This study compared the therapeutic progress of three randomly assigned groups (n = 14 in each group) of community mental health center clients: (a) clients who viewed a slide/sound presentation about all available therapists and chose their own therapist; (b) clients who viewed the presentation and were assigned to a therapist by the center's clinical director; (c) clients who were assigned to a therapist by the clinical director without seeing the presentation. There were no significant differences among the three groups in their initial reaction to the clinic, number of therapy sessions, type of termination, severity of presenting problems, General Well-Being Schedule scores, Current Adjustment Rating Scale scores, or therapist's satisfaction with therapy. Further analysis revealed that three out of four clients had improved significantly as a result of therapy. It was concluded that in the absence of research evidence demonstrating the efficacy of client choice on therapy outcome, support for the notion of client choice must be based solely on social, ethical, and legal considerations.

Using a fixed-choice procedure 28 subjects were conditioned to emit personal reference statements by two experimenters functioning high on the dimensions of empathy, positive regard, and genuineness and two low-functioning experimenters. Comparison of learning slopes of conditioned subjects with a control group supported the efficacy of the facilitative dimensions for the conditioning paradigm.Research in psychotherapy has underscored the efficacy of therapist empathy, positive regard, and genuineness in determining client outcome (Carkhuff & Berenson, 1967;Truax & Carkhuff, 1967). Although the facilitative dimensions appear as significant variables in traditional psychotherapy, to date their relevance for the conditioning process has not been investigated. Indirect support for their importance is offered by studies of experimenter variables in the verbal conditioning paradigm which have shown such factors as the experimenter's attitude toward the subject (Binder, McConnell, & Sjoholm, 1957;Ferguson & Buss, 1960;Reece & Whitman, 1962; Weiss, Krasner, & Ullman, 1960), his personality characteristics (Lublin, 1965), and his interpersonal compatibility with the subject (Sapolksy, 1960) to effect significantly the subject's response acquisition.The present study investigates what.W the facilitative dimensions influence the .conditioning prnpfiaa. Spfloifip,fl,11y, f.Vift at.iidy explores to what extent the efficacy of systematic conditioning and extinction procedures, analogous to those used in behavior therapies, is dependent upon the Conditioner's interpersonal skills. The yerbal conditioning paradigm was selected .as the simplest example of interpersonal ^conditioning in which the systematic re-1 Requests for reprints should be sent to Raphael

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The purpose and the operation of an effective helping service are defined along the principles developed by R. R. Carkhuff. A functional operationalism directly linking each aspect of a helping service to the objective of servicing the needs of those people for whom the service exists is developed. The personal fitness of the staff as defined by their effectiveness at living is identified as the critical variable determining service effectiveness. The level of staff performance on the operational indices of physical, emotional, and intellectual functioning including, specifically, the interpersonal dimensions of empathy, respect, genuineness, concreteness, confrontation, and immediacy is designated as the operational basis for the organizational decisions of hiring, firing, promotion, and role assignment. Systematic programs designed to meet specific client needs serve to complete staff and service effectiveness.