Behavioral consultation from a request-centered relational communication perspective.

Used J. Folger and S. Puck's (1976 [unpublished paper]) relational communication coding system to examine relationship definition aspects of behavioral consultation. It was predicted that (1) consultees would be characterized as passive, accepting, and cooperative within the relationship and (2) consultants would be shown to control the relationship through their frequent initiation of requests. 10 doctoral-level psychology students served as consultants to 1 female consultee each across 3 interviews. 7,493 total messages were coded. Results support the 2 predictions and also reveal negative correlations between consultee initiation of requests during the initial interview and consultation outcome measures. Findings are discussed in relation to social exchange theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)