APPLICATION OF ADAPTIVE COUNSELING AND THERAPY TO CAREER COUNSELING

The relationship between client readiness to resolve career indecision and preference for counselors exhibiting varying levels of directiven ess and supportiveness, as defined in Adaptive Counseling Therapy (ACT ; Howard, Nance, and Myers, 1986), was examined. Questionnaires (the A djective Checklist [ACL; Cough and Heilbrun, 1983], the Brief Symptom Inventory [BSI; Derogatis and Spencer, 1982], the Client Readiness Mea sure [CRM; Anderson, 1991], the Counselor Preference Measure [CPM; And erson, 1991], and the Validity Scale [VS; Anderson, 1991]) were admini stered to 191 college undergraduates (137 females, 54 males; mean age = 19.4) enrolled in a career development course. As prescribed in ACT theory, a negative relationship between client readiness and preferenc e for counselor directiveness, and a curvilinear relationship (an inve rted U) between client readiness and Preference for Supportiveness wer e expected. Application of ACT theory to career counseling was partial ly supported by correlational analysis and an analysis of variance, ea ch of which yielded a significant, negative relationship (p < .05) bet ween client readiness and counselor directiveness. No relation was fou nd between client readiness and counselor supportiveness.