DIMENSIONS OF EMPATHIC JUDGMENT OF CLIENTS BY COUNSELORS

Showed filmed scenes of counseling protocols to 31 professional counselors. The 11 filmed scenes depicted a variety of clients, client problems, and judged difficulty of counselor interpretation. Counselors rated the client's feelings in each scene on 26 semantic differential scales, derived from a variety of personality and psychoanalytic studies. Factor analysis yielded 2 solutions. The 3-factor solution consisted of the following client characterics as judged by the counselors: (1) dependency, (2) anger, and (3) avoidance. The 4-factor solution contributed an additional apprehension factor, while maintaining the original 3 factors. Together, these factors accounted for more than 50% of the variation in clinical judgment by the counselors. This indicates a relatively concise conceptual frame in counselor evaluation of clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.