Date of Award

Spring 8-1-1984

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department Not Listed

First Advisor

Arthur M. Horne

Second Advisor

Ronald G. Matias

Third Advisor

Walter L. Sullins

Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of a professional self-disclosure statement as a pretraining treatment of role induction in counseling. Two videotape models of pretraining for first-time clients were compared with a notreatment control condition. The eight dependent variables investigated included six of client expectation: client attitudes and behaviors, client characteristics, counselor characteristics, characteristics of process, counselor attitudes and behaviors, and the quality of outcome; one of state anxiety; and one of continuance in counseling. The counselor-specific client role induction consisted of a professional self-disclosure statement discussing purpose and expectations of counseling, confidentiality, and counselor training. The general pretraining treatment consisted of an agency-specific client role induction addressing issues of the purpose and services of the Counseling Center, confidentiality, and office hours/telephone number. Subjects were randomly assigned to groups and received the appropriate treatment prior to an intake interview. Each of the forty-three subjects received therapy and then completed the following: the Expectations About Counseling questionnaire (Tinsley, 1982) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Luschene, 1970). Continuance was defined as return to the next counseling session. The research design was a post-test-only design with a no-treatment control condition. The six dependent expectation variables were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of variance with an accompanying univariate contrast. State anxiety was measured by a one-way analysis of variance. Conti~uance was analyzed by a ChiSquare test of significance. The major hypothesis of this study, stating no significant difference between the efficacy of general a~d specific pretraining treatments fer selected expectation variables in counseling was upheld. A Wilks Lambda value of .66867 was not significant at the .05 level. One dependent variable, quality of outcome, reported an F value of F (2,40) = 4.47, ~ < .05. No significant differences were reported for state anxiety F (2,40) = .233, p > .05, or continuance Chi-Square (df = 2) = 2.04, ~ > .05 between pre training or control conch tions. The researcher concludes that selected expectations of first time clients are not significantly manipulated by the mental health agency or therapists. The researcher urges future research to use fewer dependent variables and a different research design, ANCOVA, with similar experimental treatments and population. Although experimental results were not significant, anecdotal occurre~ces encouraged the researcher.

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