UNC School of Education

>> Galassi, John

John Galassi’s experiences with Dr. Joseph Wolpe, one of the founders of behavioral therapy, kindled his interest in researching the role of assertion and social skills training in effective interpersonal relationships. Other scholarly interests have included test and mathematics anxiety, school counseling, psycho-social aspects of cancer and professional development schools.

The American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society and the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology awarded Galassi Fellow status in honor of his research and scholarly contributions. Based on his scholarly productivity from 1974-1991, Galassi was listed among the top two percent of counseling psychologists. The journal, Current Contents/Social and Behavior Sciences, recognized his article, “The College Self-Expression Scale: A Measure of Assertiveness,” as a citation classic ─ one of the most highly cited articles in the social and behavioral sciences according to data from Social Sciences Citation Index.

Galassi’s current area of research and scholarship, which he has developed with Dr. Patrick Akos, assistant professor in the School Counseling Program, focuses on developmental advocacy, a new conceptual framework for organizing practice and research in school counseling. 

Historically, the models influencing school counseling and counseling/psychotherapy have focused primarily on problem reduction, secondarily on prevention and almost exclusively on the individual rather than the environment.
Developmental advocacy asserts that the counselor is a school leader who works with students, teachers, administrators, parents and other members of the community to build a supportive learning environment which nurtures the development of academic, career and personal/social competence among students while fostering an appreciation of diversity and a commitment to social justice.  Although remediation of deficits and the removal of barriers play a role in the framework, developmental advocates focus on proactive and preventive approaches to help students build skills and enhance the asset-building capacity of the school environment.

Six guiding principles comprise the developmental advocacy framework:

• Promote context-based development for all students;
• Promote strengths-based school counseling;
• Promote strengths-enhancing environments;
• Emphasize strengths promotion over problem reduction and problem prevention;
• Emphasize evidence-based interventions and practice, and
• Emphasize promotion-oriented advocacy at the school level.

Human development is markedly affected by the environmental context in which it occurs.  Developmental research is identifying the strengths (i.e., skills and knowledge) that students need to acquire in order to function as positive, contributing adults and the environments that foster those strengths.  School counselors need to promote and advocate for the development of those strengths and strengths-enhancing environments in their schools using empirically-based practice and the evidence-based interventions that are being identified in school counseling, education, psychology and related fields. Galassi’s current scholarship focuses on developing, researching and extending the application of this new framework to school counseling.