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This paper reflects upon findings from a qualitative study exploring the difficulties some students had when attempting to engage with the requirements of ‘Independent Learning’ following the transition to university. The paper considers ways in which the students’ prior learning experiences while studying for A-level may have established certain learning goals that would be difficult to continue to follow whilst also meeting the new HE requirements. These observations are set within the theoretical framework provided by motivational goal theory suggesting some future developments for that theory. These proposed changes include the development of our understanding of the goal of ‘performativity’.

In educational and psycho-diagnostic assessment procedures, computerised assessment is gradually replacing paper-based instruments. In computerised instruments, measuring reasoning skills, such as the ability to solve analogies, few differences are found with their paper-based counterparts; however young children may form an exception. Often in these comparisons of assessment mode, only accuracy is considered, whereas examining solution strategies and measuring learning over time are of particular interest to educational psychologists. The current study investigates whether the learning of analogical reasoning and progression of strategy change follow the same patterns in a computerised setting. The equivalence of paper-based and computerised versions of figural analogy puzzles were examined with regard to both accuracy and strategy change in 69 5-year old children (M=5.4 years). All children were asked to solve figural analogy matrices by constructing their answers from puzzle pieces. In the paper condition (N=33), the puzzle pieces could be grabbed and turned over by hand and then placed in the empty quadrant to solve the analogy. In the computer condition (N=36), the children used a computer mouse to carry out these manoeuvres. The assessment of children’s solution strategy progression took place during weekly sessions over four consecutive weeks. Results indicate that the computerised figural analogy task is comparable to the original paper-based version with regard to both difficulty level and progression of strategy change. However, the computerised version took significantly less time to administer and analyse. Another advantage is that testing with computers allows for the registration of supplementary information that could prove useful for more individualised intervention. We conclude that computerised assessment is a sound method for educational psychologists to evaluate 5-year-olds’ analogical reasoning ability and development.

Content and FocusThis paper has emerged from my experience and developing practice of working integratively with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It aims to raise key considerations to make in practicing from a CBT-informed rather than a CBT-led perspective with survivors.ConclusionsIt argues for the centrality of the therapeutic relationship as a foundation within which all therapeutic work occurs with survivors. It advocates practitioners to strive for a balance between process-led and client-led integrative choices in therapy and emphasises the importance of safe trauma practice through developing the survivors’ functional coping strategies before calling forth traumatic memories. Contributions and limitations of a CBT approach with survivors are discussed, and building integrative practices with different traditions as a goal for counselling psychologists is encouraged.

Content and Focus:Whilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred through employer funded employee assistance schemes and similar can routinely use established assessments of mood, or behaviours indicative of psychological distress, it may also be useful and relevant to evaluate effects on the individual’s experience of and at work. It may be the case that a broader range of outcomes should appropriately be evaluated to allow assessment at both an individual case level and at a broader service evaluation level in the work setting. This paper proposes that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual’s Quality of Working Life (QoWL) can make a valuable contribution to the evaluation of workbased counselling and psychological therapy. Further we argue that such an evaluation can assist in the process of formulation, and thereby the effective targeting of interventions. This article briefly reviews the concept of QoWL, and goes on to discuss the relevance of this concept in the work-based counselling and psychological therapy setting. Finally, a freely available measure of QoWL, the Work Related Quality of Life Scale, is reviewed by way of illustration.

Content and FocusIn this paper I explore the vexed questìoH of how we choose a suitable methodology when undertaking qualitative research in counselling psychology. Drawing on computing I put forward an algorithm in the form of a set of questions to help make the decision. These include the volume, quality and analysis of the expected data, and the role of the researcher and researcher’s own data within some of the commonly used methodologies. Finally I suggest that it is well worth slowly repeating these decision making processes, (iteration) until the outcome is clear.

You should situate yourself in relation to the issues discussed and the paper should focus on one area of discrimination and be illustrated by specific examples.Corker (2003) describes counselling as a potentially oppressive process. Given the recent launch ofthe largescale voluntary sector-led Moving People Programme (MPP) which aims to reduce stigmatisation experienced by people with mental health difficulties (Mind,2007), as well as the fact that the cost of stigmatisation is estimated to be vast (Mason et al., 2001), it seems timely to consider how mental health professionals might be contributing tothe process of discrimination. In an attempt to address the marginalisationof people with a diagnosis of personality disorder, the Department of Health issued two specific documents in 2003: ‘Personality disorder: No longer a diagnosis of exclusion’, and ‘The personality disorder capabilities framework – Breaking the cycle of rejection’. The former has meant increased numbers of people with personality disorder being seen within mentalhealth services while the latter acknowledges that better understanding of personality disorder is required in order to interrupt the cycle of rejection often experienced by people with personality disorders due to negative attitudes andpractices within agencies. My experience of working in the NHS is that the single most vilified population of servce users are those with a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This paper aims to consider how and why discrimination towards people with a diagnosis of BPD is soendemic and argues for the importance of the central humanistorientation of counsellingpsychology in ameliorating stigmatisation in practice. The paper concludes with some research implications and suggestions for potential ways forward.

This paper was written as part fulfilment of the qualification in Counselling Psychology (independent route), AU6 – Philosophical Paper. The paper attempts to critically examine the philosophical bases of counselling psychology, drawing from the historical development of Counselling Psychology as a profession and reflecting on the experience of the author in her personal development to become a counselling psychologist. The paper attempts to integrate concepts of philosophy and values with themes of identity, coherence and commitment, whilst considering key elements to the development of the profession, such as its stance in relation to the medical model, humanistic principles and the scientist-practitioner role.

The paper may draw on your experience of working in more than one organisation but should examine one specific issue in some depth.This academic paper was written in 2007 as part of the submission requirements for the Qualification in Counselling Psychology. In the paper, I discuss my working context within the health service and reflect on the impact of change at the macro and micro levels of service provision. In particular I focused on my role in primary care.

In this short article, I review the media coverage that the conference received, and end with some reflections on how we might enhance impact next year.

Who are the most prestigious authors cited in today’s psychology textbooks and journals? And where are (or where were) they based? This short note reports on the answers gained to such questions by using the Web of Science Core Collection to find the authors of the most highly cited papers in psychology published between 1927 and 2012. The findings suggest that well–known historic figures of the past have now been replaced with tool makers.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that dyslexia may be associated with enhanced visual-spatial ability and creativity. This study set out to explore the possibility of superior visual-spatial skills and creativity in matched research and comparison groups of 24 students each at age 12 years 10 months. All 24 participants with formally diagnosed dyslexia were closely matched for age, socio-economic status, type of school attended and a measure of ability with 24 non-dyslexic peers. They were assessed on all the sections of the Spatial Reasoning Test (12-year-old section) and the Torrance Test for Creativity. No differences were found between the two groups on the Torrance Test for Creativity, but the comparison group registered a statistically significant advantage over the dyslexic group on one spatial task: Recognition of Hidden Shapes.

Previous studies have shown that high levels of impulsivity are often associated with negative educational and social progress. A study is underway examining the effects of impulsivity in adolescence in the context of secondary education in England. Teacher perceptions are initially being sought, to be followed by parent and pupil perceptions. A future stage will involve tracking pupil progress and will investigate links with these perceptions. It is hoped that this will lead to implications for management and prevention of negative outcomes.

This study confirmed that children as young as 6-years-old can already be deemed as failing in mathematics and considered a range of factors which may be contributing towards that judgement. These included the core number sense, connections between symbolic and non-symbolic representations of number, mathematical language used in the home, memory, anxiety and relative young age of the pupil in their year group. Case studies of four children formed the basis of the study. Thematic analysis conducted on the data revealed lack of understanding, weak memory and behavioural aspects as the main themes to explain the pupils’ difficulties with maths attainment. Intervention led to different outcomes depending on the profile of the individual pupil. The apparent progress of pupils indicates that targeted intervention concentrating on reinforcing connections between finger gnosis, numerosity and symbolic number patterns appear to have positive effects on these children’s learning, leading to greater confidence and enhanced understanding.

Research into university learning and teaching is generally intended to suggest ways of enhancing students’ experiences of studying and the quality of their learning. To gain a fuller understanding of the complexity of the processes involved, research has adopted contrasting perspectives and differing levels of analysis. This article looks at these varying approaches to research to illustrate complementary strengths that can provide a fuller understanding of the influences on how students learn and academics teach.

This paper seeks to challenge the powerful and growing discourse that individual, face-to-face therapy is best and only way for clinical psychologist to help children with mental health and emotional needs. We propose that it is timely to rechallenge narratives of what is therapeutic and argue that taking a broader definition of therapy is vital if we are to continue to help the most vulnerable and complex cohorts of children and young people.

This paper focuses on the role that can be played by social pedagogy and civic engagement as a means of supporting troubled 14-year-old pupils to sustain their engagement in school work over the crucial two-year period leading up to their GCSEs.

Like many constructs of interest to educational psychologists, achievement goals are typically measured with psychometrically validated self-report questionnaires. However, the validity of self-report measures depends also on the meaning of items. Validity is threatened when participants interpret questionnaire items in unintended ways. In this paper, we explore the possibilities for divergent understanding of items in achievement goal questionnaires. We use a novel technique by analysing statements that respondents consider to mean the opposite to given questionnaire items. An ‘opposite statement’ highlights which part of the questionnaire item a respondent might attend to, and the mental comparisons they might make before responding. With preliminary data, we discuss the implications of opposite statements for the validity of self-report achievement goal measures. We feel that the implications of this approach may be relevant to the measurement of other social-cognitive constructs used in educational psychology research.

This paper is an overview of a pilot project aimed at improving the mental well-being of young people through outdoor activities and resiliency training for the whole family. The Thurston Family Project was part of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme in a local authority in the north-east of England. At the core of the project was the aim of teaching resiliency skills to the whole family in response to concerns that mental well-being issues in young people were frequently associated with adverse family circumstances. The project, therefore, aimed to address mental wellbeing needs through working with whole families rather than with young people in isolation. An outdoor education centre was chosen as a residential setting for delivering this training in order to provide an opportunity for families to apply resilience skills to challenging activities and to provide a supportive environment for them to explore new experiences and ideas. Evidence from the project evaluation indicated many of the young people reported more positive attitudes towards school and their home environment while their teachers noted reductions in anxiety, less disruptive behaviour at school and higher levels of pro-social behaviours. Parents reported making positive changes in family life and some showed greater engagement with opportunities in the community.

There has been recent interest in the changing profession of educational psychology and the unique contribution it can make within evolving Children’s Services (Cameron, 2006). This paper provides an account of an innovative approach to Educational Psychology Service delivery that has been informed by research regarding effective methods of supporting change and development in educational settings. The account focuses on a development initiative within one West Midlands Primary School. The focus of the project with the school was to develop children’s resilience in relation to learning. It was concluded that although a long-term, collaborative approach to supporting school development was time consuming, it can have a greater impact at a classroom, whole school and community level than traditional training models. Given the high level of resources required for this approach, it would be useful to measure the longer term impact on learning and compare this approach with others in terms of cost effectiveness, particularly within the current economic climate.

In recent years, there has been a sense of methodological unrest in the field of achievement goal research, a prominent theory of achievement motivation. In particular, the predominant use of questionnaires in measuring students’ achievement goals has come under closer scrutiny. Potential methodological weaknesses have included researcher-imposed development and measurement of achievement goal constructs, respondents’ masked misunderstanding of questionnaire items, and a continued potential for demand characteristics. It has been suggested that some of these possible methodological weaknesses can be addressed using interview methods. This paper explores the extent to which using interviews may be able to overcome the challenges posed by questionnaires for measuring students’ goals for studying.

Content and Focus:A brief post-structuralist analysis of recent changes to the criteria for anorexia nervosa in the DSM-5 is presented. These changes are examined in the context of the political and social forces described in existing literature. The main idea that emerges from the analysis is that the creation of diagnostic criteria is a value-driven practice which, in the case of anorexia nervosa, encourages a somatic and controlling clinical approach. A clinical example is then used to illustrate how social and therapeutic discourses might affect therapists and clients in an inpatient setting. A tentative formulation of how post-structuralist theory can be applied in a way which considers how therapist and client are positioned by discourses is also advanced.Conclusion:In the context of the changing diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, it is concluded that poststructuralist theory can be applied usefully for therapists and clients in inpatient settings. This necessitates a degree of reflexive practice which may suit counselling psychologists well. Such an application may also fit in with and improve understanding of existing therapeutic approaches rather than simply deconstructing them.

Content and FocusThis article will discuss phenomenology and phenomenological research methods, and through an exploration, of the case of Empirical Phenomenological Analysis (EPA) will explore the possibility of a phenomenological approach to research through reverie. With regard to the relationship between phenomenology and ‘phenomenological research’, Husserlian phenomenology implies ‘research’, therefore, making the term ‘phenomenological research’ redundant and a misnomer. However, there exists an abundance of ‘phenomenological research methods’, which despite claiming to focus on the lived experienced of the participant, stand contrary to phenomenology in that they are broadly empirical, systematised and psychologise the notion of phenomenology. The case of EPA, which is a phenomenological research method, empirical in nature and mediated in line with ‘scientific practices’ will be discussed in depth. In turn, through the critical analysis of EPA, we see the need for an alternative approach to research, which is apposite with phenomenology’s philosophical aims. As a result, reverie, which includes abstract musings, ruminations and wonderings, will be discussed as an approach to research through phenomenology. It is argued that reverie, contrary to traditional ‘phenomenological research methods’, facilitates access to the participants’ concerns through an attendance to subjective and intersubjective experience in the research process, enabling the relational to emerge in and through research.