Self reference in counseling interviews.

Abstract

SUCCESSFUL counseling or psycho-^D therapy implies that changes take place in the personality of the client or patient. The problem of the psychologist who seeks to analyze conscious, deliberate attempts to alter behavior in a clinical situation, lies essentially in determining specifically what changes take place during treatment and what conditions are necessary to produce them. Many things have been suggested as "essential changes" but so far there is almost a complete dearth of reliable evidence, aside from clinical interpretations, to bolster the constructs which have been advanced. Among the terms in common use which supposedly define such changes are release of feelings or tensions, emotional re-education, making the unconscious conscious, modifying responses, reorganization or reintegration of personality, modification of goals or pathways to goals, etc.Such terms are so schematic, so indefinite or so circular that the very existence of the psychological events to which they refer cannot be determined by objective measures or else every event considered fits the theory. Changes in "needs" or in "attitudes" or in "traits" have also been suggested as occurring in therapeutic situations as well as in normal personality development. So far there has been little systematic J A condensation of a portion of a Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the Ohio State University in 1943. Acknowledgments are gratefully made to Professors

Chapter V: Counseling and Adjustment

“…Further, it is possible, thru the analysis of the client's comments regarding himself, to predict with reason able accuracy how this individual will react to the counseling process (13). The psychological literature is rich with evidence of the manifestations of self-concept and its implications for possible interpersonal relationships in counseling and readiness for counseling (6,13,49,76,81,94).…”

“…Reduction in anxiety, the common denominator of emotional maladjustment, has been utilized as an indication of progress by a number of investigators (31, 43,54,76). Methods of assessing the degree of anxiety evidenced by a client vary from mere counts of nouns and pronouns used in the interview to complex analyses of large segments such as sentences or clauses.…”

Indirect Methods of Assessing Personality1

“…Among the possible methods of assessing change is an examination of the content of patient interviews. Raimy (1948) proposed one of the earliest content analysis schemes. Patients' statements about themselves were classified as positive, negative, ambivalent, or ambiguous.…”

Follow‐up of a classroom program for potential high school dropouts

“…All responses were then subdivided into single idea statements, coded, and categorized for both students' t and content analysis (Guilford, 1956). Coded response statements to each question were rated into predefined categories by three graduate students, following techniques used by Shearer (1947), Stock (1949), and Raimy (1948). A positive, negative, or ambivalent rating was also made for each statement.…”