Facilitating the acquisition of basic counseling skills by modeling and language

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of verbalizing a model's performance for the acquisition of counseling skills. Paraphrasing, a counseling skill used in microcounseling, was used as an index of the acquisition of counseling skills. Undergraduate students (N = 56) were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: self-verbalization group (n = 18), experimenter-verbalization group (n = 21), and non-verbalization control group (n = 17). Pretests, posttests, and follow-up tests (one week later) were used to examine paraphrasing scores. Modeling was practiced after the pretest. From the pretest to the posttest, all three groups showed a performance gain, although the self-verbalization group showed a greater performance gain than the other two groups. From the posttest to the follow-up test, the control group showed a performance loss, while the performance of the other two groups remained at the same level. These findings suggest that verbalization of a model's performance in microcounseling improves the acquisition and the maintenance of the counseling skills.