In the 1970s, microcounseling skills training was developed with contributions from which group of individuals?

• A. Carl Rogers
• B. Carkhiff, Ivey, and Egan
• C. Sigmund Freud
• D. B.F. Skinner

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is how targeted, observable counseling behaviors were developed into a formal training approach in the 1970s. Microcounseling skills training came from a collaboration among practitioners who focused on teaching and evaluating tiny, repeatable counseling actions—things you can see a student do in a role-play and improve with practice.

Carkhuff introduced the core idea of rating and refining basic helping responses, emphasizing empathy, concreteness, and genuineness as measurable qualities. Ivey built on that by outlining a practical set of micro-skills—attending, reflecting, paraphrasing, summarizing, open and closed questions, and other brief techniques—that could be taught, practiced, and assessed. Egan then integrated these micro-skills into a straightforward helping framework that guides learners step by step toward facilitating client change. Together, their work in that era gave training programs a concrete, skill-based foundation for developing competent beginning counselors.

Other figures like Carl Rogers are tied to broader theoretical approaches such as client-centered therapy, while Freud and Skinner are associated with psychoanalysis and behaviorism, not the specific micro-skills training movement that emerged in the 1970s.