The nature of clinical psychologists' religiosity, belief orientation, and practices in psychotherapy, including an assessment of ideology, non-doctrinal beliefs, attitudes toward clinical interventions, and a measure of dimensions of religiosity needs to be examined. To assess psychologists' religious and spiritual orientation in relation to…

The effect of counselors' level of experience on clients' expression of feeling has not been investigated using stylistic and semantic measures. To examine the influence of affectively oriented counselors' level of experience, six counselors at three experience levels (low--masters, counseling practicum students; medium--doctoral, counseling…

The importance of high levels of involvement in counseling has been related to theories of interpersonal influence. To examine differing effects of counselor credibility as a function of how personally involved counselors are, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of attitude change was applied to counseling pretreatment. Students (N=256) were…

In order to examine how the manipulation of the stylistic and semantic attributes of a counselor's language affects client perceptions of counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness, 132 college students (88 females, 44 males) were randomly assigned to listen to one of four counseling audiotapes; the tapes were identical as to topic…

There is a growing trend for some counselors to adopt and advertise specific value positions and counseling orientations. To explore potential clients' perceptions of information contained in "traditional" and "feminist" therapists' announcements of services, 52 males and 52 females received one of four announcements…

Previous studies have demonstrated the inability of naive observers (i.e., those who have no counseling training) to differentiate an empathic counselor from a content-only counselor on a variety of counselor rating scales. The present study extends these earlier studies by attempting to determine whether individuals who had been clients…

Although few people bring their psychological problems to mental health professionals, research in the area of 'natural' help is rudimentary. To investigate the process and effectiveness of natural professional groups in helping individuals experiencing marital disruption, 42 helpers (14 mental health professionals, 14 divorce lawyers, and 14…

Self-disclosure, defined as any information about oneself which one person communicates verbally to another, is an important aspect of the therapeutic process. The strongest determinant of disclosure is disclosure itself--the reciprocity effect. To explore the reciprocity effect in the context of biracial counseling, 33 black female college…

Research has shown that a client's positive views of a counselor enhance commitment to treatment, positive outcome expectancies, and receptivity to counselor influence. To examine the impact of counselor gender and physical attractiveness on perceived counselor effectiveness, 60 college students evaluated male and female counselors on 15 variables…

Counseling is a dyadic interaction between client and counselor, in which their cognitive processes influence how they interact and communicate. To investigate the effect that a match of cognitive complexity between counselor and client has upon the counselor's empathy, 9 counselors and 27 clients participated in a study. After 7 weeks of…

Researchers have called psychologists' attention to the role that client perception of the therapeutic relationship plays in therapy outcome. Past studies assessing the impact on clients of therapist age have used varied research strategies and raised several methodological issues. A study was undertaken which attempted to resolve some of these…

Studies of the personality traits of counselors, particularly in relation to their sexuality, assumes that such traits are relevant to counselor effectiveness. To investigate the relationship between counselor effectiveness and sex role attitude, 66 counselor education students, 15 male and 51 female, aged 22-58, participated in individual…

The counseling profession has changed emphasis over the past 20 years reflecting a movement in the field from public school to community service to private business. Consequently there has also been a change in the profile of counselor trainees. Data from students (N=238) having attended the counselor training graduate programs at Indiana…

Recent studies in counselor training have focused on the trainee/supervisor relationship, with little empirical research on the supervisor and trainee qualities that may contribute to a successful experience. To explore the supervisor and trainee characteristics that may contribute to high quality training, 40 pairs of trainees and supervisors in…

This study examined characteristics of independent educational consultants, who provide a new and rapidly growing service, as well as characteristics of their clients who use these consultants in their college search process. The study used data from the Consultant Survey, which was mailed to 317 independent educational consultants of whom 157…