A brief assessment technique for paraprofesional helpers

✍ Scribed by Mary Tyler; John D. Kalafat; Daniel R. Boroto; Joseph Hartman

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 508 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6629(197801)6:1<53::aid-jcop2290060113>3.0.co;2-u

✦ Synopsis

The need for an economical technique for evaluating trainin programs in applied settings led to the development of an analogue assessment tecfnique. The Interview Situation Questionnaire (ISQ) required written responses to ten counseling vignettes. The responses were scored for Affective, Understanding, and Exploratory content using an adaptation of Kagan's (1967) Counselor Verbal Response Scale. In a validation study the ISQ significantly differentiated between counselors and natural scientists. In a comparison between didactically trained students and student volunteers in an experiential/didactic training program, the ISQ was sensitive to initial differences between the groups and to changes in both groups over the training period. The experiential/didactic group showed significantly greater improvement on the Affective dimension. These data are consistent with previous findings and, with corrections for possible ceiling effects, support the usefulness of a brief analogue task as a screening and evaluation tool.