Effects of therapists' affect-focused and content-focused responses over four sessions on client expectations about counseling, perceptions of received empathy and therapists' social influence

Effects of therapist affect-focused and content-focused responses on client expectations about counseling, perceptions of received empathy, and therapists' social influence were investigated over four counseling sessions. The subjects were 17 volunteers from employee and student populations at The University of Tennessee. Each subject discussed a real problem with a warm, genuine, and caring therapist over four sessions. Subjects were randomly assigned to either affect-focused interviews or content-focused interviews for all sessions. Subjects' expectations were measured before each session using the Expectations About Counseling-Brief Form (EAC-6) (Tinsley, Workman & Kass, 1980). Client perceptions of received empathy were measured after each session using the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (BLRI) (BarrettLennard, 1978), and an informational form (INFO) drafted by the researcher. Perceptions of therapists' social influence were measured at the end of the study using an adapted version of the Counselor Rating Form-Short (CRF-S) (Barak & LaCrosse, 1975). Client expectations and perceptions of empathy were found to correlate more highly as the number of sessions increased. There were significant changes in client expectations and perceptions of received empathy across both types of interviews. However, significant differences were not found between interview types according to expectations, perceptions of received empathy or perceptions of therapists' social influence. Results were discussed in relation to therapist qualities and counseling approaches.