COUNSELING IN PROBATION AND PAROLE - A RESEARCH REPORT FINAL REPORT

• NCJ Number: 17278
• Author(s): J A STOCKDALE
• Date Published: 1969
• Length: 174 pages
• Grant Number(s): RD-2426-G
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare
• Corporate Author: University of Maryland
• Sale Source: National Technical Information Service; National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

RESEARCH PROJECT DESIGNED TO OBTAIN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RELATING TO WHETHER CLIENTS WITH A PARTICULAR CONFIGURATION OF PERSONALITY TRAINTS COULD BE OBSERVED TO SHOW GREATER IMPROVEMENT IN ANY ONE TREATMENT MODE.

Abstract

THE TREATMENT MODES EMPLOYED WERE INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP COUNSELING. THE PROJECT WAS OF TWO YEARS DURATION AND CONSISTED OF TWO SEPARATE BUT RELATED COUNSELING EXPERIMENTS. IN THE FIRST EXPERIMENT, DATA WERE ANALYZED FOR A TOTAL OF 87 CLIENTS WHO HAD BEEN RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO EITHER GROUP (N = 47) OR INDIVIDUAL (N = 40) COUNSELING. DATA OBTAINED FROM PRE AND POST TESTING ON FOUR PERSONALITY INSTRUMENTS, AND COLLECTED AS CRITERION MEASURE ON VARIABLES DEFINED AS INDICATIVE OF DESIRED BEHAVIORAL CHANGE, WERE ANALYZED IN AN ATTEMPT TO TEST THE HYPOTHESES. EACH OF THREE HYPOTHESES, OF NO DIFFERENCES BY TREATMENT MODE, TESTED BY T-TESTS, WAS RETAINED. IN THE SECOND COUNSELING EXPERIMENT, DATA WERE ANALYZED FOR 122 CLIENTS RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING (N = 40), GROUP COUNSELING (N = 58) OR CONTROL GROUP (N = 24). DATA OBTAINED FROM PRE AND POST ADMINISTRATIONS OF FOUR PERSONALITY INSTRUMENTS AND SEVEN CRITERION MEASURES WERE ANALYZED IN AN EFFORT TO TEST FOUR HYPOTHESES. THE FIRST TWO HYPOTHESES WERE TESTED BY MANOVA, WITH THE DATA STRATIFIED BY LEVEL ACCORDING TO AGE, OCCUPATION, AND SCHOOL GRADE COMPLETED. THE THIRD AND FOURTH HYPOTHESES WERE TESTED BY SINGLE AND MULTIPLE CORRELATION ANALYSES RESPECTIVELY. THE RESULTS REVEALED NO CONSISTENT TREND. THUS, FOR THE MOST PART, THE TEST AND NON-TEST CRITERIA DID NOT DIFFERENTIATE CLIENTS BY TREATMENT. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT IT WAS NOT FEASIBLE TO MAKE ASSIGNMENTS TO A PARTICULAR TREATMENT MODE BASED ON PERSONALITY OF THE COUNSELEE USING THE SPECIFIC PERSONALITY INSTRUMENTS AND CRITERION MEASURES. A RANGE OF IMPLICATIONS IS SUGGESTED, INCLUDING APPROPRIATENESS OF TEST INSTRUMENTS AND CRITERION MEASURES EMPLOYED, LENGTH OF EXPERIMENT AND NATURE OF COUNSELING, AND APPROPRIATENESS OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS AS RELEVANT AREAS OF INVESTIGATION. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT)