Feedback exchange in counseling groups: An analysis of message content and receiver acceptance as a function of leader versus member delivery, session, and valence.

36 university students and 27 community residents (all Ss aged 20–47 yrs) participated in 9 6-wk personal-growth groups led by 18 advanced doctoral students. 410 items of interpersonal feedback (both leader-to-member and member-to-member) were analyzed for message content quality and recipient acceptance. Findings indicate that leader feedback was generally of higher quality than member feedback but not more readily accepted. There was a significant tendency for feedback to be of higher quality and more accepted in later than in earlier sessions, but this tendency was not consistent across other conditions. The strongest effects were for valence, with positive feedback consistently more accepted than negative. Positive feedback consistently received higher ratings of message content quality than did negative feedback. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)