Pastoral counsellors' value systems and moral judgement development : a practical theological study

Abstract

Recent literature by several eminent psychotherapists ·such as Bergin and Beutler argues that counsellors' personal values are probably the greatest influence on the success and outcome of therapy and that the counsellor tends to convert the client to the counsellor's values. This literature provided strong support for this researcher's contention of the need for similar studies in pastoral counselling. The researcher was particularly concerned about the role of pastoral counsellors' value systems and moral judgement development in counselling situations. The researcher selected the Rokeach Value Survey and the Rest Defining Issues Test as instruments to test a sample of South African pastoral counsellors in this regard. The research questions addressed were as follows. Firstly, what are the value systems of a sample of pastoral counsellors in the South African context? Secondly, what are the moral judgement development levels of the pastoral counsellors? Thirdly, what is the relationship between the rank ordering of values and pastoral counsellors' levels of moral judgement development? Fourthly, what implications could these variables have for pastoral-client pairing in pastoral counselling? The chief findings were as follows. Firstly, the pastoral counsellors were shown to have conservative value systems with a preference for introspective terminal values over social terminal values. Secondly, the pastoral counsellors had a P score of 39.6 on the Defining Issues Test. This compares favourably with Asian university students who score between 36-40 as opposed to American university students who have a mean P score of 42.6. The researcher concluded that the conservative religious ideology of the sample helped to explain the low P scores somewhat. Thirdly, the Spearman correlational coefficient indicated little correlation between the Rokeach Value Survey and the Rest Defining Issues Test. Fourthly, both instruments indicated that the conservative nature of the pastoral counsellors would no doubt make them very effective counsellors in most denominations. They would tend to counsel in support of the status quo in the church. A major recommendation of the study was the need for further pastoral counsellor education in dealing with moral values issues.