Professionals must recognize that skill domains that go well beyond the usual intellective and cognitive professional-technical skill domain are vital to effective practice but are believed less possible and less appropriate to teach and evaluate. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the perceptual characteristics of counselors at the elementary, secondary, and community college levels. Counselors (N=45) were asked to write "human relations incidents." There were no significant differences between groups. All counselors held positive perceptual characteristics. (NG)

This paper describes the current status of a helping skills program designed to train mental health paraprofessionals in relationship-building skills. Six skills were identified as the basis of the training program: (1) understanding the need to be a helper; (2) using effective nonverbal behavior; (3) using effective verbal behavior; (4) using…

A trait measure of empathy, a skill measure of empathy and an attitude scale on psychological effectiveness were administered to both counselor trainees and "natural helpers", i.e. persons in helping relationships who have not been formally trained as mental health professionals or paraprofessionals. The results indicated that the…

Moderately retarded institutionalized residents received 10 weeks of structured group counseling focused on five areas of social and personal adjustment. Results showed that in each of the above variables, the experimental group showed a greater mean score than that of the control group. (Author)

Retention of verbal helping skills by human service worker trainees who had completed the Danish and Hauer (1973) training program earlier was explored. Trainees (N = 26) engaged in three helping interviews--before training, immediately following training, and seven months later. High skill levels at posttraining were generally not maintained at…

Examined type of situation and sex of the counselor in assertive training. Female subjects were given training in making complaints, small talk, and saying no to unreasonable requests. Significant improvement occurred. Subjects seen by a male counselor changed significantly more than subjects seen by a female counselor. (Author)

Subjects (N=26) from a drug-abuse treatment program were randomly assigned to a workshop that stressed behavioral interview skills, or to a control group that received no treatment. A six-month follow-up of subjects showed no attitudinal differences between the two groups. Alternative explanations of results were discussed and future research…

It was hypothesized that structured training would cause an increase in the ability to discriminate helpful counseling conditions and a shift toward the internality dimension of locus of control. Results indicate that changes in counseling skill and personality orientation may be effected in very brief but structured training programs. (Author/PC)

A Microcounseling Skill Discrimination Scale (MSDS) was developed to measure ability to discriminate between effective and ineffective verbal and nonverbal helping messages. Both trained and naive groups successfully discriminated between effective and ineffective verbal and nonverbal helping messages, with trained raters showing a greater range…

Frequency measures were based on the first 30 minutes of audiotaped interviews with clients, taken at the end of prepracticum, during practicum, and at least three months after training. Data indicate males make more responses overall than do females. Training of specific skills is affirmed. (Author)

This study determined the effects of using structured learning techniques to train lower socioeconomic emotionally disturbed children and adolescents (N=40) in verbal behaviors. Posttraining results indicated significant effects for the experimental treatment on subject acquisition of interview initiation and interview responsibility. (Author)

When compared with a group of clients who had received work adjustment services and a placebo treatment (personal hygiene training), experimental clients given Personal Achievement Skills (PAS) and work adjustment services reported greater gains on self-ratings of life perspective (optimism), work-related attitudes, and goal attainment. (Author)

The development of a classification system for analysis of specific verbal marital communications utilizing videotaped Stimulus-Modeling procedures is described. Findings reveal specific marital verbal behaviors can be operationalized and reliably measured. The results indicate the need to combine modern technology with modeling procedures in…

This investigation explored the relationship between helping and training as experimental main effects. Subjects (N=53) were randomly assigned to four experimental groups. The results for the experimental main effects are discussed in relationship to self-concept change, helper-communication functioning, and helper-discrimination functioning.…