The Effect of Several Self‐Disclosure Permutations on Counseling Process and Outcome

Sixty male college seniors with deficient job‐interviewing skills were randomly assigned to one of five cells in a 2 × 2 + 1 design. The presence or absence of two kinds of counselor self‐disclosures was crossed and embedded in a standard interview skills‐training program. The standard program and an additional no‐treatment cell served as control conditions. Four different counselors treating participants on an individual basis provided predetermined, genuine self‐disclosures at different points in the interviews. Their self‐disclosures reflected the qualities of intimacy and/or skill display. Comparisons between the existential and coping‐mastery model literatures were drawn. The supposition that counselor self‐disclosures lead to improvements in counseling process and outcome was not supported.