In recent years, a body of literature has emerged regarding the relationship of sex role stereotypes and mental health. Specifically, it has been found that mental health counselors have stereotyped attitudes about the proper roles for men and women (Abramowitz, Abramowitz, Jackson & Gomes, 1973; Billingsley, 1977; Broverman, Broverman, Clarkson, Rosenkrantz & Vogel, 1970, 1972; Carter, 1971). Some authors have suggested that these stereotypes interfere with the counseling process; however, there has not been any clinical research done which can be used as a basis to support or refute this inference. Further, a recent review of the area of the effect of client-therapist matching on psychotherapy outcome (Morrow, 1978) discovered support for the idea that matched client-therapist dyads may produce better outcomes than non-matched pairs. / This dissertation was an initial investigation into the area of the effects of counselor sex role attitudes in matched and non-matched therapy dyads. Seven graduate students (four females and three males) in a counselor education master's degree program were trained to take on a non-sexist counseling role. Each counselor was rated on his/her ability to stay within the role while counseling before being cleared to go on to work with clients. All clients were female undergraduates who had volunteered for this study through a counseling of psychology course. Previous to volunteering, all clients took the Attitude Toward Women Scale and upon signing up for the study, each was assigned to the "liberal", "moderate", or "conservative" group based on her score. Every counselor was assigned three "liberal" and three "conservative" clients to counsel for four sessions each. / Upon completing the counseling sessions, clients filled out two questionnaires rating their satisfaction with the counseling experience and their general attitudes toward counseling. Therapists filled out a questionnaire regarding their satisfaction with the counseling. Two phases of the study were carried out with the second phase being a replication of the first phase. Results were analyzed using a multivariate test in order to assess any differences in outcome ratings between the matched vs. the non-matched groups and also between the clients with female counselors vs. clients having male counselors. Separate 2 x 2 analyses of variance were conducted to check on any interactions between matching condition and sex of counselor for any of the outcome measures. All analyses were carried out separately for each phase of the experiment. / All multivariate tests yielded non-significant results, indicating that neither clients nor counselors rated their experience differently as a result of being in a like vs. opposite sex dyad or being in a matched vs. non-matched dyad. Analyses of variance demonstrated that male counselors gave a more positive rating when paired with matched clients while female counselors gave more positive outcome ratings when paired with non-matched clients. This result held over both phases of the study. In looking at client outcome for Phase I vs. Phase II ratings, the satisfaction ratings yielded significant but contradictory results. For Phase I, matched clients rated the outcome more positively but for Phase II, the non-matched clients gave more positive ratings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: B, page: 1120. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74163 |
| Contributors | MORROW, CHARLENE., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 122 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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