Integrating research on the microcounseling program: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Subjected research on Ivey's (1971) microcounseling program to a comprehensive meta-analytic review. A multistage sampling procedure resulted in the identification of 81 admissible studies. Glass's (1976) effect size (ES) statistic was used to estimate average effects for each study and across all studies, and the relation between ES and the sampling distribution of several important methodological and substantive characteristics was assessed. The most conservative overall ES statistic fell in the large-effect category. ESs were influenced differentially by the populations from which the subjects were drawn and by the type of client that subjects interviewed when data for ratings on dependent measures were acquired. There was some evidence that the dependent measures used in microcounseling research are limited, which led to a conclusion that research on the teaching of more complex skills may be delayed. The microcounseling program has made a contribution to counseling training and may have pointed the way to new training models.

Training Counseling Students to Work More Effectively with Short-Term Clients

“…The research conducted so far has focused on evaluating the educational benefits of communication skills training (cf., Baker and Daniels 1989;Baker et al 1990;McLennan 1994) and the impact of discrete counselor behaviors on specific counseling processes (cf., Hill 2001). This research has been primarily of an analogue nature and has not linked delivery of particular counseling skills to validated measures of client improvement.…”

“…Yet though reasonable, research has not yet established the therapeutic benefits of basic attending and listening skills in the context of very short-term counseling. While it is has been demonstrated that basic attending and listening skills can be acquired and even retained by counseling students (e.g., Baker and Daniels 1989;McLennan 1994), little research has attempted to link delivery of these specific skills to validated outcomes with actual clients (e.g., Roffers et al 1988). In fact, nearly all of the studies attesting to the value of very brief therapy (1-3 sessions) are based on solution-focused therapy or some derivative thereof (cf., Bloom 2001;Miller 2008;Perkins and Scarlett 2008;Talmon 1990); models in which problem exploration is explicitly eschewed in favor of quickly working toward solutions to clients' most pressing problems.…”

Choosing Outcome Assessment Devices: An Organizational and Conceptual Scheme

“…Wells, Hawkins, and Catalano (1988), in their review of outcome studies of drug usage, found 25 distinct procedures and measures to assess drug use. And in a related area, Baker and Daniels (1989) reported a meta-analysis of microcounseling programs aimed at changing counselor behavior. In the 81 studies included in the analysis, 82 different dependent measures were used at least once; 72 were used in only one or two studies.…”

La empatía psicoterapéutica y su evaluación : una revisión

“…Desafortunadamente, las revisiones de los últimos 20 años (Alberts y Edelstein, 1990;Baker y Daniels, 1989, 1990Elliott, 2001;Hill y Lent, 2006;Lambert y Barley, 2001), concluyen que: a) la defi nición y mecanismos de la empatía parecen no estar claros (Sexton y Whiston, 1994); b) los resultados de investigación han generado "poco acuerdo entre los investigadores" (Moore, 1990); c) esto se debe a las diferencias teóricas existentes al defi nir la empatía, y a los problemas metodológicos que emergen a la hora de su evaluación (Duan, y Hill, 1996;Bohart et al, 2002).…”