Male and female counselors at three levels of training/experience conducted an initial interview with a female confederate client. Videotapes of these interviews were viewed by 120 undergraduate males and females who rated the counselors' expertness, indicated counselor behaviors that contributed to their judgments, and rated their willingness to…

Counselor Rating Form - Short Version (CRF-S) was completed by college students (N=133) who rated their counselors (N=6) after an initial session at a college counseling center. Principal components analysis with direct oblimin rotation of the CRF-S yielded two factors, one composed of attractiveness and trustworthiness items and the other…

Examined Black subjects' preferences for salient counselor characteristics. The results revealed that the top five preferred counselor characteristics were more education, similar attitudes and values, older, similar personality, and same ethnicity, in that order. (Author/BL)

Subjects' ratings of counselor charactristics were more positive for attractive than for unattractive counselors, regardless of subject or counselor race. Black counselors were expected to be more helpful than were White counselors. Black subjects saw attractive counselors as being more helpful than unattractive counselors. (Author/BL)

A study of undergraduates' evaluations of counselors' sex role behavior found the feminine counselor role to be perceived as more attractive and trustworthy than the masculine role. Ratings of counselor expertness were unaffected by counselor role. Additionally, feminists were found to evaluate masculine counselor behavior more positively than…

Examined the effect of counselor attire on the perceptions of 30 students participating in a group counseling session. Results indicated that informal clothing, similar to the students' attire, resulted in increased perceptions of expertness, trustworthiness and helpfulness in a neophyte counselor. (JAC)

Compared the effects of three types of counselor-offered metaphors, varying in levels of complexity, to facilitative responses on measures of perceived empathy, regard, expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Subjects (N=80) rated one of four audiotapes. Results indicated narrative analogy and Level 3 facilitative response produced more…

Factor analyzed the Counseling Orientation Preference Scale (COS) to investigate its validity. Data from 686 students and two previous samples suggested items were not identified cleanly with the a priori placements used in the original construction. Two major cluster groupings were found, suggesting some support for validity. (Author/JAC)

This brief study evaluates a method for selecting college students as therapeutic agents (called the group assessment of interpersonal traits). The data suggest that use of this method may increase the number of false negatives but the likelihood of selecting false positives is not increased. Peer modeling reduces effectiveness of group members…

Investigated potential relationships between continuation in counseling and the variables of counselor experience, gender, and recognition of clients' problem definitions. Results indicated that clients were more likely to self-terminate after one session when counselors failed to recognize the problem, particularly with experienced counselors and…

Past studies indicated preference for male therapists. To test for changes since these studies, applicants for counseling and nonclient undergraduates completed university counseling service application that included question regarding preference for sex of therapist. More clients than nonclients expressed preferences. Results indicated a decrease…

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…

Counselor attractiveness, subject self-esteem, and subject receipt of test performance feedback were manipulated in a counseling analogue experiment. The results demonstrated no relationship between the independent variables and counselor influence, although the experimental induction of attractiveness was successful. Implications for a theory of…

Examined effect of counselors' body postures on client perceptions of counselors. Undergraduates (N=63) met with female graduate student counselor and then completed counselor rating form. Results revealed no significant differences between open and closed postures for attractiveness or trustworthiness. Clients perceived counselors in open posture…