The relationship of creativity and self-concept to counselor effectiveness

Abstract

This study was undertaken to find the relationship of creativity and self-concept with counselor effectiveness of counselors-in-training. The subjects, 94 counselor trainees from two Texas universities, were given the Hogan Empathy Scale, An Inventory of Self-Concepts, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and where possible, a practicum supervisor's evaluation was completed using the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale. Counselor effectiveness was operationally defined as scores either on the empathy ratings and/or the practicum supervisor's evaluation. Both creativity and self-concept congruency were significantly correlated with empathy. Based on the small partial sample having the supervisor evaluations, there were no significant correlations between either self-concept or creativity and the supervisor's rating. Assuming empathy to be a measure of counselor effectiveness, it was concluded that both creativity and self-concept measures would be valuable criteria to be used in the selection process of persons applying for a counselor training program. In response to the secondary purpose of the study it was found that as a counselor trainee gains more experience (i.e. completes more hours of graduate course work) his self-concept congruency does increase, thus suggesting that it would be advantageous to select someone who initially had a highly congruent self-concept. And finally it was determined that there was no significant relationship between self-concept and creativity for this particular sample.