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Bias in Counselor Hypothesis Testing: Testing the Robustness of Counselor Confirmatory Bias
Author(s) -
Strohmer Douglas C.,
Shivy Victoria A.
Publication year - 1994
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.1556-6676.1994.tb01735.x
Subject(s) - robustness testing , psychology , robustness (evolution) , statistical hypothesis testing , response bias , econometrics , social psychology , clinical psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , fuzzy logic
Explored the issue of confirmatory bias in counselors' clinical hypothesis testing. Recent research suggests that counselors are subject to a confirmatory bias when using information to test a client hypothesis. The current research tested the robustness of this finding by adding realism and accountability to the experimental situation. Two experiments examined the facts that experienced counselors recalled (a) about a coached client in a naturalistic situation, and (b) when they selected information from a client narrative when told that they would later be held accountable for their selection. In Experiment I, experienced counselors recalled more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information from a coached client's live presentation of factors. In Experiment 2, counselors‐in‐training selected more confirmatoty than disconfirmatory information from a case history despite the accountability implied by the experimental instructions. The authors concluded (a) that the confirmatory bias is a robust one that may be a natural part of any judgment situation and (b) that counselor education should explicitly train counselors to avoid this confirmatory bias.