Training programs that incorporated overt, covert, and combined over-covert practice modes were compared for their effects on developing counseling skills and confidence among undergraduate students. The combined practice group was superior to the control group on attending behaviors and empathy ratings. The overt practice group was superior to…

It was hypothesized that Black students' racial identity would affect their perceptions of White counselors' interview behaviors. Results indicated that participants rated culture-sensitive counselors as more culturally competent than culture-blind counselors. Cultural sensitivity interacted with racial identity, with encounter participants rating…

Assigned high or low self-esteem counselors (N=8) to high or low self-esteem sixth-grade students (N=16), who completed the Self-Esteem Inventory after four counseling sessions. Results showed students assigned to high self-esteem counselors showed greater gains in self-esteem. (JAC)

Sixty-four school psychologists kept daily records for four weeks of all tests they administered and the reasons they used each test. Projective tests were infrequently used, were typically used to measure personality or self-concept, and were considered less important than other tests for educational planning. (Author/BW)

Identified six dimensions of personal constructs related to rehabilitation counseling as the first part of an investigation into how these variables influence clinical problem solving. Findings have implications for competence assessment research, definition of the affective domain in rehabilitation counseling, and identification of its unique…

Examined the effects of counselor race on perceived counseling effectiveness. Canadian high school students (N=195) viewed videotaped interviews by Caucasian, Chinese-Canadian, and East-Indian Canadian counselors. Results showed Caucasian counselors were rated more favorably; however, perceived effectiveness of minority counselors did not…

Mexican-American college students (N=109) with varying commitments to Mexican-American or Anglo-American culture rated their preference for an ethnically similar counselor. Results showed preference for counselor ethnicity and willingness to self-disclose in counseling were related to cultural commitment. Females were more willing to use…

Studied influences on counselors' capacity to make mature moral judgments. Counseling students (N=63) at various levels completed a General Information Questionnaire and the Defining Issues Test. Results suggested that actual counseling experience may be more influential in determining moral reasoning capacity than was originally believed. (JAC)

A survey of 59 principals on counselor selection used a forced-choice questionnaire, pairing each item with every other item, to test 16 criteria in four categories: work experience, recommendations, academic indicators, and behavioral/personal characteristics. Within-system teaching experience and communication ability in the personal interview…

Analyzed effects of race and socioeconomic status on perception of counseling process variables, including judged counselor empathy, judged counselor-client cognitive similarity, and attraction. Raters (N=24) gave highest counselor empathy ratings, client-counselor attraction and cognitive similarity ratings, and client improvement ratings when…

Examined two components of counselor attractiveness--perceived similarity and liking--in a comparison of two theoretical approaches to attractiveness and influence in counseling--the referent power hypothesis and an attributional approach. Results generally support the attributional approach over the reference power hypothesis. (Author)

Males (N=291) and females (N=246) viewed a videotape of a client of the same sex with either vocational or personal social problems, counseled by either a male or female counselor. Results indicated significant effects and interactions of counselor sex and sex role and client sex and the problem presented. (Author)

Studied stereotyped and androgynous college students' perceptions of therapists. Results show that androgynous subjects did not differ in their perceptions either as a function of disclosure level or experience. Stereotyped subjects perceived the high disclosing female nonexpert as significantly less trustworthy than the low disclosing nonexpert.…

Analyzed male (N=72) and female (N=64) perceptions of female counselors using three levels of counselor physical attractiveness and four levels of counselor age. Male compared to female participants evaluated unattractive women counselors more positively. Counselor age influenced reactions to counselors. (RC)

Subjected Strong's theory of counseling as a social influence process to further validation using a correlational field study and college students. Factor analysis of both preintake preferences for counselor attributes and postintake perceptions of actual counselors resulted in extraction of three factors corresponding to expertness,…