Effects of Expertise and Issue Involvement on Perceptions of Counseling

The variable of counselor expertise has yielded conflicting effects upon clients' attitudes and behaviors. In an attempt to account for previous inconsistencies, the present study attempted to validate the elaboration likelihood model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1981) of persuasion in a counseling analogue setting. The interaction of level of subjects' involvement and counselor expertise upon perceptions of a counseling interview were investigated. Three hypotheses for high-quality proattitudinal messages were partially supported. First, subjects who were exposed to a highly credible counselor and were highly involved expressed more agreement and listed fewer negative thoughts in regard to the way the interview was conducted than did highly involved subjects exposed to a moderately credible counselor. Second, subjects low in involvement expressed more agreement when exposed to a moderately credible counselor than to a highly credible counselor. Third, subjects under conditions of high involvement attended more closely to the interview and agreed more (than subjects under low-involvement conditions) with a highly credible counselor. Results are viewed as providing tentative support for the utility of the ELM in assessing previous findings.