No abstract

This study investigated the effects of differing amounts of pretherapy information regarding a feminist therapist's values and therapy orientation on selfidentified feminist clients' (a) judgments of similarity to the therapist's values, (b) confidence in the therapist's helpfulness, and (c) willingness to see the therapist. Thirty-six female undergraduates who had expressed profeminist attitudes as operationally defined by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale were equally and randomly assigned to one of three groups. Each group received differing amounts of pretherapy information about the therapist's values and therapy orientation. The results indicated that the subjects did not perceive themselves as similar to the "explicit feminist" therapist, nor did they believe that she would be as helpful as either the "traditional" or "feminist label" therapists. Furthermore, subjects were not as willing to see the explicit feminist therapist as they were the traditional or the feminist label therapists. The results are discussed in the context of previous research, and implications for therapist disclosure of explicit value orientations are considered.

This study investigated the effects of empathy scores by varying the conceptual complexity level of two groups of counselor trainees with two counseling analogue tasks. Utilizing a 2 X 2 factorial ANOVA design (Counselor's Complexity X Analogue Complexity), the results indicate that (a) the more complex counselors expressed a significantly higher level of empathy, and (b) the level of empathy manifested is conditioned by a significant interaction effect between type of counselor and client. The implications for studying the phenomena of differential effects were discussed.

The present study investigated the effects of variations in conceptual complexity level of counselor and client on counselor attraction to the client. Two groups of counselor trainees (characterized as having either high or low conceptual level) rated the attractiveness of clients following each of two counseling analogue tasks in which the client was depicted as exhibiting high or low conceptual level. The results of a 2 x 2 analysis of variance (Counseling Complexity x Analogue Complexity) indicated only that the more complex clients are more attractive across both levels of counselor complexity. Results are discussed in terms of two models of interpersonal attraction and the implication for socioeconomic status, as it relates to conceptual level, as a factor in counselor-client role constraints.

This article is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Graduate College of the University of Iowa, under the supervision of the second author. The authors would like to thank Gary R. Hanson for his critical reading of the manuscript and his suggestions.Requests for reprints should be sent to Rick L.