Paraprofessional Trainees and Counselor Education Students: A Comparison of Personality and Predicted Counseling Effectiveness

Abstract

This study compared 55 counselor education students with 34 junior college students being trained as counseling paraprofessionals, regarding their personality and predicted counseling effectiveness. All members of both groups were enrolled in practicums at their respective institutions. The two groups differed significantly on 8 of 16 personality characteristics as measured by the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. And a higher percentage of the paraprofessionals received lower ratings as determined by a regression equation used to predict counseling effectiveness.

Isolating factors related to paraprofessional effectiveness.

“…Certainly, they were at the upper limits of that group. However, other studies (Wehr & Wittmer, 1973, for example) have included graduate students as paraprofessionals, and our graduate students meet the definition of paraprofessionals given by Delworth (1974) in the issue of the Personnel and Guidance Journal devoted to that topic.…”

The Relationship of Counselor Characteristics and Counseling Effectiveness

“…While the scores on the GRE were unrelated to the CERS, a significant correlation (.41) was found between supervisor ratings on this scale and an index of predicted counseling effectiveness derived from the 16PF specification equation (McClain, 1968). Although, to the best of our knowledge, this combination of predictors from the 16PF has not been crossvalidated, this has not deterred its use in subsequent studies reported below (Shelton, 1973;Wehr & Wittmer, 1973). Myrick, Kelly, and Wittmer (1972) compared the 16PF scores of 40 student counselors who had been rated as either effective or ineffective by supervisors using the CERS.…”

“…These findings correspond somewhat with those of Donnan, Harlan, and Thompson reported (1969) above. Wehr and Wittmer (1973) compared professional and paraprofessional counselor trainees using the 16PF and found significant differences on eight of the 16 dimensions (B, C, G, I, L, M, O, and Q4). They also found that more professional than paraprofessional trainees were predicted to be effective counselors using the 16PF specification equation.…”

Selection and Elimination of Candidates in Counselor Education Programs

“…These can, in part, be assessed through the personal interview and through personal knowledge about the candidates and letters of recommendation. Although some agreement exists among counselor educators (Allen & Whiteley 1968;Carkuff & Berenson 1967;Patterson 1967;Redfering & Biasco, in press;Rogers 1962) that personality characteristics are important in an effective helping relationship, Wehr and Wittmer ( 1973) have found few differences in personality characteristics between effective and noneffective paraprofessionals and counselor trainees. Other selection procedures, such as grade point average (GPA), test scores, undergraduate majors, and attitude measures, have shown varying degrees of predictive validity (Demose & Zuwaylif 1966;Foley & Proff 1965;Jansen, Robb & Bonk 1970;Walton & Sweeney 1969).…”