Bulimic women's responses to the use of self-disclosing statements by counselors : implications for counseling

This study investigated the perceptions bulimic women have of counselor self-disclosure. Sixty-six female participants diagnosed with bulimia nervosa read one of three counseling transcripts in which they were asked to place themselves in the role of the client in the script. After reading the transcripts, they completed the Counselor Rating Form (CRF) and the Post-Experimental Rating Form. Three types of counselor responses to client questions were utilized: (a) similar self-disclosing statements, (b) dissimilar self-disclosing statements, and (c) non self-disclosing statements. These statements were presented to participants in three different transcripts of an interview containing direct questioning from the client about the counselor's past experience with eating disorders. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) indicated that: (a) there were no significant differences among the treatment conditions on participants' ratings of expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness;(b) there were no significant differences among the three treatment conditions on participants' willingness to see a counselor like the one in the transcript; and (c) there were no significant differences among the three treatment conditions on participants' willingness to engage in behaviors recommended by the counselor. Pearson Product Moment correlations suggested that: (a) there was a significant relationship between participants' ratings of each of the CRF dimensions, including the total CRF score, and participants' willingness to see a counselor like the one in the transcript; and (b) there were significant relationships between the social influence variables and a general willingness to engage in behaviors recommended by the counselor, but not for each of the four individual behaviors recommended by the counselor. These findings were discussed in relation to the use of social influence theory with women who are diagnosed with bulimia nervosa. Implications of the study and recommendations for future research were discussed.