Counselor trainee anxiety during the initial counseling interview.

Investigated the nature and extent of anxiety experienced by beginning practicum students in their initial client interviews. Ss were 20 of 21 students enrolled in a master's level course in supervised counseling experience. Anxiety was assessed by self-report, skin conductance, and heart rate measures obtained in anticipation of and during stimulus situations of reading an article and counseling a client. The design was a 2–2 (Periods?×?Sessions) within-Ss factorial. Results indicate that Ss were more anxious on physiological and self-report measures of anxiety during the counseling interview than during reading. Although most of the self-report data were not related to autonomic arousal during the interview, baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic response during the interview. Also, self-report predictions of anxiety were related to self-report anxiety during the interview. It is concluded that (a) the counseling interview is an anxiety-evoking situation, (b) much of the anxiety can be accounted for by Ss' expectations, and (c) anxiety is most meaningfully discussed within the framework of response dimensions. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)