Background and aims: Perceived professional competences are necessary elements of professional identity, and a developing professional identity reinforces subjective professional competences in turn. We study how graduate university studies shape counselling psychology competences and professional identity at a counselling psychology professional postgraduate programme in Hungary.
Method: Paper-pen questionnaires were used to explore Hungarian counselling psychologists’ perception of their professional competences. Their professional collective self-esteem was measured by a Hungarian adaptation of Crocker and Luhtanen’s Collective Self-esteem Scale We asked 334 postgraduate counselling psychologists entering or finishing the professional training of counselling psychology after their Psychology MA. The data collection was conducted in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Results: Graduating students in the counselling psychology postgraduate training programme felt significantly more competent as compared to their first year answers. Significant increase was detected in the competences covering personal-, family- and group-counselling, crisis-intervention, in the competences of helping lifestyle change, motivating clients to psychotherapy. In a multiple regression analysis, competences in counselling intervention and in conducting first (explorative) interview appeared as the main predictors of a perceived general professional competence. The dimensions of professional collective self-esteem (private, public, identification, membership) change as well during the training, and correlate with the strengthening of the perceived professional competences at the same time.
Discussion: Our results show a significant and meaningful change in both perceived professional competencies and professional identification during postgraduate studies. And we could also show their mutual reinforcement.
