Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1977

Thesis Director

Paul D. Overton

Abstract

An effective counselor has cognitive mastery of theory, appropriate interpersonal and communication skills, and a degree of self-knowledge sufficient to allow open, honest, non-judgmental interactions with clients. It is the last criterion, implying the importance of self-awareness, which many counselors have to struggle with in the course of their training.

Self-knowledge, in fact, may be the most energizing force in effective counseling. (Rogers, 1961) To function fully and freely in counselor-client relationships requires that the counselor is willing to explore and learn about matters that frigation, inhibit and stifle himself. Growing awareness of self involves a counselor-trainee's coming to terms with feelings about critical issues, highly charged with affective content, which arise in counselor-client relationships.

The design and implementation of the study was based on the following assumptions: (1) that all counselors-in-training hold personalized feelings and attitudes (bias) both conscious and unconscious, concerning issues pertinent to counselor education, (2) that the holding of such bias is true of the issues of trial marriage, interracial intimacy, unwed pregnancy, veneral disease, death, abortion, lesbianism, suicide, seduction and homosexuality, (3) that the holding of an unrecognized bias about these above mentioned issues heightens anxiety, impeding the counselor-trainee from dealing with the issues in an open, honest, and non-judgmental manner with the client, and (4) that a decrease in anxiety arising out of an unconscious bias will result in better ability to cope with controversial issues through increased self awareness.

The directional hypothesis was formulated: that, if the counselor-in-training is given the opportunity in a supportive atmosphere for an academic semester, to identify and deal with personally held attitudes and feelings about controversial issues a decrease in anxiety will result.

A multi-process approach was formulated for the presentation of controversial issues utilizing video-tape vignettes, self-rating scales, small and large group discussion. The target group was graduate counselor-trainees, whose curriculum included the practical counseling experience, in the Department of Educational Psychology and Guidance at Eastern Illinois University. Sample size fluctuated in pre and post groups because students dropped and/or added the courses during the semester. From the entire population, twenty-two pre-post pairs of scores were available to test the null hypothesis that the trainees’ experience in the study and in the counseling classes made no difference in the anxiety level.

Students self-ratings collected from pre and post reports indicated highest anxiety level on the following three issues: suicide, homosexuality, and interracial intimacy. The post reports indicated a decrease in the anxiety level on all issues except abortion. The results indicate a tendency to confirm the directional hypothesis: that with exposure to personally held feelings and attitudes about selected controversial issues in a given supportive atmosphere of an academic semester in the counseling program the trainee will show a decrease in anxiety.

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