The counseling or psychotherapeutic relationship has been viewed in recent years as a kind of social influence process in which the behavior of the counselor or therapist may effect a change in the behavior of the client or patient (cf. Frank, 1959)* Much of the research in this area has dealt with the communication between the participants of the therapeutic interaction (cf. Lennard 8s Bernstein, I960). The present investigation was designed to test predictions about social influence and communication within a psychological treat ment situation. The aspect of social influence under consideration is the effect of different levels of communicator expertness upon the acceptance of his communication. The specific type of communication to be examined involves the meanings and changes of meanings of certain words used in the verbal interaction. Word Meanings and Psychological Treatment Psychological treatment may be defined as any situation in which one or more persons (A) attempt to modify the beliefs or behavior of one or more other persons (B) so as to make B more productive in A's view (cf. Pepinsky, 1 9 6 6). Counseling and psychotherapy may be considered as specific examples of psychological treatment. 1 Research on social influence and communication in psychological treatment situations has centered on, e.g., the therapist's "moral values (Rosenthal, 1955)," his theoretical orientation (Heine, 1953), and the topics chosen for discussion (Patton, 1966). However, little attention has heen paid to the participants' language usage; specifi cally, the meanings that the counselor or therapist and his client assign to the words they use in the therapeutic exchange. Word meaning may he thought of as suggested by Carroll (1967): "A 'meaning' of a word is, therefore a societally-standardized concept, and when we say that a word stands for or names a concept it is understood that we are speaking of concepts that are shared among the members of a speech community (p. 57* 0-" Some of the research on language usage in counseling and psychotherapy has suggested that the therapist and client become more alike in their language patterns, both in terms of structure and content, as therapy progresses (Lennard et al., I960). There is also evidence that connotative meanings change over the course of counseling or therapy. Endler (1 9 6 1), using Osgood's semantic differential, found that clients' connotations of self-reference changed during the course of therapy. McGreevy and Daane (1 9 6 7) also used semantic differential scales, administered after each interview in a counseling series, and found the meanings of some concepts to change for both counselor and client; such change was more likely to occur early in the counseling sequence. * * * £ < .001 **£<. 01 Impulse U.20 Anxiety U.12 Defensive *t.ll Personality 3.91 Condition 3.61 Sensitivity 3.29 Detachment 3.2k Regression 3.10 *Terms used in final inventories
