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Relationships among experience level and value orientation and the performance of paraprofessional telephone counselors
Author(s) -
Kalafat John,
Boroto Daniel R.,
France Kenneth
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00894372
Subject(s) - citation , library science , value (mathematics) , center (category theory) , health psychology , mental health , psychology , state (computer science) , sociology , gerontology , public health , medicine , computer science , nursing , psychiatry , machine learning , chemistry , algorithm , crystallography
The effectiveness of indigenous paraprofessional helpers is thought to be partially due to the similarity in style and values between then and their clients. However, there is a concern that as they gain experience in an agency, their identification may shift from the clients to the agency. Also, there is a question as to how effective paraprofessionals (selected due to their shared values with a target population) are with value-dissimilar clients. Truax and Carkhuff's scales of facilitative conditions as well as a technique functioning scale were used to assess the helping behavior of paraprofessional telephone counselors at three levels of experience in response to value-similar and value-dissimilar simulated calls. The results indicate that performance generally improved with training and experience and that instead of a uniform deterioration with dissimilar value calls, a complex relationship existed between performance, values, and experience level.