A SCALE FOR MEASURING COUNSELLOR GROWTH

The interjudge reliability of a scale for counsellor growth focus was investigated, along with its relationships with scales for the facilitative conditions. Tape recordings of counselling sessions were collected from 15 graduate student therapists and were rated on process scales for empathy, warmth, genuineness, immediacy, self-disclosure and growth focus. Counsellor scores on growth focus correlated highly with scores on all of the other variables. Six counsellors also provided tapes of a number of successive sessions with one of their clients. Correlations of session scores on growth focus with the other variables suggest it might be a useful instrument when counsellors' performances over time are to be studied. Résumé La crédibilité de juges d'une échelle mesurant la capacité du conseiller à se concentrer sur le développement d'une personne fut examinée. On étudia également le rapport entre cette échelle et celles servant à mesurer les conditions favorables. Des bandes enregistrées pendant des séances de consultation tenues par quinze étudiants diplômés thérapeutes furent rassemblées et classées d'après des échelles de processus en ce qui concerne la sympathie, la cordialité, la sincérité, la relation directe intime, la mise à découvert de soi-même et la concentration sur le développement. Les résultats que les conseillers obtinrent pour la concentration sur le développement furent en très grande corrélation avec les résultats pour toutes les autres variables. Six conseillers fournirent aussi les enregistrements d'un certain nombre de séances successives avec un de leurs clients. La corrélation des résultats obtenus pendant les séances de concentration sur le développement avec les autres variables suggère que cela pourrait être un instrument utile lorsqu'on doit étudier les performances du conseiller pendant une certaine période de temps. An increasing number of research eff rts suggest that certain counsellor-offered conditions are related to therapy outcome. Thes facilitative dimensions include the core therapeutic conditions of accurate empathy, non-possessive warmth, and genuineness and more recently studied variables such as immediacy and self disclosure (Bergin, 1966; Carkhuff, 1969; Carkhuff & Berenson, 1967; Truax, 1963, 1970; Truax & Carkhuff, 1967; Truax & Mitchell, 1971). While the evidence is strong that these variables are important to the counselling process, some studies *This paper is based, in part, on a dissertation submitted to Teachers College, Columbia University, 1971, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Éd. D. degree. The author thanks his advisors, Winthrop Adkins, Allen Bergin, John Kinsel and Alan Gurman, as well as colleagues at Dalhousie University for their assistance. Requests for reprints should be addressed to John Barrow, Counselling and Psychological Services Center, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. have not obtained positi e re ationships with o tcome measures (Bergin & Jasper, 1969; Beutler, J hnson, Neville & Workman, 1972). Such contradictory findings seem to necessitate the search for additional counsellor behaviors which contribute to successful outcome. The present study examines the utility of a scale devised to measure one such variable, the counsellor's "growth focus". Counsellor growth focus is defined as the extent to which the counsellor responds to the growth potential of the client rather than to a static concept of the client as "sick" or "weak". Truax and Carkhuff (1967) contend that high levels of the core conditions lead to client improvement; however, it is conceivable that "facilitative" behaviors such as empathie responding can be offered in a way that encourage 60 MEASURING COUNSELLOR GROWTH FOCUS 61 a client to dwell on his inadequacies at the expense of devising and implementing strategies to improve his situation. If a client's expressions of helplessness or pessimism are consistently followed by warm, empathie counsellor responses, he might come to feel that acceptance from the counsellor is contingent upon verbalizations of inadequacies. Krasner (1967) has discussed the reinforcing influence a therapist can have over a client's verbal behavior. Categories of client verbalizations have been successfully reinforced by interviewer responses such as "uhhmm", "yeah" and "I see" (Salzinger & Pisoni, 1958) and by counsellor reflections (Waskow, 1962). In order to assure that the client's confidence and capacity to deal effectively with his environment are increased, the counsellor should reinforce appropriate actions and verbalizations that go beyond the client's baseline of functioning. This is not to suggest that problems or weaknesses should be ignored. However, it is the counsellor's responsibility to structure these in a developmental frame of reference so that possibilities for a healthier future status are recognized and defined. Blocker (1966) has outlined a similar perspective in his concept of developmental counselling. Recent behavior therapy approaches, emphasizing self management techniques, are consistent with the growth focus concept in that the client is aided in developing specific strategies by which he can improve déficiences ( Goldfried, 1971; Goldiamond, 1965). The growth focus variable is supported by evidence that successful counsellors attend more to a client's competence and potential for development than his weaknesses or pathology. Truax's (1966) analysis of one of Roger's successful cases indicated that empathie responses were to some degree offered contingent upon client statements reflecting a positive, problemsolving outlook. Studies by Berenson, Mitchell and Laney (1968), Berenson, Mitchell & Morovec (1968), and Mitchell (1968) add further support to the growth focus concept. Counsellors scoring high on the facilitative scales made more encouragements to action, confrontations of strength and experiential confrontations than did low facilitative counsellors, who in turn made more confrontations of weakness than the high facilitators. If the growth focus variable can be reliably measured, its role in therapy outcome can be evaluated. If it is found to contribute to therapy success, it could be used in counsellor/helper training programs such as those conducted by Carkhuff (1969). The purpose of this study is to explore the utility of the counsellor growth focus scale by assessing its interjudge reliability and determining its independence from some of the facilitative scales (empathy, warmth, genuineness, immediacy and self-disclosure). There are two parts of the study. In the first, a counsellor's performance is represented by an average score on each scale. The results of this part have implications for the usefulness of the growth focus scale when an overall index of a counsellor's performance is desired. In the second part, a counsellor's performance across a number of sessions with the same client is examined. Part II has implications for the usefulness of the scale in activities such as counsellor training and supervision, where counsellor performance over time is the main focus. PART I Method Counsellors and Clients The counsellors in the study were 15 postinternship doctoral students in clinical and counselling psychology at Columbia University (at Columbia the internship is ordinarily taken in the third year of the four year program). All were participating in supervised fourth year practica in individual counselling. Each provided two audiotape recordings of individual counselling sessions. Eight of the counsellors were male; seven, female. Their ages ranged from 24-39. Prior counselling experience ranged from 72 to 250 hours. The clients were late adolescent and adult outpatients (minimum age 15 years) encountering such difficulties as vocational indecision, marital conflicts, social isolation and other interpersonal problems. Instruments The facilitative conditions. The Bergin and Solomon (1963) revision of the Truax Empathy Scale was used to measure counsellor empathy. This revision includes an additional point between levels two and three of the original nine-point scale, making it possible to discriminate more effectively among low-empathy counsellors. The Truax and Carkhuff (1967)