Couples therapy with gay and lesbian clients: an analysis of important clinical issues.

This article reviews and critiques couples therapy research that has focused on gay and lesbian relationships. In conducting our examination, we felt that it was imperative to address the sociopolitical climate that affects same-sex couples and that historically impeded this area of research. Upon addressing the therapist's role and comparing heterosexual relationships to same-sex relationships, this article presents the theoretical formulations and empirical findings that have informed gay and lesbian couples therapy research. We also present limitations of the current literature and suggestions for future research.

Predictors of graduate student attitudes toward prescription privileges for psychologists.

The issue of gaining prescription privileges and its potential impact on the field of clinical psychology has special relevance for graduate students. This study was designed to investigate clinical graduate students' attitudes toward prescription authority, identify salient variables that contribute to these attitudes, and ascertain preferred models of training. Only 42.5% of respondents personally desired to obtain prescription privilege, although 61.8% of respondents favored efforts of the American Psychological Association to acquire prescription authority. Proponents and opponents were compared on their ratings of positive and negative aspects of the debate. There was strong agreement that the training should not be predoctoral and that it should lead to board certification. The strongest predictors of graduate students' attitudes were concerns about fundamental change to the field, malpractice premiums, and whether they considered it a logical extension of the field. This study provides a framework for understanding important factors influencing the decision-making process among clinical psychology graduate students.

Minority women and alcohol use.

Women's drinking patterns are influenced by the cultural norms and practices of the ethnic groups to which they belong, in addition to other environmental and biological factors. This article examines the drinking behavior of women from the four largest non-European ethnic groups in the United States, addressing a specific variable in relation to each group: religious activity among African American women; the facial flushing response in Asian American women; the level of acculturation to U.S. society among Latinas; and historical, social, and policy variables unique to American Indian women. Although little research to date has focused on minority women and alcohol, the current state of knowledge in this area provides a starting point from which to view commonalities among groups as well as the many sources of heterogeneity within and between them.