The Staffing Conference: An Approach to Student Evaluation

In an attempt to confront the problem of student evaluation, the staffing conference was developed as a quality control mechanism to monitor the student's progress through the program. This article describes the structure and process of the staffing conference and discusses some of the resulting benefits that have accrued to staff, students, and the counseling program as a whole.     

COMMENT ON "FLUENCY AS A PERVASIVE ELEMENT IN THE MEASUREMENT OF CREATIVITY"

Clark and Mirels reported a "correction procedure" for fluency in scoring figural divergent thinking measures, which resulted in a reduction from .40 to .20 in the average inter-correlation of scores excluding fluency. Since their correction involved shortening the test, at least part of the reduction of the inter-correlations can be explained by the reduced reliability of the test. Estimates of the magnitude of this effect were provided. It was concluded that the "correction" reported is at best a partial correction, and that the potential merit of other procedures should be considered.     

Counseling Effectiveness and Trainee Helping Qualities: Another View

This study addresses the importance of client satisfaction as an index of counseling effectiveness and also examines the relationship between trainee personality characteristics and supervisor ratings of trainee performance. Results indicated that a significant inverse relationship existed between trainee levels of self-acceptance and client's ratings of counseling satisfaction. Supervisor's ratings of the trainee's performance and progress in supervision were also inversely related to trainee levels of self-acceptance. Agreement was found between supervisor's ratings of trainee performance and client satisfaction with counseling. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of counselor training programs and future research designs.     

Development and Preliminary Validation of an Instrument To Measure Cognitive Growth

This study deals with the design and pilot validation of an instrument to measure cognitive growth during counseling supervision. An instrument was designed to reflect issues and concepts frequently addressed in supervisory sessions. This instrument, called the Counselor Perception Questionnaire (CPQ), is based on responses to videotaped counseling interview material. The CPQ yields two scores, a Differentiation score (D) and an Integration score (I). Scorer reliabilities were computed using independent scorers, and a convergent and a discriminant validity study was done. Administration of the instrument to samples of master's degree students and experienced counseling psychologists with PhD degrees showed that the D score differentiated between the two groups at a statistically significant level. The potential usefulness of this kind of instrument is briefly discussed in terms of developmental approaches to supervision.     

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire as a Predictor of Counselor Effectiveness

This study examined the usefulness of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire in differentiating characteristics of counselors who were rated effective and ineffective. Eight of the factors achieved significance in distinguishing between these groups. Only two factors were found to differentiate male and female counselors (p < .10).