Examination of a Group Counseling Model of Career Decision Making With College Students

The authors examined the effectiveness of a group career counseling model (Pyle, 2007 ) on college students’ career decision‐making abilities. They used a Solomon 4‐group design and found that students who participated in the career counseling groups had significantly greater increases in career decision‐making abilities than those who did not participate in the groups. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

Relationship of a Group Counseling Course,Hours in Counselor Education,and Sex to Empathic Understanding of Counselor Trainees

This study investigated the relationship of a graduate course in group counseling, the number of hours completed in counselor education, and sex to the empathic understanding of trainees in a counselor education program. The trainees were taped in similar counseling sessions, and their responses were rated independently by three counselor educators, who used Carkhuff's empathic understanding scale. A three-way analysis of variance determined only one significant difference. The trainees who had completed a course in group counseling were significantly higher (p <.05) than those who had not. The level of empathic understanding of the higher group, however, was less than the level considered to be the minimum for effective counseling.     

Which juvenile crime victims get mental health treatment?

OBJECTIVE: To explore factors that facilitate the receipt of mental health treatment among juvenile crime victims. METHOD: Telephone interviews were conducted with a national sample of 157 caretakers whose children had suffered a serious sexual or physical assault in the previous year. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of caretakers had thought about getting professional counseling for their child victims, and 20% of the child victims actually received it. But half of the families who thought about it did not follow through on their consideration. Moreover, nearly half of those victimized children who actually received counseling did so without their families reporting that they had considered it in advance. The level of symptoms and parent-child relationship factors were related to considering counseling which was in turn strongly related to actually getting counseling. Other factors were independently related to receiving counseling, such as the victimization occurring at school and the victim being perceived as at fault to some degree. Advice to get counseling and medical insurance also played roles. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested two pathways to counseling. One occurred via direct parental concern, and was associated with such variables as parental perceptions that the child was depressed or withdrawn or that the parent-child relationship had been negatively affected. The other pathway occurred independent of parental concern, most likely via school interventions, because this counseling was in conjunction with school victimizations.     

Effects of Tape-Recording & Supervisory Evaluation on Counselor Trainee Anxiety Levels

Fifty-three in-service employment and rehabilitation counselors, enrolled in supervised counseling practica, participated in a study to assess their subjective and physiological anxiety responses to counseling under different stimulus conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: a counseling session, a counseling session that was tape-recorded, a counseling session that was tape-recorded and evaluated by their supervisor, and a control condition in which participants read an article on counseling. Results of the 4 treatment conditions × 3 period analyses of variance for subjective (p <.001) and conductance data (p <.05) indicated that participants who counseled had higher anxiety levels than those who read the article. There was no treatment effect found for heart rate data. None of the counseling groups experienced significantly more anxiety than any of the others. It was concluded that tape-recording and supervisory evaluation do not increase the anxiety levels of participants over the levels experienced while counseling without recording and/or evaluation.     

Using Personal Growth Groups in Multicultural Counseling Courses to Foster Students' Ethnic Identity Development

This study was designed to examine the relationship between personal growth group (PGG) experiences in multicultural counseling courses and counseling students' ethnic identity development. Differences in ethnic identity development were compared between counseling students who participated in a PGG experience as part of a multicultural counseling course and those who did not. Group session impacts were also examined. Results indicated that counseling students who participated in PGGs as part of a multicultural counseling course experienced significantly greater ethnic identity development than did counseling students not participating in such groups. Recommendations for further research are provided.     

The Role of Counseling Services for Students in Academic Jeopardy: A Preliminary Study

This study examined the impact of an academic counseling approach implemented by counseling center staff for students in academic jeopardy. Participants were 414 undergraduate students placed on academic warning and probation. Students who participated in counseling demonstrated significantly greater increases in grade point average than did students who had not received counseling.     

Counseling on Campus: Client Persistence and Progress

Two related studies addressed college students' persistence and progress in psychotherapy. In Study 1, using emotional health variables assessed at intake, students who persisted in counseling and demonstrated clinical improvement were compared with those who either did not return for their first session or who did return but stopped before improvement. Findings showed that those counseling completers, compared with the other two groups, reported at intake significantly higher levels of confidence that therapy will help, degree of well-being, and levels of life functioning. Study 2, focusing on students who received at least eight counseling sessions, found improvement on variables reflecting distress and life functioning, with students who rated themselves highly distressed at intake reporting the most benefit. The findings suggest approaches to improve realistic expectations for and engagement in counseling.     

Skills‐Based Training and Counseling Self‐Efficacy

The authors studied the effectiveness of the skilled counselor training model (SCTM). Counseling students who completed the SCTM demonstrated greater gains in skills acquisition and counseling self‐efficacy than counseling students who did not receive the training. At pretest, the counseling students in both groups, doing self‐appraisals, rated their performance of counseling skills significantly higher than trained raters assessed the students' performance of counseling skills. At posttest, members of the control group continued to overestimate their skills levels when compared with the ratings given by the trained raters, whereas, in comparison, students who received SCTM training underestimated their performance.     

The Acceptability of Therapist-Assisted,Internet-Delivered Treatment for College Students

University and college counseling centers struggle with rising service demands without a corresponding increase in resources. Consequently, counseling centers must seek creative ways to not only maintain the status quo, but expand capacity while preserving effectiveness. In other countries, therapist-assisted, Internet-delivered treatment has been effective in treating several common disorders while conserving one third to one half the per client therapist time, suggesting that Therapist-Assisted Internet Based Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (TAI-CBT) could be an alternative treatment option offered through counseling centers in the United States and one possible solution to increase the number of students effectively treated per therapist hour for certain students seeking services. In this study, 334 students were surveyed to assess the acceptability of this mode of treatment; 217 of these students were currently in counseling or had received counseling in the past. TAI-CBT was endorsed by 34% of the students with past counseling and 16% of the students with no history of receiving counseling. These proportions were comparable to the rates for those who expressed interest in group therapy, which is commonly offered in counseling centers.     

Counselor Candidates and Graduate Students in Education: A Comparison of Characteristics

46 graduate students who had indicated that their major interest was teaching were compared with 47 graduate students who had indicated that their major interest was counseling. All subjects were given five scales as part of their course work in educational tests and measurements. These scales yielded 32 subtests on which comparisons between the groups were made. The groups differed on six of the subtests. Three of the variables on which the groups differed were interest measures. A further comparison was made between the counselor candidates who had a practicum and those who had not. Little difference was found between these groups on the variables investigated.     

Review of school counseling outcome research

This article is somewhat unique in this special issue as it focuses on the effectiveness of an array of school counseling interventions and not solely on individual and group counseling. In summarizing the school counseling outcome literature, the authors found that students who participated in school counseling interventions tended to score on various outcome measures about a third of a standard deviation above those who did not receive the interventions. School counseling interventions produced quite large effect sizes in the areas of discipline, problem solving, and increasing career knowledge. The effect sizes were smaller, but significant, related to school counseling interventions' impact on academic achievement. Surprisingly little school counseling research was found related to individual counseling. Concerning guidance curriculum, small groups were more effective than interventions that involved entire classrooms. Furthermore, outcome research reflects that group counseling can be effective with students who are experiencing problems and difficulties. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Testing the Intercultural Model of Ethical Decision Making With Counselor Trainees

A training intervention using the Intercultural Model of Ethical Decision Making was tested with a sample of 48 counselor trainees enrolled in 3 counseling courses across 2 universities. Postintervention data indicated students' scores increased significantly on 5 of 6 evaluation criteria as well as on the overall total score. Although pretest scores were significantly different between students who had taken a multicultural course and those who had not, there was no posttest difference. Implications and suggestions for future training and research are discussed.     

Sex and Order of Counseling Effects on Paired Role-Play Practice

In this study the effects of order of counseling and sex within counseling pairs were analyzed. A total of 51 graduate students, 35 women and 16 men, from introductory counseling classes were randomly assigned, according to their sex, to two levels of sex pairing and ordinal position. Multivariate analyses of variance and analyses of variance indicated that same sex or opposite sex pairing and ordinal position did not influence performances. Women, however, produced more reflection-of-feeling responses, and their responses tended to be more accurate than those of men. Also, women in ordinal Position 2 who had male partners in Position 1 outperformed women paired with women in Position 1. Results are discussed in reference to literature on modeling, sex differences, and role-play practice.     

An investigation of the college and career counseling needs of economically disadvantaged,minority gifted students

This study is an investigation of the college and career counseling needs of economically disadvantaged, academically gifted minority students. Two groups of students were studied and compared ‐ one group of 50 low‐income students, predominantly minority, who were chosen for a special college counseling program, and a second group of 42 middle to high income students, predominantly Asian and Caucasian, who were participating in a summer academic program. Students were compared on college plans and preparations, aspirations and expectations about higher education, support from others, motivation, values, and career interests and maturity. Results showed that the gifted disadvantaged students had lower educational aspirations, felt somewhat less prepared for college and less confident about being admitted, had unrealistic ideas about how to finance college, and perceived that college life would be more frightening and lonely compared to nondisadvantaged students. Student groups were similar in motivation to attend college, support from significant others and values. Disadvantaged students had better skills related to selecting a career but expressed less confidence in making a career decision. The results suggest a need for differentiated college counseling programs for disadvantaged minority students.     

心理学与非心理学专业大学生职业伦理意识比较

为了研究我国当前心理学与非心理学专业大学生的心理咨询职业伦理意识现状,研究采用钱铭怡等人根据美国咨询协会ACA伦理规范自编的职业伦理意识和态度问卷对新疆师范大学、石河子大学共639名心理学与非心理学专业大学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)心理学与非心理学专业大学生在22个条目评判上有显著差异,其中涉及咨询关系原则3条,保密性原则4条,职业责任原则7条,评估、测量和解释原则5条,督导、培训和教学原则1条,另外两条为询问被调查者是否认为有必要在中国制定此领域的职业伦理以及目前是否适宜在中国制定此领域的职业伦理;(2)不同性别的心理学与非心理学专业大学生在部分条目上存在显著差异。     

Effects of Empathy,Warmth, and Genuineness in the Initial Counseling Interview

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if levels of accurate empathy, nonpossessive warmth, and genuineness provided by counselors in the initial counseling interview had continuing or terminating effects for normal persons, compared to the effects found with severe chronic schizophrenics. The results indicated that empathy ratings for continuing clients was significantly higher than for those who left.     

The Impact of Prior Counseling on Predictors of College Counseling Center Use

Path analyses revealed that one's tendency to conceal distressing information, social support, psychological distress, and attitudes toward seeking help predicted intended use of counseling services for college students who had and had not previously been in counseling. Prospective analyses revealed that attitudes toward seeking help predicted actual use of the campus counseling center. These findings have implications for campus outreach programs and in‐session work with clients.     

The Skilled Counselor Training Model: Skills Acquisition,Self‐Assessment,and Cognitive Complexity

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of the Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM; M. H. Smaby, C. D. Maddux, E. Torres‐Rivera, & R. Zimmick, 1999) in teaching counseling skills and in fostering counselor cognitive complexity. Counselor trainees who completed the SCTM had better counseling skills and higher levels of cognitive complexity than did counselor trainees who did not receive the training. Before training, both experimental and control group participants overestimated their skills performance. The control group persisted in this overestimation after training, whereas students who completed the SCTM had a much more accurate self‐assessment. Results suggest that skills‐based training may improve counseling skills and cognitive complexity in counselor trainees.     

Experiences of HIV/AIDS Counselors in Zimbabwe and Their Perceptions on the State of HIV/AIDS Counseling in Zimbabwe

This study investigated Zimbabwean counselors' experiences of providing HIV/AIDS counseling and their perceptions about the state of HIV/AIDS counseling in Zimbabwe. The participants were a diverse group of counselors, 30 through 59 years of age, who provided counseling services to HIV/AIDS clients. Participants thought HIV/AIDS counselors in Zimbabwe received minimal support and supervision and were undertrained. They identified that the first sessions with clients were the most difficult. They also found it problematic to work with couples who were serodiscordant (one partner who is HIV positive and the other HIV negative) and couples wanting children. The later stages of the counseling process were also found to be challenging. Though the participants acknowledged they had negative psychological experiences when counseling HIV/AIDS clients, they also expressed feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment in their work.     

思想政治教育深度辅导PR—CSW方法谈

对于深度辅导工作的重要性和必要性认识形成统一认识后,如何将此项工作与实际工作相结合,凸显针对性、有效性,避免盲目性、过度性是所有学生工作者都必须认真面对的问题。如何开展此项工作已经上升到方法论的层面。