The purpose of this study was to investigate what personality characteristics of counselor-trainees would predict counselor effectiveness and therefore could be considered as valid selection criteria for prospective counselor trainees. Eight post-masters level students in counseling were trained as raters to use an established reasearch instrument, the Carkhuff-Berenson Scales. The fifth scale of the Carkhuff-Berenson Scales, the Gross Facilitative Interpersonal Functioning Scale (GFIFS), was utilized as the criterion of counselor effectiveness. The GFIFS score was obtained by having groups of raters evaluate segments of counselor-client interactions yielding a mean GFIFS score for each subject.The Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) was used as the measure of counselor personality and was administered to 59 American volunteer counselor trainees during the third and fourth weeks of the Spring quarter. These subjects were all enrolled in the Ball State University Master of Arts program in Counseling, in West Germany. Raters rated all counselor-trainees on three, 3-minute client-counselor therapy excerpts from an audio tape recorded the same evening the HIT was administered in a group, slide-presented form. The HIT protocol was scored by an experienced clinician who had no knowledge of the GFIFS scores obtained by the subjects.A Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient and other statistical techniques were utilized attempting to establish a relationship between personality variables and counselor effectiveness. Only two (2) of the 22 HIT variables, Abstract and Popular (Popular in a negative direction), showed a statistically significant correlation with the GFIFS. This was true whether the HIT variables were used singly or in combinations. These two variables are relatively unimportant indicators of personality based on past research and personality theory.A one way analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference between male and female subjects in counselor effectiveness. Female subjects were found to be more effective counselors than male subjects in this study. The males obtained a GFIFS mean score of 1.98 and the females obtained a GFIFS mean score of 2.55. This difference was statistically significant at the .001 level of probability. The HIT variables were examined and it was found that the scores obtained were almost identical for males and females. In examining the relationship between HIT variables and the GFIFS by sex, it was found that two variables, Anatomy and Popular, showed a significantly negative correlation with the GFIFS for males. Anatomy was statistically significant at the .01 level of probability and Popular was statistically significant at the .002 level of probability. The HIT variable Abstract showed a significant positive correlation with the GFIFS for females at the .03 level of probability.Based on the results of this study, the HIT does not appear to be a useful instrument for predicting counselor effectiveness from counselor personality characteristics. The question as to what constitutes an effective counselor may be found in naturalistic, behavioral methods rather than in personality assessment techniques. The highly significant sex difference in counselor effectiveness merits further investigation. Recommendations for further research were made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181558 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Urban, Barbara A. |
| Contributors | Shapiro, Joseph B. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 3, ix, 168 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
Page generated in 0.0101 seconds