Effects of supervisor style and empathy upon counselor learning.

Abstract

Effects of supervisor style (techniques type and counseling type) and supervisor empathy upon counselor learning of empathy in a supervision analogue were examined. 3 groups of 14 Ss heard 2 sets of recorded client statements and responded as counselors. The 2 experimental groups had 20-minute conferences with supervisors (N = 14) between Sets 1 and 2. The control group received no supervision. An analysis of recorded responses indicated that 8a in the techniques and control groups were higher in the learning of empathy than Ss receiving counseling-oriented supervision. Supervisor perceptions of improvement in their own supervisees showed considerable distortion when compared with ratings by independent judges. Supervisor empathy was not related to counselor learning.

Research on Training Counselors and Clinicians

“…Kelly, 1973;O'Connell, 1974;Payne & Gralinski, 1968;Payne, Weiss, & Knapp, 1972;Payne, Winter, & Ball, 1972;Rappaport et al, 1973;Reddy, 1969aReddy, , 1969bShoemaker, 1973;Stone & Stein, 1978;Toukmanian & Rennie, 1975;Uhlemann, Lea, & Stone, 1976). Conclusions from such studies are not directly generalizable to training actual counselor or clinician trainees.…”

“…Perhaps the former compensates with precision for what it lacks in interpersonal support. Similarly, several studies have demonstrated that a facilitative supervisory relationship alone is not as effective as supervision in which the supervisor focused on providing specific discriminative feedback, instructions, and modeling as well as on conveying a facilitative interpersonal style (Payne & Gralinski, 1968;Payne, Weiss, & Knapp, 1972;Payne, Winter, & Ball, 1972). A facilitative supervisory approach thus appears to be necessary, but not sufficient for effective training.…”

“…"Didactic" training (DT) has been shown to be more effective than "experiential" training (ET), where the former focuses on the skill training processes in IDET and the latter centers on providing a supportive supervisory milieu (Jordan, 1969;Payne & Gralinski, 1968;Payne, Weiss, & Knapp, 1972;Payne, Winter, & Ball, 1972;Rappaport, Gross, & Lepper, 1973;Rye, 1970), unless experiential training is supplemented by modeling plus cueing (Payne, Weiss, & Knapp, 1972) or the training objective is to increase affective sensitivity (Delaney & Heiman, 1966). The key difference between ET and DT appears to be that DT provides systematic discrimination training and communication skill training, but ET, which focuses instead on developing an empathic and supportive supervisory relationship, does not.…”

Gender role and empathy within different orientations of counselling psychology

“…Furthermore, the association between femininity and empathy suggests that these students actually feel more empathy. It has previously been shown that empathy shown in trainees does not relate to supervisors' empathy (Payne & Gralinski, 1968). Thus, it is important for the consistency of therapy that trainees choose their counselling course carefully.…”

Differential supervision and cognitive structure effects on empathy and counseling effectiveness

“…Most of these (Payne and Gralinski, 1968;Birk, 1972;Payne, Weiss and Kapp, 1972;Payne, Winter and Bell, 1972;and Carlson, 1974) have found the didactic to be more effective than the experiential in the learning of empathy. On the other hand, Silverman (1972Silverman ( , 1973 found that the experiential approach was more successful in fostering our affective relationships, as perceived by the counselor trainees and their clients.…”