Counseling Student Response To Affect Level

This research was designed to investigate whether 42 counseling students would respond differently to identical client statements in which the degree of affect was varied. Students viewed four people, each presenting four one‐minute videotaped stimulus vignettes. There were four female high‐affect statements, four female neutral‐affect statements, four male high‐affect statements, and four male neutral‐affect statements. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 4 analysis of variance with repeated measures on the last measure was used to analyze the data, and Newman‐Keuls post hoc comparisons were done. The analysis indicated that the affect level had a significant effect on the degree to which the counselor judged that the client needed help. There was also a difference in the ratings of female and male counselors and a difference in counselor response to female and male clients.