Attitude change toward the self and others as a function of helper training and experience

Abstract

Attitudes toward the self, and toward four specific target groups (institutionalized patients, mental hospitals, graduate students in psychology, and undergraduates in psychology) were assessed as a function of paraprofessional skills training and client contact experience. Twenty-item semantic differential rating forms were administered three times to experimental participants (21 upper-level psychology undegraduates): during pretraining, after four weeks of training, and after six weeks of client contact. Control participants consisted of 21 upper-level psychology students enrolled in a traditional academic course. Although the results indicated that experimental participants' attitudes toward the self (p < .05), institutionalized patients (p < .05), graduate students in psychology (p < .05), and undergraduates in psychology (p < .05) became significantly more positive on one or more factors, they were not as dramatic nor maintained as reliably as was hoped. Possible reasons for this finding were discussed.