Physiological and cognitive predictors of counselor performance in high and low stress counseling situations

Abstract

This study was undertaken to predict counselor performance in a variety of counseling situations. The subjects, 30 counselor trainees from Texas A&M were given the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and Cognitive-Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire. The Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale was completed by supervisors for each participant. Additionally, heart rate response, electromyographic response, answers to three open-ended counseling strategy questions, and number of supervised hours were collected. The results of this study indicated that 18% of the variance in counselor evaluation scores could be predicted by state and somatic anxiety, change in EMG, and number of supervised hours. Several trends in the data were identified. As counselors gain experience, they also gain greater awareness of their internal, physiological states and are more willing to report these states. When counselors were actively coping with the counseling situation their heart rates decelerated while reported somatic anxiety increased. Male and female counselors responded differently in both EMG and heart rate reactivity. Coping in the counseling situation appeared to change from a passive to an active stance with increased experience. Finally, experienced counselors appeared to be more curious, less strategy bound, more concerned with secondary problems that a client might have, and more likely to suggest a systems or cognitive-behavioral approach as a counseling strategy. Recommendations for the practice of supervision of counselor trainees included consideration of possible differential approaches to the training of male and female counselors, working with beginning trainees in the area of self-perception of feeling states, and techniques employed to deal with trainee levels of arousal to include behavioral training, role playing, group, and insight approaches.