The relative impact of the nonverbal channel during inconsistent verbal-nonverbal communication of counselor regard to client was investigated, incorporating verbal-nonverbal message and counselor response orientation as independent variables in a 4 X 3 analysis of variance design. One hundred and twenty subjects, assigned to 12 independent groups, viewed videotapes of an analogue counseling session that portrayed the various counselor message-response orientation conditions. After viewing the tapes, the subjects rated the counselor on level of counselor regard for client and on counselor effectiveness. Although previous research has indicated the dominance of the nonverbal component of an inconsistent message, the results did not confirm the overall functional superordinancy of the nonverbal channel across all levels of response orientation. An interactive relationship was found, with the nonverbal channel functioning with relatively more impact on the confrontive level of orientation. This finding was considered in terms of the differential communication decoding process, and was explained on the basis of stress-induced reduction of cue utilization. Implications for counselor training and practice are discussed.Counseling theorists and practitioners seem to have commonly assumed that the interaction between verbal and nonverbal cues is a very important part of the overall communication process. Nevertheless, much of the training literature in the counseling field (Delaney & Eisenberg, 1972;Egan, 1975;Hackney & Nye, 1973), as well as actual training programs (Colwell, 1968;Heimann & Heimann, 1972), seem to have largely associated the concept of communication with a verbal-linguistic model.Only in the last few years have researchers begun to explore the process of inconsistent communication within the counseling therapy situation. Several of these studies have demonstrated the considerable impact of the nonverbal channel on the communication process in counseling. As example, Haase and Tepper (1972) found that the nonverbal channels accounted for more than twice as Requests for reprints should be sent to

No abstract