Microskills practice versus mental practice training for competence in decision-making counseling.

Undergraduates enrolled in an introductory counseling course who lacked training and experience as counselors were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 decision-making counseling training groups or to a wait-control (WC) group. Microskills practice (MS) and mental practice (MP) were each separately combined with instructions, modeling, feedback, and review in the 2 treatment groups. Data from independent ratings of the videotapes indicate that MS and MP were superior to WC on 3 of 5 qualitative dimensions and a proficiency measure. Implications for teaching higher-order counseling skills are discussed. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)