This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a military counselor s attire on potential clients expressed perceptions of and preferences for a counselor. Ninety volunteer participants were selected from a large southwestern Air Force base. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 46 years, with 68 male and 22 female volunteers. Rank was divided into 69 enlisted personnel (56 males and 13 females) and 21 officers (12 males and 9 females). Three videotapes were made depicting a counselor in three attire conditions: civilian; military officer; and military enlisted. A pilot study was completed which validated the research assumption that the videotapes differed only in the counselor's attire conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. After each group was shown a videotape portraying the counselor in one of the three attire conditions, the participants were administered the Counselor Rating Form and the Referral Questionaire. The Counselor Rating Form is composed of three scales which assess perceptions of a counselors' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertness. The Referral Questionaire assesses subjects preferences to see a specific counselor in the event counseling is desired. Two main hypotheses, each having three subhypotheses, were developed for the study. The first hypothesis compared participants reactions to a counselor in civilian and military attire conditions. The second hypothesis compared participants' reactions to a counselor in two military attire conditions representing officer and enlisted ranks. Data was analyzed by analysis of variance procedures, with Scheffe' methods used, when appropriate, for multiple comparisons of mean scores.

This study extended research on the influence of counselor Christian values on the client's perceptions of the counselor by adding consensus values to the description of the counselor and examining the effects of age and religious maturity of the client. Subjects consisted of two samples, one of 250 undergraduate students (younger group) and the other of adults of at least thirty-five years of age (older group). There were equal number of males and females in each group. Subjects read one of five descriptions of a counselor, which varied according to the religious values of the counselor, and then rated the counselor. The following instruments were used to rate the counselor: Counselor Rating Form, Confidence in Counselor's Helpfulness Scale, Willingness to Meet the Counselor Scale and the Similarity of Values and Opinions Scale. The religiosity of the subjects was measured with the Religious Orientation Scale, the Christian Orthodoxy Scale and the Religious Status Inventory. The major premise of the study that the Christian values of the counselor influence the client's perceptions of the counselor as the client increases in age and religious maturity was partially supported. A significant counselor Christian value by age interaction was obtained in which the older subjects were less willing to see the apostate counselor and Christian counselor who was not willing to discuss religion than the other counselors. Whereas a significant counselor Christian value by religious maturity interaction was obtained, it was the less religiously mature subjects who differentiated between counselor Christian values. Main effects for counselor Christian values, religious maturity, and sex were found. Several interactions were also obtained.

The effects of the counselor's religious values on the counseling process has been a focal point recently in the literature on counseling and psychotherapy, especially with regard to how the counselor's announced values might effect potential clients' selection of a counselor. In the present study, the investigator addressed this issue in a study with 125 male and 125 female undergraduate students assigned to five different groups in which they read a script that differed with respect to the counselor's religious orientation. The content of the five scripts ranged from no mention of religious values to describing in detail the specific religious values of the counselor. Subjects' responses to the scripts were measured by having them rate (1) the degree of similarity in their own values and the announced values of the therapist; (2) their rating of how helpful they thought the therapist would be with their problem; and, (3) their stated willingness to see the counselor. Results indicated that subjects who read the script describing an agnostic counselor saw a significant degree of dissimilarity between their own and the counselor's values, but this did not affect subjects' perceptions of the counselor's helpfulness or their willingness to see the counselor. Differences in the degree of religiosity between subjects and sex differences observed were discussed as were implications for future research.

This study was designed to investigate what course of action therapists and physicians report they would take in reconciling their conflicting duties to maintain confidentiality and protect third parties from harm in HIV-related situations. The physicians surveyed were licensed to practice medicine in Texas and board certified in Internal Medicine. The therapists surveyed were licensed professional counselors in Texas and members of one of three selected divisions within the Texas Counseling Association. A survey instrument developed by the researcher was mailed to 200 subjects randomly selected from each group.

The counselor is an important contributor to client outcome. Research findings about therapist effects are mixed. In this study positive psychology variables, hope and optimism, were evaluated with client outcome. The sample for this study consisted of 43 graduate-level counselor trainees in the first or second practicum semester and their adult clients in a university’s community counseling clinic. Results revealed no statistically significant relationships between student counselors’ hope and optimism and client outcomes. Post hoc analysis of student hope and their post-graduation expectations, revealed statistically significant relationships. Implications for counselor educators are presented along with areas for future research.

The purpose of this study was to measure whether or not a child welfare worker's education has an effect on their client's outcomes. It compares master's degree in social work caseworkers' rates of family reunification and the length of time children on their caseload spend in foster care to those of child welfare workers who do not have an MSW. This study sought to address this gap in the current literature by analyzing available case data from a public child welfare agency in a Southern California county.

The purpose of this study was to explore relationships between and among the degree of mistrust black students hold towards Whites, the students' preferences for race of counselor, and the discussion of problems that are sexual in nature. Participants consisted of 60 black females and 51 black males recruited from a university population. All subjects completed the Terrell and Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Fischer-Turner Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale, Corrigan and Schmidt Counselor Rating Form - Short Form, Tinsley Expectations About Counseling Inventory, and the Thermometer Method Form developed specifically for this project. A multiple regression model was used to explore the hypotheses of this study. The criterion variables consisted of scores on the Expectations About Counseling Form and Counselor Rating Form. Analyses revealed that the most significant predictors of counseling expectations were race of counselor and participant gender. Black students who were asked to assume \ they would see a black counselor had more favorable expectations about counseling than those black students asked to assume they would see a white counselor. Female participants had more favorable expectations about counseling than male participants. Results also indicated that the most significant predictors of counselor ratings were race of counselor and subject mistrust level. Those students asked to assume they would see a black counselor rated the potential counselor more favorably than those students who were asked to assume they would see a white counselor. Black students who scored higher on cultural mistrust rated potential white counselors less favorably than black students who scored lower on cultural mistrust.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

This is a novel attempt to produce a rigorous mathematical model of a complex system. The complex system under study is the relationship between therapists and their clients. The success of psychotherapy depends on the nature of the relationship between a therapist and a client. We use dynamical systems theory to model the dynamics of the emotional interaction between a therapist and client. We determine how the therapeutic endpoint and the dynamics of getting there depend on the parameters of the model. ... We describe the emotional state of both the therapist and client with coupled, first order, nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE's). The rate of change of the emotional state of the therapist and client is proportional to their previous state, their uninfluenced state when alone, and an influence function which depends on the state of the other person. We formulated influence functions based on the research literature on psychotherapy and the therapeutic alliance. We then determined the critical points from the intersection of the nullclines and used a numerical ODE solver (Matlab ODE113) to compute the trajectories from different initial conditions. ... The results validate this prototypical approach to psychotherapy ; we have shown that human interaction (in the context of psychotherapy) can be quantified and modeled using differential equations. / by Michael Douglas Norman. / Vita. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

The purpose of the study is to develop a foundation of knowledge that could improve the current policies and procedures with regards to their implementation within the mental health services provided by the Children's Bureau.