CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills Notes

FACTS THAT MATTER

• Psychology is based on certain basic assumptions. It is generally assumed that psychologists have interest in:
• People
• Abilities
• Temperament
• A professional psychologist exhibit a willingness to provide help by using his/her knowledge.

He/she is actively involved in obtaining:
Client’s History Assessment of his/her personality Socio-cultural environment
• A client refers to an individual/group/organisation who on his/her own seeks help, guidance or intervention from a psychologist with respect to any problem faced by him/her.
Skill is proficiency, facility or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training and experience.
The Webster Dictionary defines it as “possession of the qualities required to do something done.
• American Psychological Association (1973) identifzed skills essential for professional psychologists, and recommended at least 3 sets of skills:
• Assessment of individual differences
• Behaviour modification skills
• Counselling and guidance skills
• Recognization and application of these skills and competencies have strengthened the foundation and practices of applied psychology in a positive way.

Basic skills or competencies which psychologists have identified for becoming an effective psychologists are:
• General skills
• Observational skills
• Specific skills
• General skills include personal as well as intellectual skills.
Psychologists as researchers and practitioners do in the field is to pay attention, watch and listen carefully.
A psychologist is like an instrument that absorbs all sources of information from the environment.

• Observational skills:
A psychologist engages in observing various facets of surroundings including people and varying events.
In addition to physical surrounding, a psychologist actively engages in observing people and their actions. This may include the demographic features (age, gender, stature, race,
etc.), ways of dealing and relating with others, pattern of behaviours in the presence of others, etc.

• Major Approaches to Observation:
(i) Naturalistic Observation: Primary way of learning about the way people behave in a given setting.
(ii) Participant Observation: The observer is actively involved in the process of observing by becoming an active member of the setting where the observation takes place.

Specific Skills:
— Core/Basic to the field of psychological service, e.g.,
— Psychologists working in clinical settings need to be trained in various techniques of therapeutic interventions, psychological assessment and counselling.
— Specific skills of competencies are required for a very specialized professional functioning nonetheless, all skill sets do overlap quite a bit.
— Not exclusive to an area.

Specific Skills and Competencies
(a) Communication Skills
(b) Psychological Testing Skills
(c) Interviewing Skills Counselling
(d) Counselling Skill.

1. It is generally assumed that psychologists have interest in people, their abilities and temperaments.

2. A psychologist from any field is required to have interest in other people and exhibits a willingness to provide help by using his/her knowledge of the discipline.

3. Client is a special term, may refer to an individual/group/organization who on his/her own seeks help, guidance or intervention from a psychologist with respect to any problem faced by him/her.

4. The term ‘skill’ may be defined as proficiency, facility or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training and experience.

5. Assessment of individual differences, behaviour modification skills, and counselling and guidance skills.

6. How to differentiate between a pseudo-psychologist from a real psychologist:
(a) Professional training
(b) Educational background
(c) Institutional affiliation
(d) Experience in providing service
(e) Training as a researcher
(f) International of certain professional values
(g) Knowledge of tools used by psychologists

7. Research psychologists and applied psychologists. Some psychologists carry out research to propound or investigate theoretical formulations while others are concerned with our daily life activities and behaviour.

8. The basic skills or competencies which psychologist fall into three broad sections, namely,
(a) General Skills, (b) Observational Skills, (c) Specific Skills.

9. Genetic in nature.

10. Specific Skills.
1. Specific skills and competencies are required for a very specialized professional functioning.
2. They are not exclusive to an area.
3. Relevant specific skills and competencies can be classified as follows:
(a) Communication Skills
(i) Speaking
(ii) Active listening
(iii) Body language or non-verbal skills
(b) Psychological Testing Skills
(c) Interviewing Skills
(d) Counselling Skills
(i) Empathy
(ii) Positive
(iii) Authenticity

• The general and specific skills form the core competencies essential for a psychologist to act in a more responsive and ethical manner. Before entering any professional arena, it, therefore, becomes pertinent for a psychologist to equip himself/herself with these indispensable competencies.
• General skills include personal as well as intellectual skills. These skills are essential for all professional psychologists, whether they are working in the field of clinical and health psychology, industrial/organizational, social, educational, or in environmental settings or are acting as consultants.
• Specific skills are core/basic to the field of psychological service. For example, psychologist working in clinical setting needs to be trained in various techniques of therapeutic interventions, psychological assessment, and counselling.
• In order to become an effective psychologist, one needs to have certain characteristics such as competence, integrity, professional and scientific responsibility, respect for people’s rights and dignity, etc.
• Observation skills are basic skills and are used by psychologists as a starting point for providing insight into behaviour. The two major approaches to observation are naturalistic observation and participant observation.
• Interviewing is a process of face-to-face conversation between two or more people that follows a basic guest ion and answer firm at. It proceeds through three stages which include the warm-up (opening stage), the question and answer (the body), and the closing stage.
• Developing the skills of psychological testing is important since tests are important tools used for the assessment of individuals for various purposes. Proper training is required for administration, scoring and interpretation of tests.
• Counselling
Specific skills are core/basic to the psychological service. Psychologists working in clinical settings need to be trained is various techniques of therapeutic interventions,psychological assessment and counselling.
Counselling involves helping relationship, that includes some are seeking help and some one willing to give help.
Counsellor understand the elements about counselling like responding to all aspects of personality, acceptance of the client’s perception, confidentiality, voluntary nature and verbal and bon-verbal communication.
Counsellors follow the process of counselling. The qualities that are associated with effective counsellors are (i) Authenticity (ii) Positive regard for others (iii) Ability to empathise and paraphrasing.
Prevention seeks to reduce the incidence or new cases of social and emotional problems in the population.
Community Psychology and related community mental health movement try to prevent mental disorders from developing, to seek out, troubled people, to find the social conditions that may be causing human problems and to make available affordable mental health services.

WORDS THAT MATTER

• Applied Psychology: The practical application of what is known about the mind, brain and behaviour as a result of theoretical and experimental psychology.
• Assessment skill: Specific skill of a psychologist to follow systematic testing procedure with an attitude of objectivity, scientific orientation and standardised interpretation.
• Client refers to an individual/group/organisation who on his/her own seeks help, guidance or intervention from a psychologist with respect to any problem faced by him/her.
• Cognitive skill: Ability to understand and process mental faculties.
• Competence: Capability of developing skills.
• Counselling: Counselling is a therapeutic process through which individuals are helped to define goals, make decisions and solve problems related to the personal socialeducational and career concerns.
• The term ‘skill’ may be defined as proficiency, facility or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training and experience.
• General skills are generic in nature and are needed by all psychologists irrespective of their field of specialization.
• Ethical observation: Awareness of the ethical (Values) standards and codes during observation i.e. respecting privacy of people.
• Naturalistic observation is one of the primary ways of- learning about the way people behave in a given setting.
• Participant observation is the variation of the method of naturalistc observations.
Here the observer is actively involved in the process of observing by becoming an active member of the setting where the observation takes place.
• Communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and ideas are expressed as verbal and/or non-verbal message that are sent, received and comprehended.
• Interpersonal awareness: Ability to examine and considering ones own motives, attitudes behaviours and ability to be sensitive to ones own behaviour and others.
• Intervention and consultation skills: Skill of helper to deal with the client establishing therapeutic relationship, providing positive regard and choosing right technique to treat the problem.
• Intrapersonal communication involves communication with yourself. It encompasses such activities as thought processes, personal decision of making and focusing oneself.
• Interpersonal communication refers to the communication that takes place between two or more persons who establish a communication relationship.
• Public communication is characterised by a speaker sending a message to an audience.
• Speech only a biological act; the utterance of sound, possibly the use of language.
• Paraphrasing allows you to understand how much he/she understood of what was communicated.
• The consistency between current and past patterns of behaviour, as well as harmony between verbal and non-verbal communication, is termed as congruency in communication.
• Psychological assessment is a basic competency required by psychologists. It is systematic testing procedures involving objectivity, standardization and systematic procedures.
• An interview refers purposeful conversation between two or more people that follows a basic ‘question and answer‘ format.

Question. What competencies are required for becoming an effective psychologist?
Answer. For becoming an effective psychologists, following competences are essential :
(a) General Skills (b) Observational Skills (c) Specific Skills
(a) General Skills:
• General skills are essential for all professional psychologists.
• These skills include personal as well as intellectual skills.
• Once ensuring that a student has these skills subsequent training in his/her area of specializations to him/her intellectual and personal skill are as follows:
Interpersonal Skills: Ability to listen and be empathic. It may be verbal or non-verbal.
• Cognitive:
— Ability to solve problems — Having curiosity and flexibility
• Affective Skills:
— Openness to ideas — Agreeableness — Honesty
• Expressive skills: Ability to communicate in verbal and non-verbal form.
• Reflective Skills:
— Intrapersonal intelligence — Ability to examine own motives, attitude and behaviour.
• Personal skills:
— Personal hygiene — Time management
(b) Observational Skills:
Psychologists should have training in objectives and systematic observation.
• They should have skill to observe various aspects of surrounding including people and varying events.
• Psychologists should engage in observing people and their actions with following precautions:
— Patience. — Optimistic curiosity.
— Respecting clients privacy.
— Awareness of people reactions, emotions and motivation.
— Training good questions which could be answered during observation.
(c) If the psychologist wants to work in a specialized field then professional training in specific skill development is essential.
The main specific skills are as follows:
(a) communication skills (b) Psychological testing skill
(c) Interviewing skill (d) Counselling skill

Question. What are the generic skills needed by all psychologists?
Answer. General/Generic Skills:
• These are essential for all professional psychologists.
• These skills include personal as well as intellectual skills.
Generic (intellectual and personal skills) are as follows:
Interpersonal Skills: Ability to listen and be empathic. It may be verbal or non-verbal.
• Cognitive:
— Ability to solve problems — Having curiosity and flexibility
• Affective Skills:
— Openness to ideas — Agreeableness — Honesty
• Expressive Skills: Ability to communicate in verbal and non-verbal form.
• Reflective Skills:
— Intrapersonal intelligence
— Ability to examine own motives, attitude and behaviour.
• Personal skills:
— Personal hygiene — Time management

Question. Define communication. Which component of the communication process is most important? Justify your answer with relevant examples.
Answer. Communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and ideas are expressed as verbal and/or non-verbal messages that are sent, received and comprehended.

Component of the Communication:
The mort important component of communication is speaking with the use of language.
• Language involves use of vocabulary which includes words by symbols.
• Communicator must know how to use words appropriately in organized and understandable form.
• It is necessary to be clear and precise.
• Communication takes place within a context and needs to consider the other’s frame of reference.
• It is important for the speaker to adjust his vocabulary level and choice of words to fit the level of the listener.
• Slang expressions, words unique to a culture, euphemism can become obstacles in good communication.
• Listening may appear as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence. But this is far from true.
• Listening requires a person to be attentive, patient, non-judgmental and have the capacity to analyze and respond.
• It is an active process.
• Hearing and listening are not the same, hearing is biological mechanism. It involves reception of a message through sensory channels.

Question. Describe the set of competencies that must be kept in mind while administering a psychological test.
Answer.
• Developing the skills of psychological testing is important since tests are important tools used for the assessment of individuals for various purposes. Proper training is
required for administration, scoring and interpretation of tests.
• Psychologists study individuals, differences based on factors such as occupation, age, gender, education, culture, etc.
• While using psychological test, following factors must be kept in mind:
1. An attitude of objectivity
2. Scientific orientation
3. Standardised Interpretation must be kept in mind. For example, in organizational and personnel work, in business and industry, where specialized tests are used to select individuals for specific jobs, it is essential to use actual performance records or ratings as a criterion for establishing validity of a test.
• Suppose the personnel department wants to know whether a certain psychological test can help it to identify potentiality of best stenographers.
• It must be established that the test differentiates among employees of several performance levels.
• It should be found the performance on the job of a newly employed worker selected on the basis of test indeed matches with his/her test scores.

Question. What is the typical format of a counselling interview?
Answer. Interview refers to purposeful conversation through face-to-face interactions.
• It follows a basic question-answer format.
• First, the objectives of the interview are set.
• The interviewer then prepares on interview format.
• There is a basic format which is followed, regardless of the interview’s purpose; i.e., an interview has three stages:
— Opening — The body — The closing

A. Opening of the Interview:
1. In involves establishing report between the two communicators, so that the interview becomes comfortable.
2. Generally, the interviewer starts the conversation and does most of the talking at the outset. This serves two functions:
(a) It establishes the goal of the interview
(b) It gives the interviewee time to become comfortable with the situation and the interviewer.

B. Body of the Interview:
1. This is the heart of the process.
2. In this stage, the interviewer asks questions in an attempt to generate information and data that are required to fulfil/required for the purpose.

Sequence of Questions:
To accomplish the purpose of an interview, the interviewer prepares set of questions called a schedule for different domains or categories he/she wants to cover.
1. To form the schedule, the interviewer must first decide on the domain/categories under which information is to be generated. For example for questions used in job interview (box 9.5), the interviewer selected various categories such as not use of the organization last worked for, satisfaction with the past job, views on product etc.
2. These domains/categories and the questions within them are formed ranging from easy to answer to difficult to answer.
C. Closing of the Interview:
While closing the interview, the interviewer should:
1. Summarise what she/he has been able to gather.
2. Give a chance to the interviewee to ask questions or offer comments. One should end with a discussion of the next step to be taken.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills  Multiple Choice Question

Question. The skills which are core to the field of psychological service are known as:
(a) specific skills
(b) general skills
(c) communication skills
(d) observational skills
Answer. B

Question. Mindfulness is related to—
(a) Hinduism
(b) Buddhism
(c) Jainism
(d) None of these
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following characteristics is related to effective counsellors?
(a) Authenticity
(b) Empathy
(c) Paraphrasing
(d) All of them
Answer. B

Question. Which of the following are the example of specific skills?
(a) Communication skills
(b) Counselling skills
(c) Interviewing skills
(d) All of them
Answer. D

Question. Psychologists study many differences based on factor such as—
(a) occupation
(b) age
(c) gender
(d) all of them
Answer. D

Question. Which of the following are not the section of basic skills?
(a) General skills
(b) Natural skills
(c) Specific skills
(d) Observational skills
Answer. C

Question. Which of the following is not the interpersonal skill?
(a) Ability to listen and empathic
(b) Interest in other’s cultures
(c) Respect for other’s values
(d) Ability to solve problems
Answer. D

Question. Which of the following is not the example of general skills?
(a) Cognitive skills
(b) Expressive skills
(c) Assessment skills
(d) Reflective skills
Answer. C

Question. Empathy is a part of ……………………skills.
(a) communication
(b) interviewing
(c) counselling
(d) psychological testing
Answer. C

Question. Intrapersonal communication refers to the communication that takes place between two or more persons. (True or False?)
Answer. False

Question. The initial step in the listening process is:
(a) attention to stimulus
(b) reception of stimulus
(c) paraphrasing of sentences
(d) assignment of meaning.
Answer. B

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills Very Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. Define the term skill.
Answer.
• The Skill is individual’s ability to perform a task with ease and precision.
• It is proficiency or dexterity that is acquired through training and experience.

Question. Who is a client in Psychology?
Answer. A client refers to an individual/group/organization who on his/her own seeks help from a psychologist with respect to any problem.

Question. How client is different from patient?
Answer. Client is active. The success of counselling depends on client as well as the counsellor. Patient is passive. He/she simply takes drug or follows instruction given by the doctor.

Question. What are personal skills?
Answer. Personal organization, personal hygiene, time management and appropriate desires are examples of personal skills.

Question. What skills have been recommended by APA for a professional Psychologist?
Answer. American Psychological Association (1973) identified skills essential for professional psychologists, and recommended at least three sets of skills :
– Assessment of individual differences – Behaviour modification skills
– Counselling and guidance skills
Recognization and application of these skills & competencies have strengthened the foundation & practices of applied psychology in a positive way.

Question. What is naturalistic observation?
Answer. Primary ways of learning about the way people behave in a given setting. Let us take an example:
Suppose you are interested to know how people behave in response to a heavy discount.
For this, you could visit the shopping mall where the discounted items are displayed and systematically observe what people do and say before and after the purchases have been made.

Question. What is participant-observation?
Answer. There the observer is actively involved in the process of observing by becoming an active member of the setting where the observation takes place.
For example, For the problem above, the observer may take a part-time job in a shopping mall variations in the behaviour of customers.
This technique is widely used by anthropologists.

Question. How is communication different from speech?
Answer. Speech is a biological act. It involves the utterance of sound and possible use of language.
Communication involves two people who give and receive meaningful message.
Thus speech may not have any meaning in the true sense but communication is essentially a meaningful process.

Question. How can you differentiate listening from hearing?
Answer. Hearing is a biological activity involving reception of message through sensory channels.
It is a part of listening.
Listening involves reception of message with giving attention to the message, and responding to the message received.

Question. What is ‘Paraphrasing‘?
Answer. Paraphrasing is one of the tools of the effective communication involving careful listening. ‘Paraphrasing‘ stands for restatement of the message received in the listener’s own words which conveys that message has been understood and ensures effective communication.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills Short Answer Type Questions

Question. What are advantages and disadvantages of observation?
Answer.
• Major advantage of observation is that it allows behaviour to be seen & studied in its natural setting.
• People from outside or those already working in a setting can be trained to use it.
• One disadvantage of observation is that events being observed are subject of bids due to the feelings of the people involved as well as of the observers.
• Generally day-to-day activities in a given setting are fairly routine which can go unnoticed by the observer.
• Mere presence of the observer may contaminate the results/observations.

Question. What are specific skills?
Answer.
• Core/basic to the field of psychological service, For example psychologists working in clinical settings need to be trained in various techniques of therapeutic interventions, psychological assessment and counselling.
• Specific skills of competencies are required for a very specialized professional functioning nonetheless, all skill sets do overlap quite a bit.
• Not exclusive to an area.

Question. What do you understand by communication skill in a professional psychologist?
Answer. Learning how to be an effective communicator is not just an academic exercise. It is one of the most important skills you will need to succeed in life. For example to do well in class one should be able to ask and answer questions, summarize opinions, distinguish facts from opinions and interact fruitfully. One should also have good listening. Skill is order to comprehend the information presented in class and what others say verbally and non-verbally. And requires good presentation skills to give briefings or to present reports on projects etc.

Question. Discuss features of an effective speaking.
Answer. Major component of communication is speaking with the use of language.
• Language involves use of vocabulary which includes words by symbols.
• Communicator must know how to use words appropriately in organized and understandable form.
• It is necessary to be clear and precise.
• Communication takes place within a context and needs to consider the other’s frame of reference.
• It is important for the speaker to adjust his vocabulary level and choice of words to fit the level of the listener.
• Slang expressions, words unique to a culture, euphemism can become obstacles in good communication.

Question. Mention some tips to improve the listening skills.
Answer. Listening is most important component of communication. It can be improved through following ways:
• Both the sender as well as the receiver are equally responsible for effective communication.
• Be a patient listener.
• Avoid ego speech, i.e., Allow others also to put their point of view.
• Control distractions.
• In a doubt paraphrase.
• Appropriate posture while listening.
• Good listening is an important characteristic and skill of a counsellor.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Explain types of interview questions and give examples of each.
Answer.
Direct Question: They are explicit and require specifying information. For example, “Where did you last work?”
Open-ended Question: They are less direct and specify only the topic. For example,
“How happy are you with your job on the whole?”
Close-ended Question: They provide response alternatives, narrowing the response variations. For example, “Do you think knowledge of a product or communication skill is more important for a salesperson?”
Bipolar Question: It is a form of close-ended question. It requires a ‘yes‘ or ‘no‘ response.
For example, “Would you like to work for the company?”
Leading Question: It encourages a response in favour of a specific answer. For example,
“Wouldn’t you say you are in favour of having officer’s union in the company?”
Mirror Question: They are intended to get a person to reflect on what he or she had said and expand on it. For example, you said, “I work so hard but I am unable to get success.” Please explain as to why this happens.

Question. How to differentiate between pseudo-psychologist from a real psychologist?
Answer. The answer can be found by asking questions like:
— Professional training — Educational background
— Institutional affiliation — His/her experience in a particular specified field.
(a) Training as a research and internalization of certain professional value is critical.Knowledge of tools used by psychologists, their methods and theories are required to develop psychological expertise.
For example, a professional psychologist addresses the problem in a scientific level. They take their problems to the laboratory or field settings to solve various problems. He/She tries to find the answer in mathematical probability. Only then he/she arrives to psychological principles or laws.
(b) Some psychologists carry out research to propound or investigate theoretical formulations while others and concerned with our daily life activities and behaviour.
We need scientists to develop theories and others to find solutions to human problems. Both are real psychologists.
(c) Conditions and competencies are necessary besides research skills for a psychologist.
(d) Basic skills or competencies which psychologists have identified for becoming an effective psychologists are: (i) General skills (ii) Observational skills (iii) Specific skills

Question. What are observational skills essential for a professional psychologist?
Answer. Psychologists as researchers and practitioners pay attention, watch and listen carefully.
They use all their senses, noticing what is seen, heard, smelt, touched, tasted.
A psychologist, thus, is like an instrument that absorbs all sources of information from the environment.
Psychologists should have training in objectives and systematic observation.
• They should have skill to observe various aspects of surrounding including people and varying events.
• Psychologists should engage in observing people and their actions with following precautions:
— Patience — Optimistic curiosity — Respecting clients privacy.
— Awareness of peoples reactions, emotions and motivation.
— Training good questions which could be answered during observation.

Question. Define communication. Mention its main characteristics.
Answer. Communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and ideas are expressed as verbal and/or non-verbal messages that are sen, received and Comprehended.
Characteristics of communication:
• Dynamic process, because it is constantly in a state of change.
• Continuous process, because it never stops.
• Irreversible because, once we send a message, we cannot take it back.
• Interactive because, we are constantly in contact with other people and with ourselves.

Question. Explain the components in the process of communication.
Answer. The process of communication may occur in three forms:
• Accidental—communication without intention.
• Expressive—resulting from emotional state of the person to express his/her feelings or ideas.
• Rhetorical—resulting from the specific goal.
The process of human communication occurs at following levels:
(a) Intrapersonal—communicating with oneself e.g., thought processes or decision-making.
(b) Interpersonal—occurs between two or more persons.
(c) Public—characterized by a speaker sending a message to an audience. It may be direct or indirect. e.g., messages through radio or TV.
The process of communication involves two or more than two people. i.e.,
(a) Sender (b) Receiver
• The sender encodes the message. Encoding is a component of communication.
• Encoding refers to taking ideas, giving meaning to it and putting them in message form.
• Receiver does decoding. Decoding is another component of communication.
• Decoding refers to translating the message into understandable forms using his primary signal system.
Between encoding and decoding, various factors like non-verbal cues, aspects of paralanguage, communication channel, actual words used, artifacts, amount of information and noise influence the communication.

CBSE Class 12 Psychology Chapter 9 Developing Psychological Skills Short Answer Type Questions 

Question. Discuss listening as an effective component of communication.
Answer.
• Listening may appear as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence. But this is far from true.
• Listening requires a person to be attentive, patient, non-judgmental and have the capacity to analyze and respond.
• It is an active process.
• Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is biological mechanism. It involves reception of a message through sensory channels.

Listening involves following components:

1. Reception: (i) Reception is initial step in the listening process.
(ii) A message could be auditory or/and visual.
(iii) Reception refers to an overall effect of various sense orgAnswer. People also listen through their visual system. They observe person’s facial expressions, posture and appearance which provide important cues that may not be obvious merely by listening to the verbal part of the message.

2. Attention: (i) Once the stimulus/message is received, it reaches the attention stage.
(ii) In this stage, the other stimuli recede so that we can concentrate on specific words or visual symbols.
(iii) Normally attention is divided between what you are attempting to listen to, and what is happening around you, and what is going on in your mind. For example, you are watching a movie. The person in front of you is constantly whispering to his/ her friend. There is a buzz in the sound system. So your attention is being pulled in different directions. This makes it difficult for you to receive signals/messages.

3. Paraphrasing: (i) Paraphrasing is summarizing the content in ones own words.
(ii) It allows you to understand how much he/she understood of what was communicated.
(iii) If someone cannot write or repeat a summary of what was communicated, he/she probably didn’t get the whole message.

4. Assignment of Meaning: The process of putting the stimulus we have received into some predetermined category develops as we acquire language. e.g., categorising the word ‘cheese‘ may include factors as the taste, dairy product, colour, etc.

5. Role of Culture in Listening: Culture influences our listening and learning abilities. For example, Asian cultur like Indians are silent communicators when receiving messages from seniors.Some cultures focus on controlling attention. For example, Buddhism have a notion called ‘Mindfulness‘. It means devoting your complete attention to what you are doing.

Question. What do you understand by the term ‘counselling’? Explain the characteristics of an effective counsellor.
Answer.
• Counselling is “a therapeutic and growth process through which individuals are helped to define goals, make decisions and solve problems related to the personal–social educational and career concerns.”
• Counselling involves helping relationship, that includes someone seeking help and someone willing to give help who is capable of or trained to help in a setting that permits help to be given and received.

The effectiveness of the counsellor is assessed by:
1. The ability to successfully resolve the client’s problems.
2. Certain skills and characteristics which help in the process of counselling.
3. Following are the characteristics of an effective counsellor.

1. Authenticity: Authenticity means ‘Being yourself’. It stands for accepting and knowing oneself and one’s positive as well as negative aspects of personality, i.e.,
accepting weaknesses as well as the strength of oneself.
• Authenticity is acting without mask, without disguising oneself, without playing any role. (It is like you are not an actor in some play.)
• It means that ones behaviour is consistence with his image and self-concept.
• It refers to congruence between how individual describe himself that is his ‘I’
and what is collective judgment of others regarding him that is his ‘Me’.
Fenture and seeks your advise whether he should tell this honestly to his parents?
If you feel that being honest to the parents is important and you give the same advice to him, then you are being authentic.

2. Positive Regard: Positive regard is acceptinor example, When a friend tells you that he had spent all of his money on a useless vg the person as he/she is, with nonjudgmental
and unbiased attitude with all his strengths and weaknesses and gray areas of his personality.
It can be done by:
(a) using the word ‘I’ rather than ‘You’.
(b) giving him freedom to say anything he wishes to say.
(c) expressing yourself, your feelings and opinions.
(d) responding carefully.
(e) not engaging in labelling. Being non-judgmental.
For example—If your friend tells you that last night he behaved very rudely with his parents and now he does not know what to do, instead of lecturing him on the mannerism and labelling him as ill mannered, you should try to understand him, go deep into the problem and situation and then give any advice, if needed.

3. Empathy: It is the ability to understand the problem of the client ‘as if’ it was your own, without loosing the ‘as if’ quality—it means that you should be scientific enough to feel the pain of the other person on the same level as he is, but it does not imply that you loose control over yourself, in that case you won’t be able to help the person. For example, Suppose your best friends’ grandmother died recently, you should be able to feel the same emotion with the same intensity but it does not mean you go into depression.

4. Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing involves putting the message into your own words.
Example: Client—I can not cope with the pressure of studies. I feel as if I am being deprived of the joys of life.
Counsellor—You are frustrated with studying all the time, which means no time for play.

Question. To be an effective counsellor, it is mandatory that he/she undergoes professional training.
Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons in support of your arguments.
Answer. Psychologist must be a trained professional. If he/she is not trained then he/she can do more harm than any good.
Training is a prerequisite for developing a competent counsellor. To develop competencies, psychologists must undergo proper training and education under guided supervision. The consequences of getting into a wrong vocation are pretty serious. If a person enters a job, for which he/she does not have requisite aptitude, he can develop serious problems of adjustments, develop negative emotions, etc.
Social workers, marriage counsellors, family therapists, psychologists, student counsellors all have their ethical codes and ascribe minimum educational and professional qualifications. Awareness of ethical standards, codes and proper training is extremely important because counselling is a part of the service sector. Not following the ethical and professional standards may have legal implications.

Question. What are the ethical considerations in client-counsellor relationships?
Answer. The practical knowledge of ethical domains can guide the practice of counselling in achieving its desired purpose.
Some of the APA practice guidelines are :
• Knowledge of ethical/professional codes, standards, and guidelines; knowledge of statutes, rules, regulations, and case law relevant to the practice of psychology.
• Recognize and analyse ethical setting.
• Recognize and understand the ethical dimensions/features of his/her own attitudes and practice in the clinical setting.
• Seek appropriate information and consultation when faced with ethical issue.
• Practice appropriate professional assertiveness related to ethical issues.

Question. Identify an aspect of your friend’s personal life that he/she wants to change. As a student of psychology, think of specific ways in which you can devise a programme to help your friend modify or solve his/her problem .
Answer. I will suggest my friend to develop wellness cycle, i.e., a process of coping with stress effectively by focusing on behavioural, physical and emotional responses. e.g., a friend of mine has moved to a new city with a new job but is extremely afraid of being all on her own as she is extremely shy and does not make friends easily.
• She may either attempt to deal with this situation by remaining indoors after work,
staying to herself and thus wallowing in her misery.
• She may choose affective methods of coping with this stressor. Following the wellness cycle, she may select any number of health promoting lifestyle responses. For instance, she may force herself to take initiative at work so that people will get to know her. This will help build her self-esteem. She may use adaptive physical responses, for instance, she may start aerobic classes or run every morning. This will make her feel more energetic as well as it may give her the opportunity to meet more people with similar interests. Finally, she may engage in adaptive emotional responses like restructuring her thoughts in such a way that she reminds herself everyday that she is happy, she is friendly, and people do like her.

Question. Discuss main elements of counselling.
Answer. The following elements about counselling are common to the major theoretical approaches to counselling:
1. Counselling involves responding to the feeling, thoughts and actions of the clients.
2. Counselling involves a basic acceptance of the client’s perception unconditional of positive regard and feelings without using any evaluative standards.
3. Confidentiality and privacy constitute essential ingredients—in the counselling setting.
4. Counselling is voluntary. It takes place when the client approaches a counsellor.
A counsellor never uses any kind of coercion for obtaining information.
5. Counselling is an interactive process. Counsellor and clients both transmit and receive verbal and non-verbal messages during the process. Therefore awareness and sensitivity to the nature of the message is an important prerequisite for the counsellor’s effectiveness.

Question. Mention some myths attached to counselling.
Answer.
• Counselling is not merely giving information.
• Counselling is not giving advice although information and advice may be sought.
• Counselling is not selection and placement of individuals onto jobs or course, although career counselling may be provided to help the person choose among varied career options.
• Counselling is not interviewing but it may be used as a tool in counselling.
• Counselling does not involve changing or influencing attitude, belief and behaviour by persuasion, threat, compulsion, or admonition.