A Study on Solution-Focused Skills in Career Counseling with University Students

The purpose of this study was to experimentally compare the solution-focused skills (SFA) with basic listening skills (BL) in career counseling with university students.　In experiment 1, features of SFA and BL were compared and clarified.　In experiment 2, in order to examine functions of SFA, differences in responses to questions based on future- focused (SFA1) and present-focused (SFA2) SFA were analyzed.　Participants were randomly assigned to SFA (SFA1, SFA2) group or BL groups.　Five counseling sessions were conducted for 30 minutes with each participant on a biweekly basis.Questionnaires were administered to evaluate the effects of SFA or BL after the 5th session.　Main results indicated that the SFA group, in contrast to the BL group, had higher expectations, changed cognitions of problems, and increased problem solving behaviors.　In addition, SFA2 increased self-efficacy more than SFA1.　However, it was not clear, whether this was a function of original SFA.　Finally, some methodological problems of this study were discussed.