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Reflective listening and open‐ended questions in counselling: Preferences moderated by social skills and cognitive ability
Author(s) -
Rautalinko Erik
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
counselling and psychotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1746-1405
pISSN - 1473-3145
DOI - 10.1080/14733145.2012.687387
Subject(s) - psychology , active listening , alliance , social skills , cognition , affect (linguistics) , social cognitive theory , applied psychology , medical education , social psychology , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , communication , neuroscience , political science , law
Aims : We examined how nondirective counselling skills affect the evaluation of counsellors and the observed working alliance, and how evaluators' social skills and cognitive ability moderate evaluations. Method: In a first analogue experiment, counselling transcripts containing more or less restatements, reflections and open‐ended questions were audio‐taped and rated by evaluators ( n =52) who self‐reported social skills. In a second experiment, a different sample of evaluators ( n =63) rated transcripts and self‐reported social skills and were tested on cognitive ability. Results: Restatements and reflections improved ratings of the counsellors and the observed working alliance, but open‐ended questions did not. Ratings were moderated by evaluators' social skills and cognitive ability. Discussion: The results agree with previous evidence on restating–reflecting and open‐ended questions. That certain evaluators preferred open‐ended questions more than others can be understood as an issue of matching between conceptual level, social skills, and counselling structure.