How do people counsel others in everyday life? Verbal categories developed with a grounded theory approach

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate how non-professional people counsel others, by examining their natural dialogues in a role-played counseling and helping situation. In order to do an inductive analysis of the dialogue data, grounded theory (a kind of qualitative approach) was used. Dialogues between same-age and same-sex pairs of university students were recorded, in which the students role-played counseling and helping situations, either presenting a problem (2 men, 2 women) or listening (10 men, 10 women). After categories were created from the data in 4 analytical stages from labeling concepts to selecting final categories, 6 categories were extracted: (1) guessing/understanding/confirmation, (2) affirmation/reception, (3) searching for information, (4) disclosure of self and acquaintance, (5) presentation of a different viewpoint, and (6) remarks aimed at solving the problem. Comparing these categories with those from previous studies, it was found that non-professional listeners disclosed their own experiences and promoted problem resolution differently from the methods of a clinical interview or professional helping techniques. The categories in the present study, derived from the participants' data, realistically portrayed counseling that people do to help others in their daily lives. In the past, this topic has not been investigated through research.