt corresponded with less civic action. In Study 2, White guilt also related to more civic action, and civic efficacy emerged as a potential moderator. Collectively, these results highlight the potential for White guilt to be turned into meaningful civic action, particularly when coupled with civic beliefs.

Is Essentialism Essential? Reducing Homonegative Prejudice by Targeting Diverse Sexual Orientation Beliefs.

We conducted an experiment to assess whether targeting multiple beliefs about sexual orientation (SO) may be more effective in reducing homonegativity than focusing only on beliefs about its biogenetic origins. Participants (116 women, 85 men) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions or a control condition. Those in the treatment conditions read essays summarizing: (1) research suggesting SO has biogenetic origins, (2) research suggesting SO is socially constructed and refuting beliefs about the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO categories; or (3) research suggesting SO is biogenetic and research suggesting SO categories are socially constructed and not necessarily discrete, homogenous, or informative. We predicted participants in the conditions that targeted multiple beliefs related to the social construction of SO, not just its biogenetic origins, would exhibit the strongest reductions in beliefs about the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of SO categories, and in homonegativity. We also predicted these participants would exhibit the greatest increases in support for gay and lesbian civil rights. We observed hypothesized shifts in SO beliefs across all experimental conditions. While there was a small main effect of time on homonegative prejudice, there was no main effect of condition and no changes in support for gay and lesbian civil rights. However, post hoc analyses suggested the two conditions addressing social constructionist beliefs accounted for most of the observed prejudice reduction. Implications for more comprehensive educational and social interventions designed to promote social justice for sexual minorities are discussed.

Conscience clauses and sexual and gender minority mental health care: A case study.

Tennessee is one of the first states in the United States to have a law that enables counselors and therapists in independent practice to deny services to any client based on the practitioner's "sincerely held principles." This so-called "conscience clause" represents a critical moment in professional psychology, in which mental health care providers are on the frontlines of cultural and legal debates about religious freedom. Though the law's language is ambiguous, it was widely perceived to target sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals. We interviewed 20 SGM people living in Tennessee to understand their experiences with mental health care in the state and their perceptions of the law. Our participants perceive the law as fundamentally discriminatory, though they overwhelmingly conceptualize the conscience clause as legalizing discrimination toward members of all stigmatized groups-not just SGM individuals. They described individual and societal consequences for the law, including an understanding of the conscience clause as harmful above and beyond any individual discrimination event it may engender. We situate these findings amid the research on structural stigma and suggest that counseling psychologists become actively engaged in combatting conscience clauses, which appear to have profound consequences on mental health care engagement, particularly for populations vulnerable to discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Using intersectionality responsibly: Toward critical epistemology, structural analysis, and social justice activism.

The increasing popularity of the concept of intersectionality in the social sciences, including in psychology, represents an opportunity to reflect on the state of stewardship of this concept, its roots, and its promise. In this context, the authors aim to promote responsible stewardship of intersectionality and to tip the momentum of intersectionality's flourishing toward fuller use and engagement of its roots and promise for understanding and challenging dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression. To this end, this article provides a set of guidelines for reflection and action. The authors organize these guidelines along 3 major formulations of intersectionality: intersectionality as a field of study, as analytic strategy or disposition, and as critical praxis for social justice. Ultimately, the authors call for expanding the use of intersectionality toward fuller engagement with its roots in Black feminist thought, its current interdisciplinary richness and potential, and its central aims to challenge and transform structures and systems of power, privilege, and oppression. (PsycINFO Database Record

Intersectionality research in counseling psychology.

This article introduces the special section on intersectionality research in counseling psychology. Across the 4 manuscripts that constitute this special section, a clear theme emerges: a need to return to the roots and politics of intersectionality. Importantly, the 2 empirical articles in this special section (Jerald, Cole, Ward, & Avery, 2017; Lewis, Williams, Peppers, & Gadson, 2017) are studies of Black women's experiences: a return, so to speak, to the subject positions and social locations from which intersectionality emanates. Shin et al. (2017) explore why this focus on Black feminist thought and social justice is so important by highlighting the persistent weaknesses in how much research published in leading counseling psychology journals has tended to use intersectionality as a way to talk about multiple identities, rather than as a framework for critiquing systemic, intersecting forms of oppression and privilege. Shin and colleagues also point to the possibilities intersectionality affords us when scholars realize the transformative potential of this critical framework. Answers to this call for transformative practices are foregrounded in Moradi and Grzanka's (2017) contribution, which surveys the interdisciplinary literature on intersectionality and presents a series of guidelines for using intersectionality responsibly. We close with a discussion of issues concerning the applications of intersectionality to counseling psychology research that spans beyond the contributions of each manuscript in this special section. (PsycINFO Database Record

Beyond "born this way?" reconsidering sexual orientation beliefs and attitudes.

Previous research on heterosexuals' beliefs about sexual orientation (SO) has been limited in that it has generally examined heterosexuals' beliefs from an essentialist perspective. The recently developed Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS; Arseneau, Grzanka, Miles, & Fassinger, 2013) assesses multifarious "lay beliefs" about SO from essentialist, social constructionist, and constructivist perspectives. This study used the SOBS to explore latent group-based patterns in endorsement of these beliefs in 2 samples of undergraduate students: a mixed-gender sample (n = 379) and an all-women sample (n = 266). While previous research has posited that essentialist beliefs about the innateness of SO predict positive attitudes toward sexual minorities, our research contributes to a growing body of scholarship that suggests that biological essentialism should be considered in the context of other beliefs. Using a person-centered analytic strategy, we found that that college students fell into distinct patterns of SO beliefs that are more different on beliefs about the homogeneity, discreteness, and informativeness of SO categories than on beliefs about the naturalness of SO. Individuals with higher levels of endorsement on all 4 SOBS subscales (a group we named multidimensional essentialism) and those who were highest in discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness beliefs (i.e., high-DHI) reported higher levels of homonegativity when compared with those who were high only in naturalness beliefs. We discuss the implications of these findings for counseling and psychotherapy about SO, as well educational and social interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

The psychology of precarity: A critical framework.

This article presents the rationale and a new critical framework for precarity, which reflects a psychosocial concept that links structural inequities with experiences of alienation, anomie, and uncertainty. Emerging from multiple disciplines, including anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and psychology, the concept of precarity provides a conceptual scaffolding for understanding the complex causes of precarious life circumstances while also seeking to identify how people react, adapt, and resist the forces that evoke such tenuous psychosocial experiences. We present a critical conceptual framework as a nonlinear heuristic that serves to identify and organize relevant elements of precarity in a presumably infinite number of contexts and applications. The framework identifies socio-political-economic contexts, material conditions, and psychological experiences as key elements of precarity. Another essential aspect of this framework is the delineation of interrelated and nonlinear responses to precarity, which include resistance, adaptation, and resignation. We then summarize selected implications of precarity for psychological interventions, vocational and organizational psychology, and explorations and advocacy about race, gender, and other systems of inequality. Future research directions, including optimal methodologies to study precarity, conclude the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Development and initial validation of The Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS).

The purpose of these studies was to develop and validate a measure of beliefs about sexual orientation (SO) that incorporates essentialist, social constructionist, and constructivist themes. The Sexual Orientation Beliefs Scale (SOBS) is offered as a multidimensional instrument with which to assess a broad range of beliefs about SO, which evidence suggests are highly correlated with positive and negative attitudes about sexual minorities. An initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in the general population with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-identified (LGBT) sample (n = 323) and suggested a 4-factor structure of naturalness (α = .86), discreetness (α = .82), entitativity (α = .75), and personal and social importance (α = .68); this 4-factor structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with an independent LGBT sample (n = 330; "Form 1"). Additional EFA (n = 183) and CFA (n = 201) in a college student, mostly heterosexual-identified population suggest a slightly different factor structure, whereby group homogeneity (α = .84) and informativeness (α = .77) are salient themes ("Form 2"), and this structure was replicated across SO groups. Finally, a study of test-retest reliability in an undergraduate, mostly heterosexual-identified sample (n = 45) demonstrated strong temporal stability for the SOBS.

Intersectionality is not a footnote: Commentary on Roberts and Rizzo (2021).

In this brief commentary on Roberts and Rizzo (2021), the authors contend that intersectionality is essential to understanding and combatting American racism. Epistemic exclusion of intersectionality, which is rampant in psychology, limits the discipline's capacity to scientifically capture the complexity of racism and to promote inclusive antiracist efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

An argument for bad psychology: Disciplinary disruption, public engagement, and social transformation.

How might core values of psychology impede efforts to promote public psychology? We identify some of the ways the discipline's aspirations for publicly engaged science are undermined by its norms, particularly when engaging with communities affected by historically entrenched, structural inequalities. We interrogate what makes for "good" psychology, including methodological and ethical norms that are used to maintain scientific integrity and police the boundaries of the discipline. We suggest that some of the discipline's classical tenets and contemporary movements may produce structural, epistemic barriers to the production of science and practice that enhance the public good. Reflecting critically on the rise of implicit bias training in institutional diversity efforts as a case study, we consider how evidence-based efforts to intervene in social problems on behalf of the so-called public interest can inadvertently reproduce or exacerbate extant inequities. We turn to various social movements' reclamation of what counts as "bad" to imagine a psychology that refuses to adjust itself to racism and structural inequality. We argue that much of what psychologists might characterize as "bad" should not be viewed as antithetical to the very best kind of psychological practice, particularly trailblazing work that reimagines the relationship between psychologists and society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Public psychology: Introduction to the special issue.

Psychology's role in public life and social issues has been of longstanding concern throughout the discipline. In a historical moment of tremendous social, political, and economic strife and a global pandemic, this special issue of American Psychologist seeks to extend important discourse about the concept of public psychology. The articles included in the special issue address a range of interconnected themes, including: (a) centering social problems, (b) engaging diverse publics in knowledge creation, (c) communicating and democratizing psychological knowledge, and (d) rethinking what constitutes psychology. In this introduction, the guest editors contextualize the special issue, identify its aims, and highlight the key contributions of the included articles. The guest editors argue that realizing an expansive and transformative public psychology will require structural, substantive changes within the discipline to place community concerns at the center of psychology. Nonetheless, bolstered by the insights of the special issue's contributors, the guest editors conclude with cautious optimism that psychology has much to offer in addressing the most pressing social problems of the 21st century. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).