Abstract
This study investigated the effects of self-involving counselor statements on the impressions of the counselor and anticipated self-disclosure to the counselor. In particular, this study focused on the valence of self-involving counselor statements. The participants were 180 undergraduate students. They were assigned to three groups: a positive self-involving statement group, a negative self-involving statement group, and a control group. First, they read different case records in which a counselor used positive self-involving statement, negative self-involving statement, or no self-involving statement. Second, they reported their impressions of the counselor and their anticipated self-disclosure to the counselor. The results indicated the following (a) the positive self-involving statement group showed significantly higher impressions of the counselor and greater anticipated self-disclosure to the counselor than the other groups, (b) there was no significant difference in impressions of the counselor between the negative self-involving statement group and the control group, and (c) the negative self-involving statement group demonstrated significantly greater anticipated self-disclosure compared to the control group, but only with regard to the distress of the negative environment.
