Modeling Rehabilitation Counselor Clinical Judgment

To evaluate three proposed models of the rehabilitation counselor judgment process, we asked a sample of master's level rehabilitation counselors selected from a random list provided by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification to engage in a series of judgment tasks. Counselors made multiple judgments about a large number of clients whose information we systematically varied across three dimensions: severity of disability, degree of psychosocial adjustment, and IQ level. These data were then analyzed using path analytic techniques to determine which of the three models (complex, fully mediated, or simple) was the best description of the process rehabilitation counselors followed to make two predictive judgments (likelihood of progress in counseling and likelihood of obtaining employment) about clients with disabilities. In both instances, the fully mediated model was the most parsimonious yet most explanatory model of the process. Implications for theory, research, practice, and education are discussed.