EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUALISTIC AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT EMPHASES ON CLIENTS PERCEPTIONS OF COUNSELORS

Recent studies suggest that counseling has an individualistic orientation, presumably preferred by clients, which may negatively affect clients' social commitment. This analogue study explored whether client-subjects perceive counselors using a social commitment emphasis any differently than counselors using an individualistic emphasis. Coached clients (24 women and 2 men) participated in 52 role-play counseling sessions, half with an individualistic emphasis and half with a social commitment emphasis. Using the Counselor Rating Form and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (short forms) to measure perceptions of counselor characteristics and behaviors, MANOVAs showed that client-subjects perceived counselors in both treatments similarly, suggesting that clients may not prefer an individualistic emphasis in counseling to a social commitment emphasis.