CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 68Psychotherapy Techniques and ApplicationsCounseling Practices and SupervisionCounseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics

Conceptualizing and measuring counselors’ theoretical orientation

Poznanski, Joseph J., McLennan, Jim·1995·Journal of Counseling Psychology
DOI 10.1037/0022-0167.42.4.411
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This review discusses issues in conceptualizi ng and measuring counselors' theoretical orientations to practice. Two dimensions of counselor theoretical orientation seem to emerge in several studies: an Analytical-Ex periential dimension and an Objective-Sub jective dimension. Fifteen instruments previously proposed as measures of counselors' and therapists' theoretical orientations are evaluated. Psychometric properties and the utility of each instrument are critically examined. Few instruments show evidence of reliability and even fewer have been shown to have evidence of validity. Over the past 40 years, researchers have devoted considerable attention to counselors', or psychotherapi sts', theoretical orientation and how this influences therapeutic practice. The first to give systematic attention to the topic was Fiedler (1950a). Fiedler viewed the therapeutic relationship as a factor of paramount importance in positive client change. In his classic study, he questioned whether the ideal therapeutic relationship was a function of a therapist's theoretical orientation and training or whether it was derived from a therapist's personal experience and expertness in therapeutic practice. Fiedler found that expert therapists who self-ascribed to differing theoretical schools did not differ in their descriptions of the ideal therapeutic relationship. Similarly, in a follow-up study involving the Q-sort technique and ratings of audio recordings of 10 therapy interviews, Fiedler (1950b) concluded that therapist-client relationships created by experts of differing theoretical orientations resembled each other more closely than relationships created by nonexperts within the same theoretical school. Fiedler's conclusion subsequently became generalized into a widely held belief that experienced psychotherapists from differing theoretical schools did not differ greatly in their actual therapeutic practice (Wogan & Norcross, 1985).

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0022-0167.42.4.411

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Specific therapeutic orientation influences the therapist's way of generating hypotheses about a client's experience and behavior, formulating a rationale for specific treatment interventions, and evaluating the ongoing therapeutic process.

    “specific therapeutic orientation influences the therapist’s way of “(a) generating hypotheses about a client’s experience and behavior, (b) formulating a rationale for specific treatment interventions, and (c) evaluating the ongoing therapeutic process” (63) [p. 412].”

    From Waiting for a digital therapist: three challenges on the path to psychotherapy delivered by artificial intelligence (2023) · cites this paper as [63]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Poznanski, J. J., & McLennan, J.
Affiliations
Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
ORCID
McLennan, Jim
Venue
Journal of Counseling Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
1995-10
Volume
42
Issue
4
Pages
411-422
ISSN
  • 0022-0167 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-2168
DOI
10.1037/0022-0167.42.4.411
OpenAlex
W2084609122
Cited by
68
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
FWCI
4.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Journal of Counseling Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Counseling Practices and Supervision
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
therapeutic orientation, psychometric properties, reliability and validity, Fiedler, therapeutic relationship, therapist expertise

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review