Effects of verbal reinforcement and modeling in group counseling on the career-information-seeking behavior of college freshman

Research on the influence that counselors have on the career planning of young people is rather limited, and a definite need seems to exist for investigating means to aid counselors in becoming more helpful and influential in this area. Research has demonstrated that verbal reinforcement of information-seeking behavior, in both individual and group counseling settings, can be an effective aid for counselors. Most of the studies, however, have been in junior and senior high school. There is a need to investigate the usefulness of this technique at the college level with freshman students, both males and females. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of verbal reinforcement in group counseling and modeling-group counseling on the frequency of information-seeking behavior by college students outside the counseling setting. The 2 x 3 factorial design that was used classified students into two levels according to their degree of motivation for educational and vocational planning. They were classified with the use of the Student International Questionnaire. Subjects were also classified into three levels according to treatment: a) group counseling-verbal reinforcement, b) modeling-group counseling-verbal reinforcement, and c) inactive control. In the group counseling-verbal reinforcement treatment a total of 40 students were classified on the level of motivation for educational and vocational planning and randomly assigned to four groups of ten students each. Each group of ten students had five "more motivated" students and five "less motivated" students. Four trained counselors were utilized to conduct the four groups. Each counseling group met for approximately one hour a week during a four-week period. In each group session counselors reinforced verbally any indication that the student had sought, was seeking, or intended to seek information relevant to careers.