THE RELATIONSHIP OF COUNSELING STUDENTS\u27 VALUES TO THEIR PREFERENCES FOR THEORETICAL ORIENTATIONS

The literature dealing with values clearly indicates that values have a major influence on preference for and selection of nearly all important behaviors. Counseling theorists generally have accepted the notion that values play an important role in the education of counselors and psychotherapists. The assumption that values might influence the preference by a counselor for a particular theoretical orientation has been accepted in several comparative studies of different theoretical orientations to counseling and psychotherapy. Up to the present time there have been no research studies investigating the relationship of counseling students\u27 values to their preference for various theoretical orientations. In the present study the six interpersonal values measured by the Survey of Interpersonal Values are hypothesized to be related to four different counseling theoretical orientations. The six interpersonal values are: Support, Conformity, Recognition, Independence, Benevolence, and Leadership. The four counseling orientations were chosen because of their difference from one another based on Frey\u27s four-cell model of counseling theories. They are: client-centered therapy, gestalt therapy, behavior therapy, and rational-emotive therapy. The hypothesized relationships between each interpersonal value and each theoretical orientation were based on the substantive elements of counseling theory conceptualized by Stefflre. The respondents in the study were 106 master\u27s level graduate students in counseling from four major eastern universities. The study employed two instruments: the Survey of Interpersonal Values and the Survey of Counseling Orientations. No support for any of the six directional hypotheses of the study was found to exist. The major reason for these results appears to be the striking consistency, and therefore lack of variability, in the students\u27 preference for one counseling orientation over another. There was an overwhelming preference for client-centered therapy as a first choice and for gestalt therapy, behavior therapy, and rational-emotive therapy for clear second, third, and fourth preferences, respectively. The preference for counseling orientations did not vary sufficiently for any correlation with interpersonal values to be observed. In addition, the strong preferences for theoretical orientations were not related to the age, sex, number of years of counseling experience of the respondents, or type of institution attended. Various possible explanations for the results are offered. The results are further discussed in terms of Frey\u27s four-cell model. Some proposals for further research are made