Research Design in Counseling

Dr. P. Paul Heppner (Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln) holds a Curators Distinguished Professorship -- the highest distinction -- at the University of Missouri and is Director of the Coalition for Cultural Competencies, an organization he co-founded in 1998. He has published over 200 articles/book chapters as well as nine books, made hundreds of presentations at national conferences, and delivered over 100 invited keynotes/presentations in 14 countries. His primary area of research focuses around the role of coping with stressful life events across different cultural contexts. Dr. Heppner is the recipient of three Fulbright awards (Sweden, Ireland, and Taiwan), a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Divisions 17, 45, and 52), and a Fellow in the American Psychological Society. He has served on several national and international editorial boards, including serving as Editor of The Counseling Psychologist. In 2005-2006 he served as President of the Society of Counseling Psychology; in 2009 he received the Leona Tyler Award, the Society's highest award. He is also the recipient of numerous other awards for his leadership, research, teaching, mentoring, international work, and promotion of diversity and social justice issues. Dr. Bruce E. Wampold (Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara) joined the University of Wisconsin, Madison faculty in 1991. He has been a faculty member and Director of Training in the counseling programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Utah, and the University of Oregon. Dr. Wampold's primary interest centers on understanding psychotherapy from empirical, historical, and anthropological perspectives. He has published methodological and substantive articles on how the research on counseling and psychotherapy converges on a contextual model of psychotherapy. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a Diplomate in Counseling Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. Dennis M. Kivlighan, Jr., is the Chair of the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University of Maryland College of Education. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Society of Counseling Psychology, Division of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy), a two-time recipient of the Research Award from the Association for Specialist in Group Work, and the current editor of GROUP DYNAMICS: THEORY, RESEARCH, AND PRACTIVE. His research interests include examining the process and outcome of group and individual counseling and psychotherapy and using counseling interventions to influence achievement goals and academic achievement. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University.