The effect of counselor touch in an initial counseling session

• Main Author: Cabanial, Teresita R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1990
• Subjects: Counseling; Psychology; Experimental
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/676
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study investigates the effect of the counselor's touch to the counseling experiences of subjects during the initial counseling session as measured by the Counseling Evaluation Inventory (CEI). The main instrument used to measure client's counseling experiences is the Counseling Evaluation Inventory (CEI). Subjects of the study were 80 fourth year high school students of the University of Southern Mindanao, randomly chosen from 137 students who comprises the population who took the PACT of school year 1988-1989. Of the 80 students, 40 were assigned to the experimental group counselors (20 males and 20 females) and the other 40 to the control group (20 males and 20 females). These subjects were to undergo vocational career counseling sessions using their PACT test scores. Six counselors (2 males and 2 females) were assigned to both the experimental and control groups. The counseling sessions followed the counseling interview procedures patterned from Stockwell and Dye (1980) with some modifications. The counselors assigned to the experimental group employed the counselor touch treatment during counseling sessions and refrained from doing so to subjects of the control group. To ensure the viability of data during counseling sessions, trained raters were assigned to observe and rate counselors vis-a-vis the experimental counseling interview procedures by the participating counselors. The Posttest Only Control Group Design was also used in the study. This design rules out the concept of a pretest which according to Campbell and Stanley (1963) is not essential to experimental designs. Also utilized by the study was the 2x2x2 factorial design in which the touch/no touch condition, counselor sex and client sex are the variables studied. To determine the significant differences of the means of the variables tested, the ANOVA was used. From the findings, the conclusions drawn were: 1. Counselor's touch has a significant positive effect on the subjects' total counseling experiences. 2. Regardless of the counselor's sex, subjects who were given touch find their counseling experiences more satisfactory than did subjects who were not given the counselor's touch. 3. Client sex variable had nothing to do with the subjects' perception of counselor comfort factor as well as the overall evaluation of the subjects' counseling experiences. 4. The sex of the counselor and that of the client had nothing to do with the subjects' total counseling experiences. 5. Touch can be useful in enhancing counselor-client relationship and can bring about clients' positive perception of their counseling experiences.