Effects of practice and some methodological considerations in training counseling interviewing skills.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to relate three areas of research found in the counseling interviewing training literature-the role of practice, the use of modeling procedures, and the evaluation procedures-by extending this research and providing a design for an improved methodology. The independent variables consisted of two experimental training conditions and two experimental modes of modeling presentations. Subjects were randomly assigned to the following five training conditions: (a) audiovisual model followed by practice; (b) audiovisual model followed by no practice; (c) written model followed by practice; (d) written model followed by no practice; and (e) a comparison training group. Four categories of outcome measures were used in the evaluation procedures. The results reveal that the frequencies for both the total use and total preferred use of interviewing skills were significantly higher for subjects in the practice training condition than in the no-practice training condition, regardless of the model. The effects of the research methodologies currently in use are discussed in light of the results of this study.

A Critical Reexamination of the Practice Component in Counselor Training

“…The five studies that were reviewed present serious methodological limitations. Two of the studies (O'Toole, 1979;Stone & Vance, 1976) confounded practice effects with those of a feedback component. Studies reported by Stone (1975) and Bailey and others (1977) include serious design limitations relative to the practice condition.…”

“…Froehle (1979) similarly indicates that "the long standing belief that role play practice is an effective training procedure" is not based on empirical investigation and that the assumption that role-play practice is universally effective in training must not go unchallenged (p. 11). A current literature review has confirmed the fact that only a handful of studies (Bailey, Deardorff, & Nay, 1977;O'Toole, 1979;Peters, Cormier, & Cormier, 1978;Stone, 1975;Stone & Vance, 1976) have systematically investigated the effects of a practice component, and there is virtually no evidence in the literature of the relative effects of different variations of practice.…”

The added impact of parenting education in early childhood education programs: A meta-analysis

“…According to social learning theory, observing a particular behavior creates a mental representation of the behavior to support retention, which can then be entered into one's behavioral repertoire through practice. Although much of the evidence supporting social learning theory focused on evidence of imitative learning in children, later studies with adults have shown that modeling and practice of behavior can be more effective in changing a wide range of behaviors than training methods without any modeling or practice (Bandura, Blanchard, & Ritter, 1969;Haguenauer et al, 2005;O'Toole, 1979;Brown et al, 2004).…”

The Effects of Rehearsal Group Size and Video Feedback in Behavior Modeling Training

“…Because of the effectiveness and popularity of behavior modeling, there is an emerging literature aimed at refining the modeling process. Research has been carried out to evaluate the process (Latham and Saari, 1979;Fyffe Copyright 6 1983 Personnel Psychology, Inc. 763 and Oei, 1979;O'Toole, 1979), compare the relative efficacy of the components of the process (Lira, Nay, McCullough, and Etkin, 1975;McFall and Twentyman, 1973), and to improve the individual components (Decker, 1980(Decker, , 1982Zempke, 1982). The research reported here is a continuation of the latter research effort: an examination of possible methods to enhance the behavioral rehearsal and social reinforcement components of behavior modeling training.…”