Relationship Between Client-Established Goals and Outcome in Counseling.

摘要

Use of goals as outcome measures has received some attention in the counseling literature, but little attention has been paid to the role of goal setting as a potential catalyst for change to enhance counseling outcome. Using a goal construct framework developed by Austin and Vancouver (1996), this research was a preliminary study to consider the relationship of client- established counseling goal content and dimensions (difficulty, specificity, and temporal range) to counseling outcome as measured by the Outcome Questionnaire (Lambert & Burlingame, 1996). Counseling goals of 51 participants (aged 18-25 years) were rated using the Ford and Nichols Taxonomy of Human Goals (Ford & Nichols, 1987; Ford, 1992); this research provides evidence of empirical validity for the use of this taxonomy to categorize counseling goals. A series of chi-square analyses, analyses of variance and linear regression analyses revealed relationships between goal specificity and counseling outcome. Client established counseling goal content was not related to counseling outcome. However, regardless of goal content, having specific goals was related to better counseling outcome, and if the content of the counseling goal had external consequences, it was critical to counseling outcome that the goal be set specifically. Counseling goals with internal consequences were more specific than those with external consequences, and in particular, affective goals were more specific than self-assertive social relationship goals. These findings are evidence that setting specific counseling goals can serve as a catalyst to increase the change occurring in counseling.