Determining the effects of three counselor verbal responses on client verbal behavior.

Determined the effects of 4 counselor stimulus conditions on 3 measures of client verbal behavior, using 20 female college sophomore clients. The counselor stimulus conditions were reflection of feeling, probe, confrontation, and unspecified responses. The 3 dependent variables were client affect words, self-referent pronouns, and present verb tense. 20 subjects were assigned randomly to 1 of 4 trained Es (2 male and 2 female counselors) for a 42-min session. The 1st 2 min were a preliminary orientation period. The remaining 40 min were divided into 4 10-min counselor stimulus conditions. The sequence of stimulus conditions was randomized for each session. A 2 * 2 factorial analysis with repeated measures on the 2nd factor indicated no significant differences for each dependent variable. The implications for indiscriminate use of these 4 counselor stimulus conditions are discussed with respect to counselor training and research. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)