Relation of Power and Involvement to Theoretical Orientation in Supervision: An Analysis of Discourse

Power and involvement are two fundamental dimensions of primary relationships. We studied the relevance of these two dimensions in the supervisory relationship. A multiple-case-study approach was used to describe systematically the discourse of the five supervision interviews of the Goodyear (1982) series, Psychotherapy Supervision by Major Theorists ; we compared these results with previous findings that have reported impressional characteristics of the interviews. The content-analysis scheme used to describe the discourse was developed by Penman (1980) and includes both manifest and latent levels of communication organized on the two dimensions of power and involvement. The sequences of verbal messages in each of the interviews were analyzed by using unidirectional and dominance sequential tests. The results indicate that although there was a primary pattern of teacher-learner interaction in all interviews, each interview exhibited a unique style with regard to the sequences of messages between supervisor and supervisee and the characteristics of power and involvement as defined by the Penman scheme. We discuss the characteristics of the interviews, as described by the results of the content and sequential analyses, in relation to the theoretical orientation of each supervisor.