Abstract
The usefulness of self-disclosure as a counseling intervention is debatable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of counselors' self-involving and self-disclosing on recipients' impressions of them. The participants were 208 undergraduate and graduate students. They were assigned to three groups: a self-involving group, a self-disclosing group, and a control group. They read different case records in which a counselor used self-involvement, self-disclosure, or controlled self-disclosure, and then evaluated the counselor. These results were analyzed by using ANOVA and indicated that (a) the self-involving group gave significantly higher ratings for counselor expertness than the other groups, (b) the self-involving group gave significantly higher ratings for counselor attractiveness than the control group, (c) the self-disclosing group gave significantly higher ratings for counselor attractiveness than the control group, and (d) the self-disclosing group gave significantly lower ratings for counselor trustworthiness than the other groups. These results suggest that counselor self-involvement could be a useful intervention when the recipient considered the counselor professional, and counselor self-disclosure could be a useful intervention when that the client considered the counselor attractive. However, counselor self-disclosure was found to be possibly ineffective when the counselee considered the counselor trustworthy.
