Premium
Effects of Role Expectations on Clients' Perceptions of Disclosing and Nondisclosing Counselors
Author(s) -
PECABAKER THERESA A.,
FRIEDLANDER MYRNA L.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of counseling and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.805
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1556-6676
pISSN - 0748-9633
DOI - 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1987.tb00803.x
Subject(s) - psychology , self disclosure , perception , active listening , social psychology , counselor education , applied psychology , clinical psychology , higher education , psychotherapist , neuroscience , political science , law
The authors tested the hypothesis that regardless of whether a counselor self‐discloses, a client's perceptions will be more favorable when the counselor's behavior is congruent with the client's precounseling expectations than when the client's expectations and the counselor's behavior are incongruent. Before listening to an excerpted interview, participants (a) were led to expect that counselors self‐disclose, (b) were led to expect that counselors do not self‐disclose, or (c) were given no expectation regarding counselor self‐disclosure. Participants then listened to stimulus audiotapes in which the counselor did or did not reveal personal information. Dependent variables were participants' perceptions of the counselor on three social influence dimensions and two therapeutic relationship dimensions. Results indicated that the disclosing counselor was viewed more favorably than was the nondisclosing counselor, participants' expectations notwithstanding.