Group counseling with adolescents, 1966-1970 : a review of the research literature.
Date
1971
Authors
Greenwood, Kenneth
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Abstract
Serious flaws in design and methodology have been identified as leading to dubious acceptance of research reports. The present study investigated whether changes of the kind recommended by Shaw and Wursten (1965) had actually been forthcoming during the intervening six years.
Ten criteria of experimental research were proposed and supported from the writings of authorities in the field of counseling research. The criteria were then used in the evaluation of a sample of fifteen published research studies dealing with the group counseling of adolescents. The studies were selected randomly from the total number of such studies to appear between 1966 and 1970 in The School Counselor, Personnel and Guidance Journal, and Journal of Counseling Psychology. The sample was a stratified one, involving five research reports from each of the journals. A four-point scale with the values none, some, most, and all was used to rate each study according to each of the ten criteria. The re-evaluation of three studies selected randomly from the fifteen aft er a period of three weeks showed that intraobserver judgment had been 87% consistent with the earlier findings.
No study met in full even half of the ten criteria used and three studies were found to meet none of the criteria in full. The mean number of criteria met in full was found to be 1.9 per study. The most seriously neglected criteria were found to be the criterion dealing with the provision of information about the group leader himself, the criteria stressing the need for the use of baseline data and a follow-up study, and the criterion that stressed the need for the completely random allocation of subjects to a control group.
The necessary conditions of experimental inquiry were defined and were supported by researchers and writers in the field involved. It was concluded that these conditions were largely unmet during the period 1966 to 1970 in group counseling research endeavors involving adolescents.