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Microcounseling and sensitivity training with hotline workers
Author(s) -
Evans David R.,
Uhlemann Max R.,
Hearn Margaret T.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(197804)6:2<139::aid-jcop2290060206>3.0.co;2-w
Subject(s) - hotline , empathy , feeling , checklist , psychology , interpersonal communication , clinical psychology , sensitivity training , medicine , social psychology , telecommunications , computer science , cognitive psychology
Three successive groups of prospective hotline workers were randomly assigned to three different pretraining conditions. Nine microcounseling participants received training in the use of attending behavior, open invitations to talk, paraphrasing, and reflection of feeling during a weekend workshop. Six sensitivity training participants were exposed to an unstructured weekend experience designed to develop interpersonal skills. Nine participants received no weekend experience. All participants then received six evenings of routine technical training over a six‐week period. Post‐training pseudocalls were audiotaped for all participants. Participant responses were rated for empathy, and assessed on the Therapist Error Checklist, and on three specific counselor response categories. Microcounseling participants emitted more “good” responses and were rated as more empathic than both the sensitivity and control groups. Both sensitivity and microcounseling participants emitted more open invitations to talk than control participants. Microcounceling participants emitted fewer advice‐laden responses than control participants. Implications for future research are discussed.