C. Gilbert Wrenn

Client-Centered Counseling

THE contribution made by Rogers in his published statements regarding non-directive counseling has been very considerable. The emphasis has been laid upon what actually happens to the client as opposed to the counselor’s conclusions concerning him, There is little doubt that this is a needed emphasis and, although not a new concept, a contribution to effective practice. Rogers writes persuasively and i t is only upon carefuI appraisal that one becomes aware of certain inconsistencies in his concepts. All prbponents of new ideas or emphases are liable to the error of overenthusiasm in their approach and to a belief that the new concept or method will provide a much needed panacea. This enthusiasm coupled with persuasive writing has made Rogers’ publications particularly difficult to evaluate (3,4). One assumption that .seems to be in error is that clientcentered counseling and non-directive counseling are synonymous. Clienticentered counseling has been used in varying degrees of emphasis by counselors for generations. Rogers has carried this concept to its ultimate extreme and has termed it He has systematized the approach a t this ultimate level and has provided an excellent discussion of procedures to be used and cautions to be observed. He believes that directive counseling is guilty of grave error in the extent to which the counselor assumes responsibility for the conclusions reached. For when the student’s mental processes are not the focus-of attention, two errors are apt to be in evidence: (1) there is lack of awareness of the extent to which the diagnosis and conclusions of the counselor are accepted and (2) there is a glossing over of repressed but possibly more fundamental difficulties in the emotional and rational life of the client. Rogers’ treatment, however, has been almost a Philippic against what he terms “directive counseling.” I n charging directive counseling with neglect of the cIient and in proposing non-directive.” CC

Introversion-Extroversion as a Factor in Teacher-Training

NE OF THE SERIOUS problems facing teacher-training institutions today is the selection of student personnel. Many teachers are unsatisfactory either because of inadequate training or unfortunate personality characteristics. Teachertraining institutions must select students who can benefit most from the improved training programs now provided. This study is intended to throw some light on the relationship of personality traits to student success in teacher-training programs. More specifically, the purpose of this study has been to determine the relationship of Introversion-Extroversion’ to the scholastic achievement and student teaching success of education students. An I-E Inventory was administered to 396 seniors in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota. This inventory will be described briefly in order that the results of the study may be understood clearly. A

Student Discipline in a College

No one can speak about discipline without making quite clear what he means by the word. In a discussion of this subject it should be clear that whereas the ordinary connotation of the word “discipline” is that it means punishment of some sort, a restriction or an obligation placed upon a person because he has violated the mores or a law, there is another entirely different meaning. By this meaning of the word, “discipline” signifies self-control. A well-disciplined person is an individual who has thorough control of himself, who takes care of the situation within himself and without outer regulation. The actual evolution of the concept of discipline in colleges is that of moving from the first concept to the second. We are more concerned now than ever before with matters of self-control, self-decision, and self-determination in the lives of students. We realize now that many of the arrangements made for the so-called “welfare” of students have not contributed a t all to the welfare of the growth of the individual. These arrangements have, on the other hand, been for the welfare of the group, or of the institution, or of society, but perhaps a t the expense of the growing maturity of the individual.

Presidential Address: “The Fault, Dear Brutus—”

LAST year at the occasion of the annual banquet I discussed certain critical points in the organization and functioning of student personnel work. This year I should like to speak about the personnel workers themselves. This means shifting attention from the job to the person performing the job, and that includes all of us. Any of you who have been sufficiently curious about the title of this address to recall the balance of the quotation will have realized by this time that the topic was addressed to us as people rather than to the job to be done. When Shakespeare had Cassius say “the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings” he was speaking of the larger significance of human existence itself, but it seemed to me that his thought might be applied to this day and age and to us. We are a comparatively young profession and it is common for the young occasionally to raise questions about themselves and their purposes in life. Our youth as a profession is a strength in that it enables us to be vigorous and aggressive and to make mistakes without being too much disturbed by them. It is at the same time a weakness, for we are all too frequently as lacking in consistency and self-assurance as is the adolescent in general. A logical interpretation of this quotation would lead to the conclusion that I believe that personnel workers are in the position of “underlings.” There are times, of course, when each of us is quite sure that he is an underling, subordinate to far too many people, but it is not my belief that the profession is now in a position subordinate to that of other educational specialties. I think we have grown out of our swaddling clothes, that personnel work is a distinct personality in the family of professions. Personnel work never was an unwanted child for it was born of

POWERS, EDWIN, and HELEN WITMER. An Experiment in the Prevention of Delinquency : The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Foreword by Gordon W. Allport. Pp. xliii, 649. New York: Columbia University Press, 1951.

hands of the professionally interested. But further, it has wide implications and use far beyond the field of marriage counseling. For instance, &dquo;Current Events Affecting Marriage Counseling&dquo; (Chapter 2), treats intimate human interaction through the periods of social change and wartime disruption in far more vivid living terms than do most treatises on. the subject: &dquo;And while these years were passing, men and women were living together in love and hate, in sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, in war and peace, as they have since the beginning of time. Others, separated by the exigencies of war,

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meets the obligations of the criterion oi efficiency of testing inherent in Seidenfeld’s article (5) ). An individual of borderline intelligence cannot plan on a professional career, nor will a subject whose measured interests are in literary and persuasive pursuits be most satisfied in manual activity. III a diagnostic problem the same procedure holds, early definition of pertinent dimensions to aid in the construction of an efficient, feasible test battery (such as, intelligence and visual ability in

Counseling Students Toward Scholastic Adjustment

THE prediction of scholastic success has commanded the attention of psychologists and educators for several years, with much research being done on this subject. More recently this question of scholastic success has been applied to veterans. Certain speculations have been made concerning the motivation and maturation peculiar to veterans and the relation of these to scholastic success. Now that veterans are beginning to return to the campuses, it is desirable to be able to predict the scholastic success of these veterans in order that the colleges and universities may be able to counsel with them and to help them efficiently plan their college training. To date, the primary use that has been made of the General Educational Development Tests is in determining advanced standing for veterans; however, it is conceivable that these tests are efficient predictors of scholastic success. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which these tests would predict the scholastic success of veterans. Specifically the problem may be stated-To what extent will the GED Tests predict the honor-point ratio o f veterans who are first-term freshmen in the General College of the University of Minnesota? This problem can best be understood in the light of previous studies of the prediction of scholastic success.

The GED tests as predictors of scholastic success.

very skeptical of its use for this purpose, for not only would the various concepts lack clarity, but definitely wrong ideas could be inculcated. Such students might readily think they could become great statisticians in a few easy lessons. The group which can thoroughly enjoy and profit from the reading of this book is composed of mature statisticians. They have toiled over the difficult paths leading to various peaks; they know the details and the at times too glib presentations will not deceive them. To them the integrating effect of this bird’s eye view of all the various techniques will be exhilarating. NEIL J. VAN STEENBERG Personnel Research Bureau—PRPD, TAGO Department of the Army

Book Reviews : Guidance: An Introduction, by Merle M. Ohlsen. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, I955. xii + 436 pp.

IT is not easy for me to be humorous in a manuscript, I tried humor on this group several years ago at St. Louis. A parable was told about the characters Personnel, his mother, Mrs. Academic Work, a Doctor Statistic, and even Ferdinand the Bull was brought in. I thought it was clever and humorous, but I was the only one who laughed! So I must perforce be serious and this year I thought I’d go the whole way and be tragic. Before I put on my Hamlet robes, allow me to be a prologue reader and relate some of the cheerful things about developments in college personnel work. The assumption of responsibility for personnel functions is more widespread. Not everyone who talks about the need for student personnel work knows what he is asking for but the use of personnel procedures in the military and in industry during the war has made the term respectable. It is less often confused in spelling with the word &dquo;personal.&dquo; This sounds as though I were trying to be clever and a little cynical. Not so. There is danger, of course, in a