Competencies Counselor Educators Value

The research described here demonstrates one method for the behavioral definition of competencies desired for graduate students in counseling. Counselor educators were asked to rate the importance of selected student behaviors in their current evaluation of their graduate students. A total of 684 or 45.6% of all full-time counselor educators in Hollis and Wantz's Counselor Education Directory 1974 completed the questionnaire. Ten dimensions emerged from the factor analysis of the data: Personal Development, Research and Professional Activities, Behavioral Strategies in Counseling, Application of Counseling Theory, Class Participation, Relationship Strategies in Counseling, Collaboration, Efficiency, Respect for Individuality, and Flexibility. Counselor educators self-identified with four theoretical orientations differed significantly at the .05 level on their valuing of 8 of the 10 factors. The orientations compared were behavioral, client-centered, eclectic, and humanistic. The analyses of variance also revealed significant differences on five factors among the respondents when the data were analyzed by academic rank.     

Partner support and marital satisfaction: Support amount,adequacy, provision,and solicitation

To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands’ perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands’ provision and wives’ solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.