Common Habits of Mind Among Students of Psychological Counseling Diploma that Predict Effective Performance Incounseling

Abstract. This study aims to examine common Habits of Mind among students of psychological counseling that predict effective performance in counselingthrough the sixteen habits of mind determined by psychologists. The study sample consisted of 216 male and female students from different regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They were subjected to the Habits of Mind scale and Counseling Effective Performance scale. The results showed higher statistically significant differences at the 0.01 level of the hypothetical means than of the experimental means in all habits of mind. This means that the Habits of Mind of the study sample participants are very weak.

The results also indicated that it is possible to predict the effectiveness of counseling performance through habits of mind, and the most effective habits are finding humor, learning continuously and listening to others with understanding and empathy. The results showed no statistically significant differences between mean scores of the participants in the Habits of Mind and this confirms the relationship between effective counseling performance and habits of mind of males and females. Besides, there were no differences based on age, specialization of a school counselor, the current educational stage in which a school counselor works or basis of accreditation as a school counselor.

Key words: Habits of Mind,counseling performance, psychological counselor