THE EFFECTS OF OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING AND PRACTICE VARIABLES ON TRAINING BEGINNING COUNSELORS BASIC SKILLS OF INTERVIEWING

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative effects of three variations of the microcounseling paradigm developed by Ivey (1971) on beginning counselors' performance of basic interviewing skills. In order to assess the effects of observational learning and practice variables, the following questions were formulated: (1) Are microcounseling procedures more effective than traditional classroom instructional methods for training beginning counselors basic interviewing skills? (2) Is mental rehearsal as effective as overt practice for subjects to learn basic interviewing skills? (3) Is observational learning as effective in training subjects to perform verbal and non-verbal basic interviewing skills?;To seek answers to these questions, the standard microcounseling paradigm was adjusted to compare vicarious reinforcement and direct reinforcement procedures in one group and mental rehearsal and overt practice in a second group. Ten dependent variables were identified which were behaviorally measured; five dependent variables were verbal and the other five were non-verbal. The five verbal dependent variables were microcounseling responses named interruptions, open-ended, closed-ended, speech frequency, and speech duration. The five non-verbal responses were eye contact breaks, arm/hand movements, head nods, smiles, and minimal encourages.;The experimental design used for this study was a completely randomized, "post test only" design. The subjects for the study were masters degree candidates in counseling at Indiana University. They were randomly assigned to one of three treatment and two control groups having equal cell frequencies. The treatment groups were labeled overt practice (rehearsal of the interviewing skills in presence of active trainer), mental practice (rehearsal of the interviewing skills through mental participation only in the learning process), and observation (rehearsal of interviewing skills through witnessing trainer reinforcement of other learners' behavior). There were two control groups--an active control group who participated in traditional instruction of interviewing skills and an inactive control group who did not participate in any instruction. Subjects in all five groups interviewed a coached client for ten minutes and their videotaped performance on the ten dependent variables was rated. Interreliability estimates on mean rating for all raters were high and ranged from .9281 to .9998. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed on the ten dependent variables to determine the effects of the experimental conditions on them. The differences among the five groups were not statistically significant with Wilk's lambda = .22910, F = .83457 (40, 89 D.F.), and level of significance = .73462. Although the differences among groups were not statistically significant, there were differences in cell means between groups on some of the dependent variables. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school) UMI.