Perceptions of Rehabilitation Counselor Behavior

A comparison of perceptions held by selected rehabilitation subgroups toward counseling behavior was conducted. As expected, rehabilitation counselor educators were most different from state agency personnel in rehabilitation. State agency personnel appeared to value active counselor behavior more than educators. However, the predicted similarity between educators and trained counselors in state agencies and in other settings did not materialize. Differences between subgroups are discussed with respect to possible environmental and group influences. Some implications for communication between subgroups and training programs for rehabilitation counselors are also presented.     

Effects of Supervisor Style and Empathy on Counselor Perceptions in Simulated Counseling

Effects of supervisor style (techniques type and counseling type) and supervisor empathy upon counselor perceptions in a supervision analogue were examined. Three groups of 14 students heard two sets of recorded client statements and responded as counselors. The two experimental (E) groups had 20-minute conferences with supervisors between the first and second sets. Controls (C) received no supervision. Counselor perceptions were measured by questionnaire responses. Although subjects supervised by an emphasis on techniques rated themselves less relaxed and less confident about the meaning of empathy than those with an emphasis on counseling, their performance on the criterion of empathy was higher. Both E groups perceived themselves as higher than C's in amount learned, but they were no higher on the performance measure. No differences were found for reactions to supervision (items given E's only) or reactions to participation in the experiment. Empathy of supervisors did not appreciably affect counselor perceptions.     

Effects of Counselor Disability and Reputation on Client Perceptions During a Career Counseling Session

This study examined the effects of three counselor influence factors—expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness—on participants' impressions of a counselor during a counseling analogue situation. Using a 2 (counselor disability) x 2 (level of training) factorial design, no significant differences were found with respect to counselor social influence. These results are interpreted relative to the literature on perceptions of counselors with physical disabilities.     

White Counselor Trainees' Racial Identity and Working Alliance Perceptions

Racial identity has been theorized to significantly affect cross-racial counseling relationships (Helms, 1984, 1995). This study examined the direct impact of White racial identity of 124 counselor trainees on working alliance formation in a same-racial and cross-racial vicarious counseling analogue. Regardless of the race of the client, disintegration and reintegration attitudes negatively affected working alliance ratings, and pseudoindependent and autonomy attitudes positively affected working alliance ratings. Implications for counseling, supervision, training, and research are discussed.     

College Students' Perceptions of the Relationship Between Fee and Counseling

Fee as a variable that could have an impact on college students' perceptions of counseling was explored because of the authentic concerns about college counseling centers needing to charge direct fees for their services. Participants (N = 350) represented a cross-section of potential consumers of psychological services, not just individuals currently receiving services. On an overt level, fees seemed to be less influential in counseling considerations, but were taken into account on a more covert level. This study supports the psychological literature, which suggests that fee is not the most important factor in clients' decisions to seek counseling. Implications for counselors, administrators, researchers, and program planners are discussed.     

Counselor Education Students’ Perceptions of Wellness and Mental Health in African American Men: The Effects of Colorism

Colorism is discrimination based on skin tone. Skin color influences clinicians’ diagnostic impressions. The degree to which colorism influences counseling students’ clinical decision making is unknown. This study examined colorism's effect on counselor education master's students’ (N = 154) clinical decisions. Analysis of covariance failed to produce statistically significant results when comparing students’ evaluations of a male African American's mental health and wellness, when controlling for presentation management, across 4 skin tones. Counselors should include colorism in diversity training. El colorismo es la discriminación basada en el tono de la piel. El tono de la piel influye en las impresiones diagnósticas de los profesionales clínicos. Se desconoce hasta qué punto el colorismo influye en las decisiones clínicas de los estudiantes de consejería. Este estudio examinó el efecto del colorismo en las decisiones clínicas de estudiantes de maestría en educación de consejeros (N = 154). El análisis de la covarianza no produjo resultados estadísticamente significativos al comparar las evaluaciones de los estudiantes sobre la salud mental y el bienestar de un cliente afroamericano varón, controlando la gestión de la presentación de 4 tonos de piel diferentes. Los consejeros deberían incluir el colorismo en la capacitación de diversidad.     

Effects of Nonverbal Behavior on Perceptions of a Female Employee's Power Bases

Abstract

The authors extended a previous examination of the effects of nonverbal behavior on perceptions of a male employee's power bases (H. Aguinis, M. M. Simonsen, & C. A. Pierce, 1998) by examining the effects of nonverbal behavior on perceptions of a female employee's power bases. U.S. undergraduates read vignettes describing a female employee engaging in 3 types of nonverbal behavior (i.e., eye contact, facial expression, body posture) and rated their perceptions of the woman's power bases (i.e., reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, expert, credibility). As predicted, (a) direct eye contact increased perceptions of coercive power, and (b) a relaxed facial expression decreased perceptions of all 6 power bases. Also as predicted, the present results differed markedly from those of Aguinis et al. (1998) regarding a male employee. The authors discuss implications for theory, future research, and the advancement of female employees.     

Occupational Movement: Employment Counselor Perceptions of Job Change

Missouri Employment Service counselors were surveyed to determine why they had changed jobs and why, in their opinion, other people change jobs. The counselors reported that they had changed occupations because of job interest and financial reasons, and that they had entered counseling because of a real interest in the field. Most of them who anticipated making a future change said it was because of dissatisfaction with working conditions, and they planned to continue counseling in another setting. The counselors' experiences led them to believe that other people change jobs primarily because of lack of satisfaction, but they noted that financial considerations are also important.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Counselor Educators' Collaborative Authorship Perceptions and Practices

Limited research exists that examines the ethics of counselor educators' collaborative authorship practices. The study purpose was to explore the collaborative authorship decision-making perceptions and practices of counselor educators (N = 11). We identified six themes: (a) human process and communication, (b) context and nature of relationships, (c) learning experiences about authorship, (d) academic and career stage expectations, (e) collaborative authorship practices, and (f) philosophy of authorship. Implications and recommendations for research are discussed.     

The Effects of Food and Gender on Interpersonal Perceptions

Male and female subjects provided ratings of personal traits, femininity and masculinity, and total caloric consumption for a female or a male target based on the type of diet she or he had allegedly consumed. The gender associated with the foods presented for each dietary profile was manipulated. Results showed that Target Gender and Dietary Profile significantly affected impression ratings and calorie estimates. Both male and female subjects perceived male eaters and those who ate a feminine diet more favorably. Results are discussed in terms of the different underlying expectations held for males and females when food consumption is involved during the impression formation process.     

The Interactive Effects of Pro‐Political Behavior and Politics Perceptions on Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment1

The current study examined the impact of political behavior and perceptions of politics on job satisfaction and affective commitment. It is hypothesized that political behavior and perceived politics would interact to predict these outcomes such that those who reported greater use of these tactics would be more satisfied and committed when work environments were viewed as political in nature. Data were gathered from 131 police officers, who completed surveys following developmental programs. In general, results provided support for the hypothesis. Specifically, the Political Behavior × Perceived Politics interaction term explained incremental variance beyond demographic variables, control variables, and indicators of perceived control and understanding for each work outcome. These findings indicate that some individuals may experience positive consequences when occupying an environment perceived to be highly political. Implications of these findings, strengths and weaknesses, and avenues for future research are provided.     

The Multiculturally Responsive Versus the Multiculturally Reactive: A Study of Perceptions of Counselor Trainees

Findings suggest that the completion of or exposure to multicultural counseling coursework or literature does not necessarily indicate an acceptance of or valuing of multicultural counseling literature. Survey results of counselor trainees' observations and perceptions of peers whose perspectives on diversity differ are presented and discussed. Implications for training and supervision are addressed.     

The Effect of Looking Behavior on Perceptions of a Communicator's Credibility1

A courtroom simulation technique was employed to examine the effects of a communicator's looking behavior on observers' perceptions of his credibility. Half of the subjects heard testimony presented on behalf of a defendent by a witness (one of three confederates) who was visually presented as either looking directly toward the target of his communication (gaze maintenance) or slightly downward (gaze aversion) while testifying. The other half of the subjects merely heard the audio portion of the testimony. The results indicated that witnesses who averted their gaze were perceived to be less credible and, ultimately, the defendant for whom they testified was judged as more likely to be guilty. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for research concerned with the communicative effects of visual behavior.     

The Effects of Masculinity and Suspect Gender on Perceptions of Guilt

This study investigated whether perceptions of guilt for both male and female suspects co‐varied with masculine physical appearance. In addition, the study tested whether the relationship between masculine physical appearance and perceptions of guilt was dependent upon whether the crime is stereotypically male perpetrated. Participants read one of three crime scenarios (burglary, child abuse and neglect, fraud and forgery) and evaluated the likelihood that suspects of varying masculine appearance committed the crime in question. Masculine physical appearance significantly affected guilt ratings across all crime types for both male and female suspects. Additionally, guilt ratings for male compared with female suspects were higher for burglary, a crime that was viewed as stereotypically male perpetrated by research participants. The results are discussed in relation to applied implications and future research directions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perspectives,Perceptions, and Risk-Taking Behavior

Several organizational researchers have recently argued that the propositions of Kahneman and Tversky's (1979) prospect theory are in conflict with commonly held notions of risk taking for opportunities and risk aversion for threats. This investigation was an attempt to empirically separate threat and opportunity perceptions from loss and gain perspectives. Experiment 1 (N= 244) revealed that most decision makers, faced with a traditional framing problem, perceived the risky alternative as an opportunity when they were in the loss domain, but perceived it as a threat when they were in the gain domain. Experiment 2 showed that framing the same (loss and gain) problems as threats versus opportunities influenced risk taking, such that management students (N= 84) were more risk taking for opportunity-framed problems and risk averse for threat-framed problems. At the same time, the students took more risks for the loss problem than for the gain problem. We conclude that threat and opportunity perceptions are theoretically and empirically distinguishable from loss and gain perspectives.     

Counselor Ethnicity,Counselor Nonverbal Behavior,and Session Outcome With Asian American Clients: Initial Findings

Five Asian American and 5 European American female counselors each saw 3 Asian American volunteer clients for 1 session of career‐focused individual counseling. Examination of counselor nonverbal behaviors revealed that European American counselors displayed significantly greater frequency of adaptors, postural shifts, and smiles than did Asian American counselors. The frequency of smiles was significantly positively correlated with client‐rated session positivity and session arousal, and the frequency of postural shifts was significantly positively correlated with client‐rated session arousal. Limitations and implications of the findings are described.     

The Effects of Role Induction on Trainees' Perceptions of Supervision

The effects of a role-induction procedure on beginning counselor-trainees' perceptions of supervision were examined using a 10-minute audiotaped summary of Bernard's (1979) model of supervision. Nineteen trainees were administered the role-induction procedure at either the 2nd, 5th, or 9th week of the academic term. Two self-report scales assessed trainees' conceptualization of supervision as well as expectations and attitudes toward the supervisory process. Results indicated that trainees evaluated supervision more negatively over the time period before the role induction. Following role induction, trainees reported a clearer conceptualization of supervision and a greater willingness to reveal concerns to their supervisors.