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The Role of Epistemic Style in Counseling Preference and Orientation
Author(s) -
Neimeyer Greg J.,
Prichard Shawn,
Lyddon William J.,
Sherrard Peter A. D.
Publication year - 1993
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.1556-6676.1993.tb02234.x
Subject(s) - preference , psychology , style (visual arts) , emotive , epistemology , social psychology , orientation (vector space) , philosophy , mathematics , archaeology , history , statistics , geometry
Recent work has suggested that philosophical commitments play a part in directing preferences for different types of counseling, and in this article the authors extend that work with a series of four studies. Study 1 provides partial support for the relationship between epistemic commitments (rational, empirical, or metaphorical) and preferences for particular types of counseling (behavioral, rational emotive, constructivist). Studies 2 and 3 extend these findings by noting differences in how individuals gather, process, and respond to self‐relevant feedback as a result of epistemic style. Finally, Study 4 provides tentative support for the possibility that counselor trainees gravitate toward preferring counseling theories that are consistent with their own epistemic orientations. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.