Effects of client and counselor sex on client attendance at counseling

The present study examined the relationship between sex of client, sex of counselor, client's presenting problem, and the length of time the counseling dyad stayed together. Dyads engaged in personal counseling had significantly more sessions than dyads engaged in vocational counseling or test feedback. Clients receiving personal counseling were more likely to terminate unilaterally than clients receiving vocational counseling or test feedback.A preliminary version of this article was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, September 1980.     

Counselor and client personality as determinants of counselor expectancy effects

Seventy-eight students enrolled in summer-session college courses were randomly assigned to serve either as counselors or as clients for a 20-min, role-played peer counseling session. All of the subjects completed a battery of standardized personality measures. Each counselor interacted with two clients. Prior to the sessions, the counselor was led to believe that one of the clients was especially introverted and that the other client was especially extraverted. Dependent measures were based on clients' change scores on a mood adjective rating scale administered before and after the peer counseling sessions. Analyses showed that counselors who were more successful at biasing their clients in the direction of their expectancies (a) scored higher on measures of Dogmatism, Nurturance, and Social Recognition, (b) scored lower on Impulsivity, and (c) were more likely to be women. Clients who were more susceptible to counselor bias scored higher on the Self-Monitoring Scale, the Self-Monitoring Other-Directedness subscale, and Social Recognition. These results are discussed in light of previous research and their implications for research on interpersonal expectancy effects.     

The effect of client attachment style and counselor functioning on career exploration

This longitudinal research investigated the interactive effect of social attachment style and perceived-counselor behavior on exploratory behavior exhibited by clients during and after career counseling. Results from 96 clients in career counseling indicated that social confidence and comfort, and the perception that the counselor had created social comfort and personal security, enhanced the range and effectiveness of career exploration by the client. The counselor’s functioning as a “secure base” moderated the association between clients’ avoidance and anxiety attachment style and their career exploration. Specifically, when the clients who were high in social avoidance or in social anxiety perceived-counselors as providing an atmosphere in which they feel secure, they engaged in career exploration far more than similar clients who did not perceive their counselor as a secure base.     

The effect of client attachment style and counselor functioning on career exploration

This longitudinal research investigated the interactive effect of social attachment style and perceived-counselor behavior on exploratory behavior exhibited by clients during and after career counseling. Results from 96 clients in career counseling indicated that social confidence and comfort, and the perception that the counselor had created social comfort and personal security, enhanced the range and effectiveness of career exploration by the client. The counselor’s functioning as a “secure base” moderated the association between clients’ avoidance and anxiety attachment style and their career exploration. Specifically, when the clients who were high in social avoidance or in social anxiety perceived-counselors as providing an atmosphere in which they feel secure, they engaged in career exploration far more than similar clients who did not perceive their counselor as a secure base.     

Letter to a genetic counselor

The author describes her personal experience terminating a pregnancy after receiving an abnormal amniocentesis result: While still waiting for the results, she and her husband attempted to deny the importance of the pregnancy, an approach which they subsequently regretted. When they received the abnormal result, they found themselves able to make necessary decisions quickly, despite being in shock. It then took some time before they realized what a major loss they had actually suffered. The painful aftermath included accepting emotional responsibility for their decision to abort, as well as explaining that difficult decision to their older children. Thoughts of a possible subsequent pregnancy could not be faced at once. Over time, the author found the support of friends and colleagues, and even of a support group, to be invaluable. All in all, the entire experience was more painful than she would have predicted, and she hopes that this account will prove helpful both to genetic counselors and to other patients who receive abnormal results from prenatal diagnosis. A list of suggested readings is appended.Rose Green is a pseudonym.     

The pastor as genetic counselor

The pastor as pastoral counselor in the setting of the church can play an important role on a genetic team. This article explores the role the pastor plays in the definitive stage: delivery of information, educating, supporting, and counseling in human genetics. Problems that are encountered by team members, patients, and families, and dominant feelings that seem to exist in couples or individuals who discover that their children have a birth defect or that they themselve are carriers of a faulty gene are revealed and illustrated through clinical examples and interviews. Further suggestions are given on how a constructive team approach can help provide information regarding birth defects and how pastors can help and participate in this process.The Rev.M. Wayne Clark, D. Min., is a United Methodist pastor in Sidney, Iowa, and has completed Care and Counseling's two-year graduate training program for pastoral counselors in St. Louis, Missouri. He has served as a consultant to the Division of Medical Genetics at the University Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, and has worked with the staff of Regional Genetic Consultation Services of the Iowa State Department of Health. He is a member of A.A.P.C. and a clinical member of AAMFT.     

Relationships among client and counselor agreement about the working alliance, session evaluations, and change in client symptoms using response surface analysis

Two studies explored how counselor and client agreement on the therapy alliance, at the beginning of treatment, influenced early session evaluations and symptom change. Unlike prior studies that operationalized alliance convergence as either a profile similarity correlation or a difference score, the present study used polynomial regression and response surface analysis to examine agreement. Study 1 explored the impact of working alliance congruence on session depth and smoothness at the 3rd session of treatment with 36 client-counselor dyads. Results revealed that session smoothness was greater when clients' and therapists' perceptions of the working alliance were in agreement and high compared with when they were in agreement and low. In addition, clients rated sessions less smooth when their ratings of the alliance were lower than their therapists' ratings of the alliance, and they rated sessions as more smooth when their ratings of the alliance were higher than their therapists' ratings of the alliance. The authors did not find a significant relationship with session depth. In Study 2, the authors explored the impact of working alliance congruence, at the 3rd session of therapy, on symptom change for 63 client-counselor dyads. Results revealed that as the therapist and client have more positive agreement on the perceived alliance at the beginning of the treatment, there is greater symptom change. The authors also found that the consequences of alliance disagreement are the same regardless of who rated the alliance higher than the other. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

A behavioral genetic analysis of the relationship between the socialization scale and self-reported delinquency

This investigation examined the genetic (A), and shared (C) and nonshared (E) environmental variance contributions to the relationship of self-reported delinquency (as measured by the "Delinquent Behavior Inventory" [DBI; Gibson, 1967]) to the Socialization (So) scale of the California Psychological Inventory using univariate and bivariate structural equation models. The scales were administered to 222 male (145 monozygotic; 77 dizygotic) and 159 female (107 monozygotic; 52 dizygotic) 16- to 18-year-old same-sex twin pairs. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation revealed three interpretable So factors representing family/home environment, self-concept, and behavioral control. Univariate modeling suggested sex differences in etiological influences associated with individual differences in most scales. The bivariate ACE model fit the data, suggesting that the covariance between the So scale and self-reported delinquency owes in part to shared etiological factors.     

Effectiveness of participation as a defendant: the attorney-juvenile client relationship

Recent changes in the processing of juveniles in the justice system place greater significance on children's capacities to participate in legal contexts. Effective participation as a defendant encompasses abilities beyond those legally required for adjudicative competence, which may nevertheless influence the quality and nature of a defendant's participation in the trial process. Based in developmental judgment theory, the current study compares 203 juveniles and 110 adults detained pre-trial using a hypothetical attorney-client vignette to examine how psychosocial factors are reflected in decision-making processes and link to decision outcomes and effective participation within the attorney-client relationship. Age-related differences in legally relevant decision-making processes and outcomes are identified, and implications for policy are made.     

The genetic and environmental relationship between Cloninger's dimensions of temperament and character

The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 7-factor model of personality showed incremental validity over his four dimensions of temperament. A sample of 2517 Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995 returned completed self-reported measures of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Many of these twins had participated in a 1988 study containing Cloninger's temperament measures of Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Persistence. Contrary to theoretical expectations, univariate analyses revealed that familial aggregation for the character dimensions could be entirely explained by additive gene action alone. Although temperament explained 26, 37 and 10% of additive genetic variance in Self-directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence, respectively, seven genetic factors were required to explain the genetic variance among the TPQ dimensions, and almost all of the non-shared environmental variance was unique to each dimension of character. Our results indicate that the inclusion of all seven dimensions in a taxonomy of personality is warranted.     

The co-therapy relationship: Mutuality,agreement and client outcome

This project, utilizing a pretest and posttest design, studied interactions between co-therapists and the relationships of their interactions to client outcome. Six co-therapist pairs at a counseling center saw two clients in multiple treatments yielding twelve cases. The study investigated co-therapist relationships in regard to: (a) their level of mutuality or caring for their partners, (b) their ratings of the quality of their relationships, and (c) their agreement as to perceptions and behavior during sessions. Also investigated were: the relation of co-therapist interaction to client outcome and the personal growth of the therapists over the course of therapy. Results supported success claims of the literature concerning co-therapy.     

Student protest and the counselor

The problem of student protests provides a challenge to counselors because it indicates, among other things, that guidance has been ineffective. Five trends in student attitudes are described that seem to underlie widespread student unrest against the establishment. Then the role of youth in present-day social change is defined and related to activism, and suggestions are made for counselors interest***ed in channeling student protests into educational improvements. Finally, a more aggressive and active stance by the counselor is called for as part of a revamping of the priorities governing counselor activities.     

the counselor and armed forces recruitment

Young people considering enlistment in the armed forces often need objective assistance in the decision-making process. Recruiters themselves are under too much pressure to be able to provide that objectivity. The authors discuss how counselors are in a unique position to help: by increasing the scope of information available, by safeguarding the rights of potential enlistees, and by working to eliminate recruitment abuses.     

Models of genetic counseling and their effects on multicultural genetic counseling

This theoretical paper examines challenges to multicultural genetic counseling, counseling between culturally different clients and counselors, in the context of Kessler's typology of models of genetic counseling (Kessler S (1997) J Genet Counsel 6:287–295). It is suggested that challenges such as resistance to multicultural genetic counseling education may be due to conceptions about genetic counseling as a biomedical field that transcends questions of culture as well as lack of multicultural training or prejudice. Directions for future research and recommendations for multicultural genetic counseling education are briefly explored.     

Adolescents' attitudes toward confidentiality between the school counsellor and the adolescent client

It is increasingly acknowledged that confidentiality is relative rather than absolute in any counselling relationship. This is particularly the case for minors receiving counselling at school, where third parties such as parents and teachers frequently have access to information about an adolescent client. The Australian Psychological Society's Code of Professional Conduct (1986) states that minors are unable to provide voluntary, informed consent in consulting relationships, although current research does not necessarily support this view. The current study investigated adolescents' attitudes to confidentiality in situations that may commonly arise in school counselling. The study also investigated the third parties to whom adolescents believed information should be disclosed by a counsellor. Respondents were 303 male and 254 female students attending three single-sex nongovernment schools. Ages ranged from 13 to 18 years. Results suggested that the adolescents' attitudes to confidentiality generally corresponded with adult views. Many adolescents wanted more autonomy regarding disclosure of information obtained in a counselling situation than the APS code provides. Parents were the only third party to whom the adolescents generally believed disclosure should be made. There were few age differences, but a wide range of opinions were evident, with female adolescents consistently more strongly in favor of confidentiality than males.