Date of Award

1986

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department Not Listed

First Advisor

Chaney, Reece

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of a symbolic modeling videotaped as a vehicle to pretrain counseling-naive clients for their encounter with a counselor. One hundred and twenty-three psychology students volunteered for this study to receive extra credit for their research participation. They were divided into four groups and asked either to view the videotape or to serve as controls. Two of these groups were also asked to complete questionnaires prior to either viewing the videotaped or coming back the next day to complete the questionnaires again. The four groups completed the questionnaires following their involvement in the study. The independent variables were the symbolic modeling videotape and completion of the pre-treatment questionnaires. The dependent variables were congruence of expectations as measured by the Expectations about Counseling Questionnaire(EACQ) and student's perceptions of the counseling relationship as measured by the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory(BLRI). The socialization process was accomplished by a symbolic modeling videotape which portrayed a first counseling session in process between a female counselor and a female client.This tape was devised to deal with stereotypes often associated with counseling by college students and to provide information about counseling processes, "good client role behavior" and possible outcomes of counseling. This role-played counseling session was presented in an color, audiovisual format and lasted about 17 minutes. Eight two-way analyses of variance were computed on each of the four main expectancy factors of the EACQ and the four scales of the BLRI. Results indicated that the SMV had a positive impact on one factor (Counseling Expertise) of the EACQ and two scales (Empathic Understanding and Congruence) of the BLRI. The conclusion was drawn that this type of intervention provided a potentially useful means of socializing naive clients to counseling. The results did highlight the need for a longer videotape which would portray the vicissitudes of counseling more effectively and would give the potential client a more panoramic view of counseling.

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