Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

4-14-1972

Abstract

In military technical training and educational establishments, the large number of students compared with the number of professionally trained counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists has resulted in the military services' reliance on their senior enlisted men to perform as counselors in many situations. These men have little formal training as counselors but are experienced instructors/supervisors, as well as having much experience in their own technical specialty. This study investigates authoritarianism in military designated “counselors” in relation to the subsequent grade performance of the students counseled. The “counselors” were also evaluated on the basis of counseling evaluation forms filled out by the students. It was hypothesized that “counselors” with low scores on the California F-scale would be more effective in terms of the students' subsequent performance and in terms of students' perceptions of effectiveness. Also, it was hypothesized that “counselors” with low F-scale scores would be perceived by students as being less authoritarian than “counselors” with higher F-scale scores. Finally, students’ estimates of help received and performance change would be positively correlated.

Twenty-five Chief Petty Officers and Marine Corps Senior Noncommissioned Officers from the Avionics Technician School at the Naval Air Technical Training Center, Memphis, Tennessee, working as 11 counselors 11 vo1unteered for this study. The “counselors” filled out the California F-scale and subsequently recorded the name of each student that they contacted during a specified period of time. After the experimental period had ended, each counseled student was asked to fill out a counseling evaluation questionnaire. The student’s grades were then obtained for the unit before counseling, the unit after counseling, and the following unit. The study was cross-sectional in that it sampled all participating “counselors” and their student contacts during one unit or phase.

The results supported the first three hypotheses but were equivocal with respect to the fourth. “Counselors” with lower F-scale scores were more effective in that their students had improvements in grades during counseling. These counselors also were perceived as being more effective by their students. Also, students accurately perceived the authoritarianism of their counselors. “Counselors” that scored low on authoritarianism were perceived as being low authoritarian. No significant relationship was found between students grade performance and their perceptions of the “counselors” effectiveness. Inspection of the data revealed a systematic disposition of students by “counselors. “Students could either pass or fail a unit. Those students that failed could either continue with their classes or be sent back to repeat a unit. These decisions were made by the “counselors. “Low authoritarian "counselors" tended to have their failing students repeat the unit while the more authoritarian tended to have their failing students continue with their classes. The "counselor's" disposition of students was assumed to reflect the low authoritarian's tendency to be more lenient by letting a failing student repeat a unit rather than “sink or swim” in the next unit.

It was concluded that while low authoritarian “counselors” were more effective than high authoritarian counselors, the magnitude of the relationship and the selection ratio were not large. The practical value of selecting “counselors” on the basis of authoritarianism does not appear to warrant its use under the conditions involved in this study.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Counseling

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Marion Jacob Heisey

Second Committee Member

Peder Jack Johnson

Third Committee Member

William Robert Fishburn

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