Qualitative Assessment: An Approach for Counselors

Qualitative assessment offers the counselor methods of helping clients to know and understand themselves better—methods that are flexible, open-ended, holistic, and nonstatistical. The methods are diverse and include card sorts, simulations, exercises and games, worksamples, and others. Many of the methods may be considered projective in nature and thereby tap values, interests, and needs in ways that standardized tests do not. Because these activities involve the client actively, they can flow directly out of and back into the counseling relationship rather than being a discrete element.     

Students' perceptions of their future professional behavior

Doctoral students from university-based clinical, counseling, and school psychology programs responded to items that asked how willing they would be to engage in various professional activities and the reasons for their choices. The data were factor analyzed; five subscales resulted that were analyzed in a one-way MANOVA. Results indicated similarities between clinical and counseling for therapy and medically related disorders (Subscale 1) and specialized assessments and techniques (Subscale 4); and similarities among all three specialties on academic activities (Subscale 5). Traditional differences were also found: school students were more likely to endorse activities related to children and schools (Subscale 2); whereas counseling students were more likely to endorse activities related to consultation, educational—vocational counseling, and evaluation (Subscale 3). The results support current similarities and historical differences among the specialties and raise questions regarding education of and future career opportunities for psychologists.     

Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology in Portugal: A Political Perspective

In this article, we present an overview of the political context of vocational psychology and career counseling in Portugal. The essence of our position is that career counseling needs to encompass all the major tasks of personal and social development, beyond the traditional focus on primarily vocational/occupational goals. Given the importance of social and political factors that are apparent in an analysis of the Portuguese climate within career development, we propose that vocational psychology must go beyond a conceptualization of vocational behavior and intervention based on a person–environment fit model and must try to enhance strategies for the development of persons in a broader sense. We further propose that we need to provide career counseling not only at critical decision points, but throughout the life-span, and should not focus merely on occupational details, but on all matters of the development of the person as a whole. Finally, we suggest a perspective on career counseling and vocational psychology that is more responsive to our cultural and historical context and which is sensitive to the reality of a new political era in Portugal.     

Application of Projective Tests to Psychotherapy: A Case Study

Case study of a severely disturbed patient seen in psychotherapy in a university counseling center and tested at the beginning and after the termination of therapy. It is concluded that the projective tests proved useful in estimating the extent of pathology prior to therapy and in assessing the degree and direction of change following therapy. Discussion of this patient's projective responses with him during therapy was found to be beneficial, in accord with Richman's views on the reporting of test results to patients. It is suggested that clinical psychologists doing psychotherapy may similarly find projective tests of use to them.     

Leisure Counseling and Consultation

Leisure counseling and consultation is a fairly new counseling specialty that is emerging from the field of recreation and volunteer placement while borrowing heavily from vocational counseling models and techniques. After presenting a brief history of the development of the field, the authors describe a working model of one approach to leisure counseling. The article concludes with a prediction that the field will move from its present focus on leisure alone to an integration of leisure with vocational counseling and planning.     

Personality assessment and counseling psychology

This article examines the place of personality assessment in counseling psychology. Three areas are considered: (a) the types of tests counseling psychologists use, (b) the perspective counseling psychologists apply to the use of tests, and (c) projective techniques and counseling psychology. Each area is examined, and the issues it raises for counseling psychology are presented. Some conclusions about personality assessment practices in counseling psychology are made, and several directions for future training are identified.     

Personality Assessment and Counseling Psychology

This article examines the place of personality assessment in counseling psychology. Three areas are considered: (a) the types of tests counseling psychologists use, (b) the perspective counseling psychologists apply to the use of tests, and (c) projective techniques and counseling psychology. Each area is examined, and the issues it raises for counseling psychology are presented. Some conclusions about personality assessment practices in counseling psychology are made, and several directions for future training are identified.     

Studying the vocational counseling process: A preliminary examination

In this study, we examined the effects of counselor empathic and coping/mastery self-disclosure statements on clients' impressions of an initial vocational counseling interview. A primary purpose of our study was to reconsider one aspect of the investigation of Watkins et al(1990), in which the counselor responses of self-disclosure, self-involvement, empathy and open question were found to have no differential effects on clients' impressions of vocational counseling. Even though we attempted to provide a more specific test of empathy versus self-disclosure responses, we for the most part also obtained a general lack of significance on the dependent variables. In conjunction with Watkins et al.'s findings, we provide some discussion of our results, and their potential meanings for vocational counseling and future vocational counseling research.     

The Interface Between Countertransference and Projective Identification in a Case Presented to Peer Supervision

This case report, presented to a supervision group, is a prenatal genetic counseling casethat caused me a great deal of emotional discomfort as the events unfolded. Thediscomfort originated during my first meeting with the couple for routine preamniocentesiscounseling and continued through later encounters. This case illustrates the process ofworking through countertransference and projective identification issues that may arise ingenetic counseling.     

Self psychology and projective identification—whither shall they meet? a reply to the editors (1995)

The concept of projective identification continues to be viewed as alien, even dangerous, by self psychologists. Six aspects of self‐psychology/intersubjectivity theory are explored in an attempt to understand the presumed incompatibility of self psychology and projective identification: 1) the empathic vantage point; 2) the focus on subjective reality; 3) the emphasis on the analyst's personal contribution; 4) the focus on selfobject experience; 5) the disruption—restoration process; and 6) the defining of transference and countertransference as “organizing activity.”; The self‐psychological/intersubjective concepts that come closest to describing the phenomenon of projective identification—that is, empathic immersion, affect resonance, and reciprocal mutual influence—fail to capture at least three of its essential elements 1) the patient's persistent, unconscious intent to communicate certain unformulated aspects of self through the other; 2) the analyst's sense of being “taken over”; by the patient's experience; and 3) the intensely visceral quality of the analyst's experience. It is argued that self psychology ignores this important form of patient communication to its own detriment and that the concept of projective identification needs to be reformulated in terms that are more experience near to self psychologists. It is suggested that there exists a normal, developmental need, a selfobject need, to communicate intolerable, unsymbolized affective experience through the other's experience—a need that remains more pervasive and intense in some of us than in others—and that the longed‐for selfobject response is to have one's communication received, contained, and given back in such a way that one knows the other has “gotten”; it from the inside out.     

Computer assisted versus traditional vocational counseling with high and low readiness clients

This study tested Hershenson's hypothesis that different vocational counseling methods would be differentially effective for clients at different levels of readiness. The top 54 and bottom 54 high school sophomores from a class of 853 were selected on the basis of their Educational Development Series test scores. Half of each group (highs and lows) received individual counseling; the other half interacted with a computerized vocational information program (CVIS). It was predicted that high readiness subjects would change more with CVIS and lows would change more with counseling. Only the latter prediction was confirmed. The groups did not differ in satisfaction with their posttreatment vocational choices. Findings suggest that individual counseling be emphasized with low readiness clients when both options are available.     

Is vocational assessment training in counseling psychology programs too restricted?

To gather information about vocational assessment training in counseling psychology programs, we surveyed the 64 programs that comprised the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs. A total of 56 (88%) directors returned their questionnaires. The survey data suggest that the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), in comparison to other vocational assessment methods, is taught in far more graduate programs and seemingly is accorded a relatively exclusive place in vocational assessment training. In discussing the results, we acknowledge the psychometric soundness and usability of the SII, lament the fact that students appear to receive limited exposure to other valuable vocational assessment tools during their training, and recommend that greater diversity be incorporated into the vocational assessment training of counseling psychology students.     

The Meaningfulness of Helping Others: Loren Eiseley's “The Star Thrower”

Freud and Klein describe projective processes—projection, projective identification, and the repetition compulsion—that cause interpersonal distortions not only in the psychotherapy relationship but in adult intimate relationships as well. Winnicott's theory of the use of an object describes a way of relating that is free of the distortions of projection, opening up the possibility of differentiation between intimate partners. Two case examples illustrate how addressing projective processes assisted one patient in extricating herself from a psychologically abusive relationship and helped a couple in treatment to move from object relating to object use. It is argued that the use of these psychoanalytic theories has an important role within a modern relational social work practice.     

A challenge to vocational psychology: How important are aspirations in determining male career development?

Nationally representative longitudinal data on 1394 employed white men aged 15 to 24 in 1966 were used to assess whether job opportunities or vocational aspirations are the more important determinants of later job held. Support was found for two hypotheses: (a) men more often achieve congruence between their aspiration and their field of employment by changing aspirations to match the job rather than vice versa; and (b) aspirations for field of work generally are not as useful as actual job field for predicting the field of jobs held 1 to 5 years later. Contrary to expectation, middle-class young men were no more able to attain their aspirations either for field of employment or for status level of occupation than were lower-class male youths. These results suggest that although aspirations have some predictive power, the opportunity structure—which both conditions aspirations to narrow ranges early in life and affects the direction of early career development—is too often neglected by vocational psychology. One suggestion for counseling practice is that interest and maturity assessments be used as sources of information to both client and counselor about past influences. Attempts to actually counteract those influences should be clearly specified as such and separated from the assessment process.     

Effectiveness of the GATB and Counseling Combined: Reducing Vocational Training Dropout Rates

Seventy-three male vocational trainees, aged 16 to 22 years, were assigned to one of two groups. The 36 trainees in Group 1 were assigned to a particular vocational course consistent with their GATB profiles and received 3 or more counseling sessions. The 37 trainees in Group 2 received neither prescreening nor counseling sessions but were assigned to their courses because of personal interest and in order to fill vacancies. A phi coefficient of .69, significant at the .01 level, between the combination preparation procedures (prescreening and counseling) and graduation from vocational course was obtained. Further analysis suggests that the combination of counseling and prescreening may reduce dropout rate to a greater extent than prescreening alone.     

From Here to Eternity Children's Acquisition of Understanding of Projective Size on Television

This study attempts to trace children's acquisition of understanding of projective size (e.g., getting closer to and farther away from an object) as depicted on television through two distinctive techniques—zooming in/out and multiple edits. Unlike previous research in this area, this investigation applied aspects of cognitive processing that have been identified as untapped through gross Piagetian measures—Level 1 and Level 2 knowledge of visual perception (Pillow & Flavell, 1986). Findings suggest that children classified as “preoperational” by Piagetian standards, but possessing Level 1 knowledge of visual perception—the ability to infer what objects can or cannot be seen from another person's viewpoint—are capable of understanding the more simple form of projective size; children possessing Level 2 knowledge—the ability to infer the nature, as well as the content, of another person's visual experience—have a better comprehension of the more complex, edited presentation of projective size. Level of television consumption plays a role in children's acquisition of understanding of television information.     

Evaluating educational—vocational counseling: a model for change

This study sought to assess students' reactions toward their vocational and educational counseling at a university counseling center. Students receiving educational-vocational counseling during the 1968-69 academic year served as subjects whose responses to a 29-item questionnaire were used to determine their reactions to counseling. The majority of clients who were counseled by advanced trainees or doctorate level staff viewed their counseling experience positively. A large percentage of the clients of beginning practicum students viewed their counseling negatively. The findings suggested weaknesses in vocational counseling facilities, in counselors' skills, and in training of beginning practicum students. Implications for change are suggested and the need for assessment in counseling agencies is emphasized.     

Professional Counseling in Romania: An Introduction

The formalization and professionalization processes in Romania resemble the early history of counseling in the United States, where development initially took place in the educational and career/vocational sectors. Brief accounts of the relationship between select periods in Romanian history and access to education and career/vocational support services are presented to provide a context for present‐day counseling activities. Information on the development of counseling in Romania, current practices, and future opportunities are presented as well.     

Psychotherapy in the school

Counseling and psychotherapy are two terms for the same function; there is no essential difference in the nature of the relationship, the process, the methods and techniques, the purposes or goals, or the results. Vocational counseling is not a different kind or level of counseling, requiring less background or preparation. If anything, preparation for vocational counseling requires more time than does preparation for therapeutic or personal counseling—the former includes the latter. Therefore, if counseling has a place in our schools, it cannot be limited to vocational counseling.

It appears that there is a need or place for counseling and counselors in our schools, and that recognition and acceptance of this need is growing. The school has the opportunity, and the responsibility, for providing counseling, broadly conceived, to its students.

The staff member who has been designated as a school counselor appears to be the logical person to provide counseling services. While it is true that in the past the school counselor has not in fact been a counselor, nor adequately prepared to function as a counselor, counseling is presently accepted as the major function of the school counselor, and his preparation is becoming essentially preparation for performing the counseling function. While there are some who resist this trend, it appears to be well established.     

The relation of esteem and vocational counseling to range of incorporation scores

Range of incorporation scores is a potential outcome measure of vocational counseling. Post-test analysis was used to examine the relation of vocational counseling and esteem to 69 Vietnam veterans' ranges of incorporation scores. Measures of esteem and incorporation for eight professions were obtained from 36 veterans who had just completed 10 hr of group counseling and 33 who were just beginning counseling. ANOVA of the ranges of the incorporation scores indicated that high-esteem veterans had higher ranges than low-esteem veterans (p <.05), and suggested that counseled veterans had higher ranges than noncounseled veterans (p ? .10).