사이버 세계에서의 의사소통 특성을 활용한 새로운 상담기법의 고찰

Abstract

Our society is now turning into the information society in which all the people are accustomed to utilize the internet as a vehicle to get various information for solving problems faced with their lives. The internet is installed with the combination of computer systems and telecommunication technology. The internet has the strongest power to store and deliver plenty of information. In this sense, it is called the 'sea of information' or cyber-world that provides us with new phases of communication. The purpose of this study is to review the characteristics of communication in the cyber-world and to show their implications for new counseling techniques. More specific issues of this study are as follows. First, what are the characteristics of communication and information exchange in the cyber-world? Second, what are the new counseling techniques that make use of the characteristics of the cyber-world? Third, what are the further tasks for developing the counseling discipline in the cyber-world? The conclusion of this study is summarized as follows. First, communication methods in the cyber-world can be characterized as 1) the anonymity of information sender and information receiver, 2) the openness of information that everybody can access in the cyber-world, 3) the transcendence of time and space with respect to communication, 4) simultaneous or delayed interaction of communication, 5) one-to-one counseling as well as interactive counseling between a group of counselors and a group of clients, 6) qualitative and quantitative varieties of information, and 7) opportunity of self reflection. Second, new counseling techniques based on the characteristics of communication in the cyber-world are 1) the self-counseling system which makes use of database of counseling cases, 2) real-time communication in terms of E-mail, 3) group counseling such as an on-line forum using Bulletin Board, 4) distance conferencing counseling, 5) the active participation of the clients according to the anonymity of the cyber-world, and so on Finally, the developmental tasks for future-oriented counseling techniques using cyber-world are needed: 1) new counseling theories and techniques considering the characteristics of communication in the cyber-world, 2) cumulative methods of sufficient information and management systems for setting the database, 3) training programs for sufficient cyber-counselors, 4) expert consulting systems, 5) cyber counseling systems that are client-friendly, and so on.