The purpose of this study was to gain more information concerning the nature and extent of anxiety experienced by beginning practicum students in their initial client interviews. Anxiety was assessed by self-report, skin conductance, and heart rate measures obtained in anticipation of and during stimulus situations of reading an article and counseling a client. The design was a 2 X 2 (Periods X Sessions) within-subjects factorial. Results indicated that subjects were more anxious on physiological and self-report measures of anxiety during the counseling interview than during reading. Although most of the self-report data were not found to be related to autonomic arousal during the interview, baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic response during the interview. Also, self-report predictions of anxiety were related to self-report anxiety during the interview. Conclusions were that the counseling interview is an anxiety-evoking situation, that much of the anxiety can be accounted for by subjects' expectations, and that anxiety is most meaningfully discussed within the framework of response dimensions.

Physiological and subjective anxiety measures were assessed to determine if counselor trainees experienced greater anxiety levels during a counseling interview than during a conversation. Twenty-eight counselor trainee volunteers from a graduate level practicum course participated in 10-minute conversation and counseling sessions. Anxiety was assessed by self-report, skin conductance, and heart rate measures. Results indicated that on two of three indicants of anxiety, trainees were more anxious during counseling than during conversing: Covariance analyses indicated significant treatment and interaction effects for conductance data, no significant effects for heart rate data, and a significant treatment effect for self-report data. Habituation heart rate and conductance data were highly related to respective physiological data during anticipation and stimulus periods, and preexperimental selfreport data were moderately related to postexperimental self-report data. Results suggest that counselor trainees are more anxious during counseling than during conversing; that trainees' expectations account for much of their anxiety; and that habituation physiological and self-report data may be useful in identifying trainees who will experience anxiety during a counseling interview.

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Fifty‐three in‐service employment and rehabilitation counselors, enrolled in supervised counseling practica, participated in a study to assess their subjective and physiological anxiety responses to counseling under different stimulus conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: a counseling session, a counseling session that was tape‐recorded, a counseling session that was tape‐recorded and evaluated by their supervisor, and a control condition in which participants read an article on counseling. Results of the 4 treatment conditions × 3 period analyses of variance for subjective (p <.001) and conductance data (p <.05) indicated that participants who counseled had higher anxiety levels than those who read the article. There was no treatment effect found for heart rate data. None of the counseling groups experienced significantly more anxiety than any of the others. It was concluded that tape‐recording and supervisory evaluation do not increase the anxiety levels of participants over the levels experienced while counseling without recording and/or evaluation.

Physiological and subjective measures of counselor anxiety were compared to determine if counselors experienced greater anxiety during a counseling interview than during a conversation, Twenty experienced rehabilitation counselors in a graduate-level practicum course volunteered to participate in a 10-minute conversation and counseling session. Anxiety was assessed by self-report skin conductance and heart-rate measures.Results indicated that there were no significant treatment, period, or interaction effects for heart-rate data; however, there was a significant period effect for conductance data. There were no significant differences for participants' self-report evaluations of the two situations. Baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic data during the anticipation and stimulus periods, and preexperimental self-report data were moderately related to postexperimental self-report data. Conclusions were that counselors experience comparable anxiety during counseling and conversing, that expectation accounts for most ofthe counselors' anxiety, and that baseline physiological and self-report data may prove useful in identifying counselors who would experience anxiety during an interview.