The uses and effects of coding schemes in research on counseling process and outcome are analyzed. It is concluded that the interpretation1 of counseling events in terms of the categories of a coding scheme attenuates at adequate description of those events whenever the researcher uses the coder `s interpretation of events as if it were veridical with the participants' inter prctation. Conversation analysis and ethnomethodology are proposed as alternate methods of data collection. These methods rely on detailed observation of the sequential utterances of counselor and client in order to identify the structures of their interaction that lend the encounter its perceived character for the participants. Thus, the context of meaning created by the participants through their relationship of interaction is made topical in the analysis of the ongoing even is of the interview.
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