Attractive versus unattractive clients: Mediating influences on counselor's perceptions.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of clients' age, physical attractiveness, and in-session behavior on subjects' attraction to the clients. Female undergraduates were assigned to one of eight experimental conditions in which the client was depicted as (a) an adult or a child, (b) physically attractive or unattractive, and (c) verbal ("good" in-session behavior) or nonverbal ("bad" in-session behavior). The results indicated that "counselor" subjects were significantly more attracted to child than to adult clients and to those clients demonstrating good in-session behaviors as opposed to those performing poorly. Physically attractive clients were not rated significantly more interpersonally attractive than physically unattractive clients. An interaction between age and in-session behavior suggested that bad in-session behavior significantly decreased the attractiveness of the adult clients but not that of children. Thus, although counselors tend to favor young, attractive, verbal, intelligent, and successful (YAVIS) clients, certain YAVIS characteristics may have a more potent effect on client attractiveness than others. The implications of these findings for optimizing the effectiveness of counseling services are discussed.

Counselors' attitudes regarding bisexuality as predictors of counselors' clinical responses: An anlogue study of a female bisexual client.

“…Internal consistency reliabilities greater than .80 have been reported for scores on the scale (Tryon, 1989). Counselors' TPRQ scores have been found to be highest for clients rated high on conceptual level (Davis et al, 1977) and verbal ability (Lewis, Davis, Walker, & Jennings, 1981). We slightly altered some items to reflect that participants had not actually worked with the fictional client.…”

Effects of client bisexuality on clinical judgment: When is bias most likely to occur?

“…In the current study, the estimated internal consistency reliability was .75. Counselors' TPRQ scores have been found to be highest for clients rated high on conceptual level (Davis et al, 1977) and verbal ability (Lewis, Davis, Walker, & Jennings, 1981).…”

The Social Influence Model: A Social Psychological Approach to Counseling

“…Client motivation is only one of the client variables that has been addressed by counseling researchers. Other authors have found that client characteristics such as: similarity of counselor-client conceptual level (Davis, Cook, Jennings, & Heck, 1977), client, need (Heppner & Dixon, 1978) and client commitment to change (Dixon & Claiborn, 1981), client expectations (Friedlander, 1982;Sobel & O'Brien, 1979), and the perceived attractiveness of the client (Lewis, Davis, Walker, & Jennings, 1981) have been worthy of consideration. In addition, some researchers have found that client characteristics such as resistance and opposition (Kerr, Olson, Claiborn, Gruenler, & Paolo, 1983) and a subscription to myths about career development (Dorn, in press-a) mediate the counselor's social power.…”