Effects of counsellor interpretations and client reactance on social influence and the working alliance

Abstract

Abstract These two studies investigated the main and interaction effects of client reactance and counsellor interpretation discrepancy and style on counsellor social influence and the working alliance. Undergraduate students who were divided into high and low reactant pups listened to low, moderate, or high discrepancy interpretations given by counsellors who used a tentative or absolute interpretation. Contrary to the hypotheses, results showed only one interaction effect for reactance, interpretation discrepancy, and interpretation style. Low reactant participants rated the working alliance higher with tentative interpretations while high reactant participants rated it higher with absolute. High reactant participants consistently tended to perceive the counsellor less positively than low reactant participants. There were unexpected gender differences, suggesting that females saw the counselling more positively in the low discrepancy condition while males did in the moderate. The results were not support...