International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 11 : 247-2~53 (1988) © Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht - Printed in the Netherla~ds

Counsellor ethnic differences and perceived counselling effectiveness

MAX R. UHLEMANN, 1 DONG YUL LEE & HONORE FRANCE 1 1 University of Victoria, Canada; University of Western Ontario, Canada

Abstract. The purpose of the present study was to examine how counsellor race influences client evaluation of counselling effectiveness. It was predicted that ethnic minority counsellors would be perceived less favorably than the Caucasian counsellor. Three groups of secondary school students viewed a 10-minute videotaped stimulus interview, with different introductions for the stimulus counsellor's race (Caucasian, Native Indian, and East Indian). The dependent measure, perceived counselling effectiveness, was obtained and compared among counsellor races by analysis of variance. The results showed that the ethnic minority counsellors were perceived more favorably than the Caucasian counsellor. No differential effect was found in client perception of non-verbal behaviors. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Ethnic differences between the counsellor and client have begun to receive considerable attention in the literature during the last 15 years. Researchers have examined the effects of counsellor race on client preference for the counsellor (e.g., Proctor & Rosen, 1981), client satisfaction (e.g., Ewing, 1974), counsellor credibility (e.g., Levine & Franco, 1981), counselling process (e.g., Porche & Banikitoes, 1982), and premature termination (e.g., Ten'ell & Terrell, 1984).

Four trends identifiable in this research led to the development of the present study. First, until recently investigators have usually examined only the general effects of racial similarity-dissimilarity in the counselling relationship. Now there is movement toward asking more specific and interactive research questions (e.g., Atkinson et al., 1984; Terrell & Terrell, 1984). Second, researchers are moving from assessing client preference and satisfaction in the counselling relationship to assessing the more impactful dimension of client perceived effectiveness of the counsellor (e.g., Lee et al., 1983). Third, researchers to date have given attention almost entirely to the influence of verbal behavior in assessing the effects of ethnicity in counselling. This trend continues though a growing quantity of research in counselling provides evidence that much of the variance of counsellor perception is governed by non-verbal cues (e.g., Tepper & Haase, 1978). Finally, most investigators have restricted their study to comparisons of Black-White or Hispanic-White subjects which have less Canadian useful- ness than other comparison groups.

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In the present study we asked the following question: how does counsellor race influence client evaluation of counsellor effectiveness? Based on the findings of Lee, Hallberg, Jones, and Haase (1980), we predicted that client evaluation of counsellor effectiveness would be significantly influenced by counsellor race, with ethnic minority counsel- lors being perceived less favorably than the Caucasian counsellor. For additional information we also asked if clients would show a differential perception of non-verbal behavior among counsellors with different ethnic backgrounds.

Method

A male counsellor was selected and assessed by external judges to be visually acceptable as a member of three different ethnic groups. This counsellor made a 10-minute videotaped stimulus interview which was shown to groups of Caucasian secondary school students with varying information about the ethnic background of the counsellor. After viewing the interview the dependent measures of perceived counselling effectiveness and evaluation of non-verbal behavior were obtained.

Subjects

The volunteer participants were a total of 90 (49 males and 41 females) Caucasian grade 11 and 12 students sampled from a large secondary school in British Columbia, Canada.

Stimulus interview

The videotaped stimulus interview was developed using the following procedures. The verbal scripts for the interview were taken from a non- directive counselling script developed by Atkinson, Maruyama and Matsui (1978), in which a male client discussed with a counsellor the concern of his career goals differing from those of his parents. The 'counsellor' was a male, in his mid-30s, with a Middle-East origin, who had grown up in Canada. Since our research design involved showing this counsellor to subjects with three different perceived ethnic backgrounds (Caucasian, East Indian, and Native Indian), a still picture of the counsellor was shown to 19 graduate students in counselling. The graduate students were asked to ' guess the race of this person'. Of the 19 responses, 6 indicated the counsellor to be

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Caucasian, 4 Native Indian, 3 East Indian, 2 Italian Canadian, 2 Arabian, and 2 French Canadian. The absence of a predominant perception of a single race demonstrated that the counsellor could be reasonably accepted as a member of the three ethnic groups to be included in the study.

The videotape showed a full frontal view of the counsellor from the waist upward, and the back of the head and shoulders of the client.

Perceived counsellor effectiveness

The Counsellor Rating Form (CRF) was employed to assess the student- perceived level of expermess rE) , trustworthiness (T), and attractiveness (A). The CRF, developed by Barak and LaCrosse (1975), consists of 36 6-point, bipolar items intended to measure dimensions of perceived counsel- lor E, T, and A with each dimension containing 12 items (score range = 12-72). Adequate reliability and validity data have been reported (Barak & LaCrosse, 1975; LaCrosse & Barak, 1976) for the instrument.

Behavior Rating Form (BRF)

In order to obtain some additional information, the BRF was employed. The BRF was rationally developed for use in previous research (Lee et al., 1980; Lee et al., 1985) to study eight dimensions of non-verbal behavior that have been shown to be important components underlying effective helping messages. Two bipolar descriptive item pairs were prepared for each dimension: (a) eye contact (looking steadily-glancing; eye contact-no eye contact); (b) smile (timely-untimely; smile-no smile); (c) head-nod (spon- taneous-stereotyped; head nod-no head nod); (d) facial expression (warm- cold; concemed-unconcerned), (e) voice (soft-harsh; pleasing-unpleasing); (f) speech (slow-fast; fluent-hesitant); (g) gesture (expressive-unexpressive; gesture-no gesture); and (h) posture (relaxed-rigid; approaching-withdraw- ing). Each item was presented on a 7-point rating scale (score range for each dimension = 2-14).

Procedure

Ninety students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to one of the three ethnic conditions. The students viewed the tape in each condition in groups ranging in size from 10 to 22, and after viewing they recorded their perceptions of counselling effectiveness and their evaluations of non-verbal

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behavior. Prior to viewing the tape, the students were briefly informed of the counsellor's age (middle 30s), marital status (married), ethnic background (e.g., 'Singh came from East India to Canada 20 years ago'.), and educational background (Master's degree in counselling from a Canadian university). Students in each of the three ethnic conditions were given different information about the counsellor's racial background. The coun- sellor was introduced as a Caucasian counsellor named 'Mr. Robinson', a Native Indian counsellor named 'Mr. Daniel', and an East Indian counsellor named 'Mr. Singh'.

Results

An analysis of variance on the CRF E, T, and A scores was performed among the three stimulus conditions. As can be seen from Table 1, the E and T dimensions showed significant differences (p's<.01) among the Cauca- sian, Native Indian, and East Indian conditions. Scheffe's post-hoc compari- sons showed that in both E and T scores, the Caucasian counsellor was perceived less favorably (/9<.05) than the Native and East Indian counsel- lors. No significant differences were found between the Native and East Indian counsellors. The A score showed a similar pattern in that the Caucasian counsellor was perceived less favorably than the two ethnic counsellors, however, the results were not statistically significant (p>.05).

Could these results be due to a differential perception of non-verbal behavior? The answer seems to be 'No', because results of the analysis of variance on the eight non-verbal behaviors showed no statistically signifi- cant differences (p's>.05) on any one of eight dimensions (see Table 2). As well, there were no trends of patterns in the means.

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine how counsellor ethnic difference influences client perceptions of counsellor effectiveness. Verbal behavior of the counsellor was held constant across the three ethnic conditions by using a counsellor who could easily be accepted as either Caucasian, Native Indian, or East Indian. The dependent variables were counsellor effectiveness and eight dimensions of non-verbal behavior found to be important factors underlying effective helping messages.

The results revealed that when the counsellor was introduced as a Native Indian or East Indian he was rated by the students as more expert and trustworthy than when introduced as a Caucasian. A similar, but statistically

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Table 1_ Mean and standard deviations on expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness for three counsellor races

Counsellor Race

White Native East Indian

Variables M SD M SD M SD F

Expertness (E) 38.67 15.08 46.77 8.59 48.47 11.97 5.56* Trustworthiness (T) 45.10 9.89 51.97 5.9 50.83 8.53 5.93* Attractiveness (A) 37.60 12.66 41.33 11.18 42.17 9,93 1.39

Note. A higher score on E, T, and A indicates being rated as having more of the attribute. n = 30 students for each counsellor race. * p < .01.

Table 2. Mean and standard deviations on non-verbal behaviors of three counsellors

Counsellors

Non-verbal White Nal~ve East Indian

Behaviors M SD M SD M SD F

Eye-contact 9.40 2.92 9.60 3.46 8.00 3.90 1.92 Smile 5.70 2.56 5.67 3.06 5.33 2.67 <1.00 Head nod 6.03 2.70 7.13 3.23 7.00 3.06 1.20 Facial expression 5.87 3.31 6.40 2.84 7.37 3.06 1.84 Voice 8.10 2.56 8.30 2,52 8.33 2.43 <1.00 Speech 8.70 1.93 8.63 1.59 9.10 1.37 <1.00 Gesture 4.87 2.98 5.37 3.20 5.27 2.89 <1.00 Posture 8.67 2.96 9.53 3.06 8.40 3.53 1.03

Note. A higher score on each of the above eight non-verbal behavior categories indicates being rated as having a more positive aspect of the attribute. Score range for each non-verbal category = 2-14. n = 30 students for each counsellor race.

non-significant, trend favoring the ethnic minority counsellor was found for attractiveness as well. These findings were unexpected, because we pre- dicted a more favorable perception of the counsellor by the client population whose racial origin (Caucasian) was the same as them. It appears that clients are affected by the counsellor's ethnic origin just as the counsellor is affected by that of the client. Earlier Merluzzi and Merluzzi (1978) found that counsellors seemingly overcompensated to avoid negative bias toward ethnically different clients from themselves. Our results suggest that the tendency to overcompensate for ethnic differences is also salient for clients.

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The results of the non-verbal evaluation indicated that the students did not perceive non-verbal cues in a differential manner across counsellors when making their judgements of counselling effectiveness. It is intriguing to observe that ethnic minority counsellors were perceived more favorably than the Caucasian counsellor, and yet, one of the important dimensions of determining this perception, perceived non-verbal behaviors, was un- affected.

As in any analogue study there are limitations which should be acknowl- edged in the present study. First, the students evaluated the counsellor after observing a brief (10 minutes) counselling interaction. Whether or not similar findings would result from an extended interview with real clients is an empirical question. Helms (1976) reported that subjects who actually discussed a problem with a counsellor evaluated the counsellor more positively than did subjects who listened to an audiotape of the same interview. Second, the students in this study were sampled from a Canadian community with a negligible proportion of ethnic minority groups. Thus, the students might have less personal contact with minorities than those in a metropolitan area. Review of the literature by Harrison (1975), as well as the findings of Merluzzi and Merluzzi (1978), suggests that the ethnic composi- tion of the community and personal contact with minorities play a significant role in determining perceived counsellor effectiveness. Finally, no representation of ethnic minority groups among the sampled students prevented an examination of the effects of the counsellor-client racial similarity or dissimilarity on the perception of counsellor behavior. Thus, the interpretation of these findings should be limited to ethnic majority client perceptions of ethnic minority counsellors.

References

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Atldnson, D.R., Ponce, F.Q. & Martinez, F.M. (1984). Effects of ethnic, sex, and attitude similarity on counselor credibility. Journal of Counseling Psychology 31: 588-590.

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Helms, J.E. (1976). A comparison of two types of counseling analogues. Journal of Counseling Psychology 23: 422-427.

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