Research in Counselling: Validity and Reliability - Assignment Example

Running head: RESEARCH IN COUNSELLING ASSIGNMENT Research in Counselling Assignment [Writer’s name] [Name of institution] Research in Counselling Assignment Answer1 In the positivist paradigm, the collection of data is takes place in a quantitative manner and thus is presented a numerical form. Thus in orders to analyze this data, statistical tests are applied to it. In order to find out the importance of the data or the validity of the hypothesis. Nevertheless, this kind of research paradigm was considered inappropriate as concepts soft systems as well as human behavior became more important. The new system was based on human perspectives and beliefs. Nevertheless, these perspectives were not a part of the positivist research paradigm as the data collection, management as well as its analysis was objective in nature. Human perspectives in difficult situation cannot be properly measured by means of numerical data, thus the statistical tests which were utilized in positivist paradigm were no more needed. (Rowland & Goss 2000 p59) Positivist paradigm need a better method of gathering and managing the data, thus positivist paradigm frequently utilizes a deductive process which has made it worthless in counseling researches action research paradigm has taken it’s place as it utilizes a inductive process (Deurzen 2001 p 29). Thus it takes into consideration that in research design and hypothesis formation thus resulting in successful research findings which may utilized on universal human perspective. The methods that are utilized in a positivist paradigm process consist of observation, informal and in-depth interviewing and participants’ observation. Undoubtedly, action research paradigm has taken the place of positivist paradigm as it gives more importance people being studied to give their own details of their condition or behavior. ( Heppner etal 2005 p77) The action researcher attempts to enter the mind the people taking part in the study and analyze the situation from their point of view . Here also the action research paradigm takes a better stand then the positivist paradigm as it focuses on the complete and holistic perceptive of the experiences which the subjects go through, nevertheless that sample represent the entire populations and it more important then a little of specific information gained from large group of people. Topic 2 Answer Counseling science or art Counseling is considered to be both, a science as well as an art. Counseling is an art as it is based on knowledge and inventions. Without these, no one can’t understand the client’s problem. In counseling, Knowing is worthless if trust between counselor and client is not developed thus making someone trust you is definitely an art nothing can replace the repeated interactions which a counselor has with his client in order to get detailed feedback regarding his habits and counseling is like art the counselor that picks up the paint brush and tries many colors by to do trial and error so that he can get good feedback (Meyer 2002 p 45) . This means counseling can be regarded as an art as counselors are suppose to be good listeners, and listening can be considered as an art )Dryden & Neenan 2004 p46). However, counseling is also a science as the counselor completely depends on set standards of human development to evaluate the client's functioning and they also bring into consideration different developmental theories in order to asses the client thus it makes it a science (Nathan & Estate 2005 p34). The professional counselor knows that every person is different however, he uses his knowledge of developmental theory to analyze these differences. As most of their practices is based on making decisions regarding human development. Counseling can also be considered a science as counselors usually make assumptions due to which they make their decisions (Bayne etal 1996 p20). However on the other hand it is also art as counseling people often means coping with emotion. As counselors start to discover the client’s problems, they frequently begin to go through emotional release. This is an important part of the practice in counseling and this makes it an art as it is associated with understanding emotions . Topic 3 Think of a counseling research situation where it could be ethical to deceive A lot of counseling research cannot be carried, if the subjects are fully informed regarding the objective of the study, thus a situation in which the counselor has to study people’s normal behavior like in a research depending on natural observation , deceiving subjects is required. As they may not behave as they normally do due the fact that they know that they are being watched. Deception is only ethical in situations where the study will provide the researchers with a little important insight, it would not be possible to carry out the study without deceiving the people being studied. A little deception is essential; the subjects should not always know atht they can hide some data . For instance Milgram (1974) discussed the issue of deception with his colleagues as he needed to deceive his subjects in his obedience experiments. Majority of his colleagues said that just one or two subjects would go through with the experiment. Anti prohibitionists argue, certain aspects of human behavior can only be studied if people are caught off guard. Deception can be used in psychological research if it is regarding anti social behavior behavior the experimenter has to keep the purpose of the experiment hidden so that he can maintain experimental control. Because in this situation if he does not use deception then there reactions of the subjects may be distorted and eventually limit the utilization of the study’s findings (McLeod 2003 p 69. Topic 4 Answer Action Research requires particular care on the part of the researcher/professional/ manager/worker to demonstrate that those involved in the research have genuinely volunteered and have not been coerced to participate in any way. Researchers in action research should build a real ionship of trust with research participants. For example, before individuals agree to participate in research, investigators must be clear and explicit in describing to prospective participants what they will experience and what consequences may result from participation. Researchers also are obligated to honor all promises and commitments that are made as part of the agreement to participate. When full disclosure is not made prior to obtaining informed consent (e.g., information germane to the purpose of the study would compromise its validity), safeguards must be implemented to protect the welfare and dignity of participants. In general, procedures that involve concealment or deception in a research design can be implemented only after rigorous criteria for the necessity of such procedures are met and the study is approved by the IRB. (Such instances also require a thorough debriefing of participants at the conclusion of their participation.) (Legg 1998 p 90 ) When children or adults with limited understanding serve as participants, in the action research special protective safeguards. When unintended negative consequences of research participation occur, researchers are obligated to detect, remove, and/or correct these consequences and ensure that they do not persist over time ( Mearns &Thorne 2007 p18) . Understandably, past ethical breaches have resulted in what some describe as widespread mistrust of biomedical and behavioral research in contemporary society Topic 5 Answer Central rationale for a Case Study is that, until you look closely, long and hard at a case, a problem, a situation; until you, the researcher, become involved in it, there is a high risk of only having partial knowledge and of misunderstanding much that is apparently going on. Thus it is not valid at all. To get that degree of control there is often an element of artificiality about the setting for the research, which inevitably leads to the thought that possibly the finding would be different in the real world of work (Clinebell 2001 p 67) We need to clarify early in this topic that while a Case Study approach to problems in counselling or the social sciences may involve some ethnographic methods, it need not. Further it is worth noting that Ethnography may be used in a study that doesn’t have any of the characteristics of a Case Study (Feltham & Dryden 2006 p15) And lastly, for the opening of the topic, we should emphasize that a Case Study is not necessarily a version of Action Research, though it might be A further reason for the rise in Case Study research is linked to the current greater willingness to look at the local and the specific. Or to put it another way, researchers feel less need to engage in research that will have a high level of generalisability. A Case Study is by definition local and specific, but these characteristics need not be seen as a disadvantage particularly to the practitioner researcher. Yalom and his work is the prime example of the point being made here, and a Case Study researcher should perhaps consider whether they have Yalom-like skills. (Ciaramicoli 2005 p 34) Topic 6 Answer Process research is an important part of counselling, and a grasp of what is involved in this kind of research is essential for the graduate student in counselling who is expecting to have an ongoing professional involvement in counselling. In a nut shell, Process research in counselling is about what happens in counselling and therapy sessions. As such we can understand that it is through Process research that techniques and approaches to counselling can be explored and, out of that exploration, improved (Sanders 2002 p 26). Thus, like all research in counseling, it has particular ethical considerations linked to it. In Process research, audio and video tapes need particular care and attention if they are to be kept safe and private. In general, these kinds of data records should not be kept longer than is absolutely necessary. Further, the need to involve others in the study in the form of judges and raters/scorers means that a researcher must be careful that such persons understand the ethical constraints and abide by them. These considerations are in addition to the need to see that clients and counselors participating in the research are fully informed and give consent, and that they receive proper debriefing and feedback. Trust in rational authority is an important factor in this kind of research . If participants lose their trust it may become a difficult issue finding people willing to participate in experiments. In the case of the obedience study, participants may have felt betrayed to a small degree but, after the de-briefing sessions and realising they were not actually hurting anyone, their opinions may have changed. Topic 7 Answer However, in general Evaluation research can provide data that may aid in making decisions on cost benefit and cost effectiveness. However, the data per se does not make or give that information; such things lie in judgment and interpretation by the researcher or whomsoever has the responsibility and power to make such decisions and judgments ( Etherington 2002 p37) We can also make the same kind of comments regarding any efficiency analysis and data relating to it. Indeed this is as good a time as any to emphasize that rarely, if ever, does data speak for itself: interpretation and judgment are everything. Instead it seeks to identify participants' understandings of the meanings of processes, situations and effects; treats values as fundamental to participants' understandings; and recognises that a reflexive approach to the practice of evaluation is important for the creation of knowledge (Hough 2006 p12) . The qualitative approach recognises evaluation as a political activity taking place within a political context, and therefore uses researchers who are independent inasmuch as they have no direct interest in the work being evaluated. Within the qualitative approach, evaluation is divided into 'formative' evaluation which assesses process, and 'summative' evaluation which assesses outcomes Topic 8 Answer Convenience sampling means to select or have in your sample those who happen to be to hand, and are thereby convenient to use. Such a sample will almost always be biased and not represent the population, thus leading to low external validity and no basis for making generalizations. The only time that convenience sampling may be tolerated is when the sensitivities of the course matter and difficulties in finding courses are high; but even here external validity is severely limited. Convenience sampling, this is when the researcher samples the first (for example 20) people he or she may meet. This can in a way be looked upon as random however it is not, as these people are linked by the place in which they are sampled. This can, for example be a shopping survey in a supermarket and is biased by the time at which the survey is carried out, e.g., during the day mainly people doing a weekly shop and late at night single people shopping for much smaller amounts. (Andrew 2008 p 45) These sampling strategies result in high levels of self-selection and sampling groups that are not representative of the general population however this kind of sampling may sometimes lead to extraneous variables as the sample is selected randomly without knowing the population Topic 9 Answer Questionnaires are a proven way of collecting accurate data from a potentially large number of respondents, or a select few if required. Questionnaires are in the question and answer format, where selected questions and prompters are devised and placed on paper, and in response the required respondents can then state their answers and thoughts on the survey Questionnaires an invaluable method for both qualitative and quantitative research, they can be very cost effective depending on the size of the research area and the response required. The larger the research area the more cost effective a questionnaire will become, for example if the respondents required cover a large geographical area, sending out questionnaires to each place will be a lot cheaper than travelling to the same places to carry out face to face interviews. Also with face to face interviews the subject may be embarrassed of reluctant to release certain information, whereas with a questionnaire it seems much more anonymous and seem less intrusive. Everyone at some point or other has come across the questionnaire process, and are familiar with the processes involved, and providing that it is well designed and uses relevant questions, people should have no qualms in filling them in honestly and adequately. However although the questionnaire process can be very effective in the field of research, there are also some disadvantages incorporated in it, compared with other methods. Questionnaires can be limited in the depth of responses they achieve compared to a face to face interview, which allows one to probe a subject and encourage them to carry their answers further. Also with over ninety per cent of all communication being visual, questionnaires do not allow a researcher to gain a true idea of the subject's personality or feelings about the research area. However if the research area is more factual based as opposed to opinion based this should not be an issue, and results in the questionnaire being one of, if not the most effective form of research. The questions regarding a research could be a little disturbing and require responses which are controversial in nature. Thus ethics as well as confidentiality are extremely important while administering a questionnaire. Many subjects may be unwilling to respond to controversial until they are assured confidentiality. The ethics regarding questionnaire should be addressed during the entire study. A pre-notification letter to the subjects will provide them with an insight to the details of the questionnaire and the promise of confidentiality. Although this will prove more expensive it will give the questionnaire more credibility. In addition to this a cover letter provided with the questionnaire ensuring confidentiality and anonymity, and giving the subject the right to withdraw, should ensure that no moral or ethical liberties are taken, and the questionnaire will be as credible and justified as possible Interviews Interviews that are based around a planned format provide more validity than un-structured, non-directed questions (Kvale 1996 p8) . In fact, unstructured interviews score only a 0.3 on the aforementioned scale of predictive validity, However during Stereotypes can be assigned to particular groups and can be in contradiction to existing equality legislation( Lago 2005 p 39) . The horn/halo effect is where information gathered by the interviewer can be either universally favorable or universally unfavorable for the candidate Topic 10 Answer The topic must on the face of it be ethical. There is no point in being interested in a small study failing in exams is feasible however no one will take part in it Why? Because it is far to large and involved and it is not likely that you will have access to a full range of international settings (Nijhoff 1978 p 12.) You need a topic which you are fairly certain you can get permission to approach people to participate in; i.e., you need to be sure people will agree to take part. You don’t have something realistic if no one is will participate The topic must be such that if it is set in an organization, a business, group, you will be able to get permission from that organization to do the research. The he proposal would not meet ethical standards, you would not get permission to do it and who would agree to take part? Here is where will can ethically used deception as it will help me in my study thus a situation in which the counselor has to study people’s normal behavior like in a research depending on natural observation , deceiving subjects is required (Milner & Byrne 2003 p 88). As they may not behave as they normally do due the fact that they know that they are being watched. Because in this situation if he does not use deception then there reactions of the subjects may be distorted and eventually limit the utilization of the study’s findings. Title After thorough analysis, the article proves to be very descriptive but it bares an unclear item in its title. There is no contradiction from what is related above. The title does inspire the topic but this was analyzed from a specific point of view. Abstract The abstract of the research article was very well written, it gave a brief yet complete overview of the entire research . What is meant here is that in the abstract presented at the beginning of the essay, however it did not mention the names of the scale which the researcher used. Hence, if a reader analyses only the abstract, he can easily be put off from the beginning. The abstract basically is, "an abstract quality or idea, a summary (Heppner etal 2005 p 45) . Hence, the author is supposed to relate what is directly given to the reader as data. The abstract presented its aim, method, and results but because there is no clear-cut description of the theme concerned. Introduction The literature given the introduction is extremely relevant. However it does have any definitions of the main concepts of the research such as collectivism-individualism or cross cultural counseling. Apart from this the literature should flow from general to specific whereas in this research the literature tends to start from the specific. Coming back on the purpose of the study, it is presented in a direct way, which shows the straightforward approach that the author chose. The study was meant to investigate on how Korean student responded to the individualistic and -collective group counseling. The author should have given a separate heading for purpose of the study and hypotheses so that the reader could find the hypothesis in a single glance Method An attempt to understand the shortcomings of this study, the method in which it was conducted must be examined. While the method initially appears valid and that it should lead to convincing results, several shortcomings made themselves apparent. While the method may have been flawed, and her conclusions lacking, the basic premise of her theory appears to be valid. One reason for the apparent shortcomings in the article may be its age; published in 1996 the psychological standards and methods for observational study may have been somewhat more primitive. The method that the author chose to make her research and prove her point was via a social interest scale, individualism -collectivism measure and counselor rating form short version that was destined to 20 males and 21 female Korean subjects 18-36 years of age , Korean immigrant students . It was very much a well-planned experiment and the ethics board approved the license that allowed data collection accordingly. This method could even result in Experimenter bias is the tendency for the experimenter to sub-consciously expect an outcome based on the hypothesis. For example, the experimenter may think that the subject is more aggressive after being frustrated only because that was what he/she was expecting. There may have not been a change in aggression at all. To eliminate this factor you could do a double-blind procedure in which both the experimenter and the research subject are not aware of which condition is in effect (Rowland & Goss 2000 p 45) The researcher could have used another quantitative method like 'Meta analysis'. Using this method, results are formed by statistically combining many studies. The main disadvantage in the method used by the experimenter is that A main disadvantage of quantitative research is that issues are only measured if they are stated in the hypotheses at the commencement of the research, so all possible questions must thoroughly be thought through. Consequently, the researchers may be able to have more time to think about theoretical aims and substantive issues, and subsequently spend more time and effort analyzing and interpreting the data. Secondly, it can be useful to compare data that have collected with secondary data. This means that can place researchers own findings within a more general context or triangulate findings. Finally, this secondary data provide a source of data that is both permanent and available in a form that it will be checked relatively easily by others. This means that the data and research findings are more open to public scrutiny (Mcleod 2004 p79) Sample The researcher used random sampling method in order to select the sample. The selection of sample is extremely important for a research as the sample is representative of the entire population which is being studied. The sample design is a plan that sets out who is to be sampled, how many respondents are to be surveyed and how they are to be selected (Redmond etal 2000 p10). Random sampling was selected where each individual in the population at large has an equal chance of being included in the sample. However, there are some advantages and disadvantages of such a sample. One of the main benefits is that it will give a clear cross-section of the population but at the same it has disadvantages, as with these kinds of samples it is almost impossible to achieve. One of the main reasons for such a method was to make the data representative and qualitative. How ever it can be said that there was no sampling error as the central tendency of any characteristic between the population and the sample was not significantly different, and thus the same sampling error did not apply to the results and bring into question any conclusions resulting from the research Scales There is of course the high risk of invalidity of the used scales in this research because it is very much easy to not follow the procedure and hence lie throughout the questionnaire. Second point to note is the non-neutral aspect of the survey. It was the questionnaires were given to the Korean students only thus this limited the cross cultural factor, as it was only done on students of one culture. The third negative point to be put forward is the experience barrier. By using this survey method the author tried to add diversity in order to obtain different point of views but this could again reduce validity of the research as, experience brings a different approach to answers obtained After careful analysis, it is believed that the study has a quantitative approach because of it being based on three scales social interest scale, individualism -collectivism measure and counselor rating form short version. A particular distinct conclusion was being searched through the amount of people that went through the questions in the scales. It is also to note though that this was a qualitative approach. This is because the author wanted a defined approach coming from the participants. He wanted a personal description as well, which he did obtain, and represent via his analysis and work. Presentation of the data The penultimate point to be touched on before the conclusion is reached is the presentation of the data. The presentation of the data is very vague. It is a monotonous process that doesn't induce the reader to keep reading. The presentation is too academic and it should not be if it is directed to the public. The author could have used more visual details like graphs and pie-charts. It would have offered a new approach to the readers and would have given something to cut the stance of the monotonous reading. It is thus imagined that the quantitative data could have been presented in a more enhanced but simple fashion in that way. Histograms should have been given to represent the data. As histogram is "a bar graph showing a distribution for quantitative data (at the interval or ratio level of measurement). The bars have a natural order, and the bar widths have specific meaning. (Cooper 2008 p 156), meaning that it is explicitly recognized that a change of value in one variable will lead to a change in another variable. Statistical method used The statistical method used in this research was correlation, I think the researcher may have used this method because when it compares the correlation between two items, one item is called the 'dependent variable' and the other is 'independent variable'. The goal is to see if a change in the independent item will result in a change in the dependent item (Achelis 2000 p56) Two tailed ANOVAs was also used which further complicated the results , the researcher should have applied the t- test on all the hypothesis as the sample was small and unequal males were 21 and females were 20 . I think the T-test should have been used because t test is used to test the difference between means when the two samples are independent, when the sample sizes are small (Randall & Allen 2001 p 5) No coding used in data The researcher did not code the data coding is one of the most important steps in method approaches, also in what is called ““quantitative data analysis”. (Cooper 2008 p67) Coding is an unmitigated, qualitative act of analysis in intuition and experience about what is important and what is not important. Once data are coded, statistical treatment is a matter of data processing, followed by further acts of data analysis. When it comes right down to it, qualitative data and quantitative data can be analyzed by quantitative and qualitative research approached. In fact, in the phrase “qualitative data analysis” and “quantitative data analysis” always confuses. In common use, “coding” refers to data reduction either by a system of symbols or by numbers. Most researchers have done quantitative code before they try qualitative coding, so it is worth starting out by clearing this confusion and make sure about the difference between the two types coding. Discussion The discussion section of the research seemed to flow in haphazard manner; it did not even cover the results of the researcher. It can be said that it seemed as if the researcher was just making assumptions. And not giving proper analysis of the results. Apart from this the heading should have been analysis and not discussion as it is a quantitative research and in quantitative researches the results are analyzed not just discussed. The section it’s self was small in size, the entire research depends on the results and analysis of the results, thus this section should have been a bit longer. However the researcher went through all the steps of testing a hypothesis he stating the null hypothesis; selecting a level of significance; identifying the test statistic; stating the decision rule; and taking a sample and arriving at a decision (Hodson 1995 p9). One must properly identify the appropriate data and levels of measure for each test in order to reach an accurate conclusion of whether or not to reject or accept the null hypothesis (Segal 2004 p89) Validity and Reliability This article gives clearly proves that the findings are externally valid and can be can be generalized and implemented to the real world However the reliability of results is quite weak as the data was collected by means of counseling session and three scales; this is very objective way of collecting the data (Dennis 1993 p 57). Apart from this the counselor client interaction and social commitment are factors which cannot yield the same result every time they are tested. These are highly objective factors. The treatment adherence rating scale seemed to be the most objective scale used apart from this it’s validity and reliability was extremely low, where as the social commitment scale was comparatively stronger in validity and reliability however this scale was also objective in nature. Conclusion Finally the last point is whether the author reached the conclusion set at the start of the article? According to all the analysis gone through, it is negative. What is meant is that the opinion that the author wanted hasn't been obtained. The author highlights her personal view and backs it up via evidence provided but could not manage to get the clear evidence from the questions from the scale as it is too general and doesn't give a particular approach to the theme concerned which research. References Achelis, Steven B. ( 2000); Technical Analysis from A to Z: Covers Every Trading Tool...from the Absolute Breadth Index to the Zig Zag, McGraw-Hill Companies p 56 retrived on n 21 march 2009 from books.google.com.pk/books?isbn=0071363483 Bayne Rowan, Jenny Bimrose, Ian Horton (1996) New Directions in Counselling 321 pages, Routledge; 1 edition Ciaramicoli, Arthur P (2005) Integrating Spirituality and Religion into Counseling; Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association . Clinebell, Howard J., Jr.(2001); The Power of Empathy; NY: Penguin Cooper Mick (2008);Essential Research Findings in Counselling and Psychotherapy: The Facts are Friendly Sage Publications Ltd (in association with BACP); illustrated edition Dennis, R. M. (1993). Participant observations . In J. H. Stanfield, II, and R. M. Dennis (eds.). Race and ethnicity in research methods . Sage focus editions, (vol. 157) (pp. 53 74). Newbury Park, CA: Sage . Deurzen van Emmy (2001); Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice Sage Publications Ltd; Second Edition Dryden Windy &Neenan (2004) Michael Rational Emotive Behavioral Counseling in Action (Counseling in Action series), Sage Publications Ltd; Third Edition Etherington Kim (2002) Rehabilitation Counselling in Physical and Mental Jessica Kingsley Publishers Feltham Colin &, Dryden Windy (2006); Brief Counselling: A Practical Guide for Beginning Practitioners , Open University Press; 2 editions Heppner, Kivlighan, Wampold (2005); Research Design in CounselingWadsworth Publishing Co Inc; 3rd edition Hodson, R. (1999). Analyzing documentary accounts . Newbury Park, CA: Sage . Hough Margaret (2006); Counselling Skills and Theory (Paperback) , Hodder Arnold; 2 edition. Kidd Jenny (2006) ; Understanding Career Counselling: Theory, Research and Practice Sage Publications Ltd Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage . Lago Colin (2005); Race, Culture and Counselling: The Ongoing Challenge Open University Press; 2 editions Legg Charles (1998); Psychology and the Reflective Counsellor WileyBlackwell McLeod John (2003) Doing Counselling Research Sage Publications Ltd; Second Edition Mcleod John (2004); The Counsellor's Workbook: Developing a Personal Approach: Devloping a Personal Approach , Open University Press Mearns Dave& Thorne Brian (2007); Person-Centred Counselling in Action (Counselling in Action series) SAGE Publications Ltd; 3rd Edition Meyer Denise (2002); Meeting the Challenge of Student Mental Health (AUCC journal) British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Milner & Byrne (2003); Assessment in Counselling: Theory, Process and Decision Making [Illustrated] , Palgrave Macmillan; illustrated edition Nathan Robert &Estate Hill Linda (2005) Career Counseling (Counseling in Practice series), Sage Publications Ltd; Second Edition p34 Nijhoff (1978); International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. Volumes 1-4. (1978-1981) Boston: Randall E. Schumacker & Allen Akers ( 2001); Understanding Statistical Concepts Using S-plus Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc retrieved on 21 march 2009 from books.google.com.pk/books?isbn=0805836233 Redmond A, Keenan A-M and Landorf K (2000) 'Horses for courses':the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. Australasian Journal of Podiatric Medicine. Vol 34 no 1 pg(s) 5-14 Rowland Nancy & Goss Stephen (2000); Evidence-based Counselling and Psychological Therapies: Research and Applications Routledge; 1 edition. Sanders Pete (2002); First Steps in Counselling: A Students' Companion for Basic Introductory Courses , PCCS Books; 3Rev Ed edition Segal Julia (2004); Melanie Klein (Key Figures in Counselling and Psychotherapy series) Sage Publications Ltd; Second Edition Shorrock Andrew (2007) The Transpersonal in Psychology, Psychotherapy and Counselling" Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition Read More

Counseling is considered to be both, science as well as and an art. Counseling is an art as it is based on knowledge and inventions. Without these, no one can’t understand the client’s problem. In counseling, Knowing is worthless if trust between counselor and client is not developed thus making someone trust you is definitely an art nothing can replace the repeated interactions which a counselor has with his client to get detailed feedback regarding his habits and counseling is like art the counselor that picks up the paintbrush and tries many colors by to do trial and error so that he can get good feedback (Meyer 2002 p 45).

This means counseling can be regarded as an art as counselors are supposed to be good listeners, and listening can be considered as an art (Dryden & Neenan 2004 p46).However, counseling is also a science as the counselor completely depends on set standards of human development to evaluate the client's functioning and they also bring into consideration different developmental theories to assess the client thus it makes it a science (Nathan & Estate 2005 p34).The professional counselor knows that every person is different however, he uses his knowledge of developmental theory to analyze these differences.

As most of their practices are based on making decisions regarding human development.Counseling can also be considered a science as counselors usually make assumptions due to which they make their decisions (Bayne et al 1996 p20). However on the other hand it is also art as counseling people often means coping with emotion. As counselors start to discover the client’s problems, they frequently begin to go through emotional release. This is an important part of the practice in counseling and this makes it art as it is associated with understanding emotions.

 A lot of counseling research cannot be carried, if the subjects are fully informed regarding the objective of the study, thus a situation in which the counselor has to study people’s normal behavior like in research depending on natural observation, deceiving subjects is required. As they may not behave as they normally do because they know that they are being watched.Deception is only ethical in situations where the study will provide the researchers with a little important insight, it would not be possible to carry out the study without deceiving the people being studied.

A little deception is essential; the subjects should not always know that they can hide some data. For instance, Milgram (1974) discussed the issue of deception with his colleagues as he needed to deceive his subjects in his obedience experiments. The majority of his colleagues said that just one or two subjects would go through with the experiment. Anti prohibitionists argue certain aspects of human behavior can only be studied if people are caught off guard. Deception can be used in psychological research if it is regarding anti-social behavior the experimenter has to keep the purpose of the experiment hidden so that he can maintain experimental control.

Because in this situation if he does not use deception then their reactions of the subjects may be distorted and eventually limit the utilization of the study’s findings.Action Research requires particular care on the part of the researcher/professional/ manager/worker to demonstrate that those involved in the research have genuinely volunteered and have not been coerced to participate in any way.Researchers in action research should build a real ship of trust with research participants.

For example, before individuals agree to participate in research, investigators must be clear and explicit in describing to prospective participants what they will experience and what consequences may result from participation. Researchers also are obligated to honor all promises and commitments that are made as part of the agreement to participate. When full disclosure is not made before obtaining informed consent (e.g., information germane to the purpose of the study would compromise its validity), safeguards must be implemented to protect the welfare and dignity of participants.

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