Differential effects of counselor self-disclosure, self-involving statements, and interpretation

After viewing a 20-min videotape of a simulated counseling session, 217 college students rated the counselor on expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness and on their willingness to see that particular counselor for a personal problem. The session ended with the counselor either summarizing the session, disclosing a past or a present personal problem, making self-involving statements, or offering dynamic interpretations. Results show that present self-disclosure, past self-disclosure, and self-involving statements were not viewed as significantly different from each other and were viewed as significantly more attractive than the summary and dynamic interpretation. There were no significant differences for expertness or trustworthiness. ANOVA showed that the raters were most willing to see the counselor when he ended the session with interpretations and least willing to see him when he ended with summary sessions. (26 ref)