The Telephone Counseling Interview as a Complex, Dynamic, Decision Process: A Self-Regulation Model of Counselor Effectiveness

Abstract

The authors assert that new frameworks for conceptualizing the counseling process are needed in order to advance understanding of the determinants of counselor effectiveness. In the present study, a self-regulation model of performance on complex, dynamic, decision tasks proposed by Omodei and Wearing (1995) was tested in an analog study with 40 telephone counselors who varied in amount of experience. Client-perceived effectiveness of the counselors was found to be related to levels of counselor expertise, intentional motivated cognitive effort, emotional involvement with the caller, and anxiety. Conceptualizing a counseling interview as a complex, dynamic, decision process may lead to theoretical and practical advances in the field.