The Effect of First Session Attention to Termination on Counselor Social Influence Rating

This study evaluated empirically the effects of discussing termination during an initial analogue counseling session. Our hypothesis suggested that counselors who discussed termination would be perceived as having greater social influence compared to counselors who did not discuss termination. Participants (N = 143) listened to an audio-tape of an analogue initial counseling session with a college student in which four different conclusions were presented. Results from a one-way ANCOVA (partialing out age) showed that the termination discussion manipulation did not change observer ratings of the counselor using the Counselor Rating Form-Short (CRF-S). Implications for college counseling and future research are discussed.