Counselors' perceptions of female and male clients : do we reinforce traditional gender roles?

102 Pages·2000·1.7 MB·English

by  Vogel, David

COUNSELORS' PERCEPTIONSOFFEMALEANDMALECLIENTS: DOWE
REINFORCETRADITIONALGENDERROLES?
By
DAVIDVOGEL
ADISSERTATIONPRESENTEDTOTHEGRADUATESCHOOLOFTHE
UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDAIN PARTIALFULFILLMENTOFTHE
REQUIREMENTS FORTHE DEGREEOFDOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA
2000
.
ACKNOWLEGDMENTS
IwouldliketothankDr. FranzEptingwhoseinsightsand
encouragementmade thismanuscriptpossible. Iwouldalso
liketoacknowledgeDr. MartinHeesackerwhosementorship
andfriendshipwere invaluable inmydevelopmentasa
psychologist. I alsoamindebtedtomywifeandparents
whoselove, support, andbeliefinmemadethis goal
possible
2
TABLEOFCONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iv
INTRODUCTION 1
REVIEWOFLITERATURE 8
HistoricalOverview 8
PerceptionsofWomeninCounseling 14
PerceptionsofMeninCounseling 17
GroundedTheoryOverview 19
Summary _ 23
METHODS 26
Participants 26
Researchers 26
APnraolcyesdiusres „ 2278
RESULTS 34
Counselors' PerceptionsofTheirClients 35
PerceptionsofFemaleandMaleClients 45
DISCUSSION 49
REFERENCES 59
APPENDIXA 7
APPENDIXB 90
APPENDIXC 94
BIOGRAPHICALSKETCH 96
AbstractofDissertationPresentedtotheGraduateSchool
oftheUniversityof FloridainPartial Fulfillmentofthe
Requirements fortheDegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy
COUNSELORS' PERCEPTIONSOFFEMALEANDMALECLIENTS: DOWE
REINFORCETRADITIONALGENDERROLES?
By
DavidVogel
August2000
Chairman: Dr. FranzEpting
MajorDepartment: Psychology
Thisqualitativestudyinvestigatedcounselors'
perceptionsoftheir femaleandmaleclients. Data fromthe
intakeinterviewsof59clientcases (36 femaleand23
male) wereanalyzedusingagroundedtheoryapproach. After
submittingapreliminarydescriptiontoapeeraudit, a
finaldescriptionofthesecounselors' perceptionswas
constructed. Thedescriptionincludedtwocorecategories
thathelpedshapeseveralthemes regardingcounselors'
perceptionsoftheirclients. Thecorecategorieswere (a)
counselors' attempts todescribetheirclients and (b)
counselors' descriptionsofwhat counselingorthe
counselingrelationshipis like. Additionally, whilethe
counselors' perceptionswere forthemostpart similarfor
iv
their femaleandmaleclientsa fewdifferencesemerged.
Forthe femaleclientsthethemesof "vulnerability" and
"payingattentiontohowmuchtheclientasserts herself"
weremorepronouncedthanforthemaleclients. Forthe
maleclients thethemesof"beingstuck"and"paying
attentiontohowmuchtheclientisconnectedtoothers"
weremorepronouncedthanfor femaleclients. Basedonthe
resultsofthis investigation, recommendations forpractice
andimplications forresearchareaddressed.
INTRODUCTION
Counselorsarenotpassive intheirattemptsto
understandtheirclients. Theyactivelyseekinformation,
integrateit, andformimpressionsabouttheirclients
(Leary&Miller, 1986), inordertodecideonthemost
effectivecounselinginterventions (StrohmerSShivy,
1994). However, ashumanbeings counselorsmaynotbeable
toconductthisprocess fullyvalue free (Katz, 1985). For
example, priorresearchhas indicatedthatcounselors form
impressionsoftheirclientsveryquickly (Sandifer,
Horden, &Green, 1970) andthusmaymakeinaccurate
assumptionsanddecisionsbasedoneasilyidentifiable
information.
Onesucheasilyidentifiablecueisgender. Deaux
(1976) suggestedthatcounselors "haveexpectancies forthe
behaviorsofa . . . maleor femalewhichderive from
stereotypedassumptions" (p. 336). Testingthisidea
researchers (e.g., Broverman, Broverman, Clarkson,
Rosenkrantz, sVogel, 1970; Ciano-Boyce, Turner, sTurner,
1988; Hampton, Lambert, & Snell, 1986; Hare-Mustin, 1983;
.
Karasu, 1980; Kirshner & Johnston, 1983; Korner &Goldberg,
1996; Lemkau, 1983; LoPiccilo, Heiman, Hogan, &Roberts,
1985; O'MalleySRichardson, 1985; Russell, 1986) have
foundthatcounselors' perceptionsofahealthywomananda
healthymanaredifferentandthatthesejudgmentsarein
sex-roletraditionaldirections. Basedona recent series
ofstudies, Garb (1996) concludedthatwhendifferences in
counselors' perceptionsofwomenandmenoccurinpsycho-
diagnosis, theyoccurbecauseofthecounselor'sbeliefs,
andnotbecauseofbaserates.
Knudson-Martin (1996) thereforesuggests, that
counselorsneedtotakeanactiveapproachinbecoming
awareoftheirvaluesandbeliefs, andhowtheyimpact
theirperceptionsofwomenandmenthetherapeuticprocess
(Knudson-Martin, 1997; Knudson-Martin &Mahoney, 1996)
BothFitzgeraldandNutt (1986) andtheAPAEthical
PrinciplesofPsychologists (1992) alsostronglyemphasize
theethical responsibilityoftherapists forcompetent,
informed, nondiscriminatory, andrespectful
treatment/research/theoryalonggenderlines. Ifwe failto
lookorask, previousgenderpatternswill remain
unexaminedandarelikelytobereinforced (Knudson-Martin,
1997).
.
However, previous studies have foundthatmostpeople
avoiddealingwithgenderissues, ingeneral (Hochschild,
1989; Hood, 1983; Whitbourne SEbmeyer, 1990; Zvonkovic,
Greaves, Schmeige, &Hall, 1996), andtheirimpacton
counseling, specifically (Knudson-Martin, 1997, Margolin,
Talovic, Fernandez, &Onorato, 1983). Forexample, Van
Buren (1992) reportedthatgenderissuesarerarely
addressedingraduatetrainingprograms. Therefore, itmay
bethatgender-stereotypicalpatterns ofperceivingwomen
andmen, soingrainedbyoursocialdevelopment, remain
unidentifiedorunchallenged (Stabb, Cox, SHarber, 1997).
Thishasthepotential toharmtheclient (Tsui &Shultz,
1988), as counselorsmayunintentionallyconveyrestrictive
notionsaboutwomen'sandmen'sroles (Hare-Mustin, 1983),
whichwinduplimiting, ratherthanexpanding, therangeof
behavioravailabletotheirclients (Shields, 1995)
Becauseofthepotential forharmtoaclientmost
researchersandcliniciansagreethat thisisanareathat
needs furtherstudy (Stabbetal., 1997). However,
counselors' perceptionsofactual clientshavebeenlargely
unstudied (O'Donohue &Crouch, 1996). Insteadresearchers
havereliedonanalogueresearch (see Fischer, 1989, foran
exception) whichassumesthat the judgmentprocessesused
bycounselorparticipantsaresimilartowhat theywould
.
useinareal-lifecounselingsession. However, this
assumptionmaynotbevalidbecausecounselorparticipants
maybemore interestedandinvestedinarealclientthan
inanexperimentalclient (Strohmer & Shivy, 1994). The
extent towhicha laboratoryexperiment resembles the
actual counselingprocess isanimportantconsiderationin
assessingtherelevancyofthe findings (Heppner,
Kivlighan, &Wampold, 1992). Consequently, thesedesigns
maynotbeapplicable toexamininggenderandcounseling
issues
Inaddition, theseanalogue studieshavebeenplagued
byanumberofmethodologicalandconceptualproblems
(Barak& Fisher, 1989; Lopez, Smith, Wolkenstein, &
Charlin, 1993). Theseproblems include (a) unrepresentative
samples, (b) useofdifferent andeveninappropriate
measuresacross studies, and (c) covert, political, social,
orvalueagendasthatleadtoselectivereviewsofthe
literature (Barak& Fisher, 1989). Similarly, the
understandingofgenderissuesincounselinghasmostly
beenlimitedbytheresearchers intendingto focusonone
sexatatime, thusmakingitdifficulttounderstandhow
thesexesaredifferentoralikeincertainrespects (Cook,
1990).
.
Therefore, whilereviews ofthe literature (e.g.,
Lopez, 1989) have suggestedthattherapistsmightmake
differential judgmentsofwomenandmeninanalogue
settings, onecannotbesurethatcounselorsdo, in fact,
perceivewomenandmendifferentlyinreal lifecounseling
(BarakS Fisher, 1989). Asa result, itmaybeimportantto
usecounselors' perceptionsofactualclientsandto
reexaminethewayresearchershavebeenexaminingthese
issues. Researchersmayneedtodevelopbetterwaysto
conceptualizeandmeasurecounselors' perceptionsoftheir
clients
Oneofthewaystoexaminecounselors' perceptionsof
actualclients is theuseofarchivaldatasuchas
previouslywrittenintakeassessments. Counselors'
judgmentsmadeaboutclientsduringtheinitial intake
interviewhavebeen foundtoinfluencethetypeandlength
ofservicesmadeavailabletoclientsandtherebyaffect
theoutcomesofcounseling (Tomlinson-Clarke&Cheatman,
1993). Furthermore, useofthearchival intakeassessments
hasbeensuggestedtobelessartificial thananalogue
research (Atkinson, 1985) andmoreecologicallyvalid
(Tomlinson-Clarke SCamilli, 1995). Archivaldataand
intakeassessments, inparticular, havealsobeencitedas
apossiblesourceofuseful informationforthis typeof