Conditioning and transfer of affective self-references in a role-played counseling interview.

Abstract

The differential effects of five forms of therapylike intervention (Um-Hmm, Echoic, Paraphrasic, combined Um-Hmm-Echoic, and combined Um-Hmm-Paraphrasic) in the conditioning and transfer of affective self-references (ASRs) were tested in a 40-minute role-played initial counseling interview. The 5s were 72 female student volunteers. Conditioning of ASRs and transfer to a TAT story telling task were found, although hypothesized relationships between discriminative cue potency of the interventions and performance were only partially supported. An explanation involving the presumed interaction of S awareness of her own self-disclosures with intervention type, degree of threat, and conditioning performance was proposed.a This paper is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati under the direction of Leonard D. Goodstein, whose help is gratefully acknowledged.'Requests for reprints should be sent to Robert

Determining the effects of three counselor verbal responses on client verbal behavior.

“…sponses (Crowley, 1970;Hackney, 1969;Hoffnung, 1969;Kennedy & Zimmer, 1968;Merbaum, 1963;Merbaum & Southwell, 1965;Pepyne, 1968; J. M. Rogers, 1960;Salzinger, 1960;Waskow, 1962). This research supports the training of counselors to produce verbal discriminative responses in systematic and contingent ways.…”

Effects of reflection, restatement, probe, and nonverbal behaviors on client affect.

“…Several analogue studies have attempted to determine those counselor behaviors that produce greater discussion of feelings. Minimal verbal stimuli, such as "mm hmm," "go on," and "I see," when applied contingently immediately after the client's expression of feeling, have been found to be effective reinforcers of affect (Hoffnung, 1969;Kennedy & Zimnier, 1968;Rogers, 1960;Salzinger & Pizoni, 1960). Although these minimal verbal stimuli do occur during real counseling sessions, they are not representative of all the responses a counselor makes.…”

“…Other studies have found conflicting results for the effects of more complex, noncontingent counselor statements, the most common of which are reflections, restatements, and probes. Some studies that measured reflection of feelings found increases in affect (Hoffnung, 1969;Merbaum, 1963;Merbaum & Southwell, 1965), whereas others found no increases (Barnabei, Cormier, & Nye, 1974;Waskow, 1962). Simi-This research was supported by a General Research Board grant from the University of Maryland.…”

“…Requests for reprints should be sent to Clara E. Hill, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742. larly for restatements (paraphrase of content), some studies reported increases in affect (Hoffnung, 1969;Kennedy & Zimmer, 1968), whereas others did not (Auerswald, 1974;Waskow, 1962). The only study that measured probes (defined broadly as any questions) found no superiority of probes to reflections, confrontations, or unspecified responding (Barnabei etal., 1974).…”

Training of Support Personnel in Three Human Relations Skills: A Systematic One‐Year Follow‐Up

“…In short, the counselor's use of reflection of feeling as a discriminative stimulus must result in certain predefined and desirable effects on client behavior. The likelihood that such responses emitted by the counselor do produce changes in client behavior within the interview has been demonstrated quite well in the verbal conditioning literature (Hoffnung, 1969;Kennedy & Zimmer, 1968). The question that remains unanswered is, What maintains the counselor's behavior?…”