Meaningfulness as a predictor of the influence of categorized client statements upon counsellor judgements

Green, Gary Edwin Hector. (1977) Meaningfulness as a predictor of the influence of categorized client statements upon counsellor judgements. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This study tested the general hypothesis that categories of information about a client would influence the counsellors overall judgement to the extent that the categories are meaningful to the judge. Twenty subjects (13 counsellors in training and 7 professional counsellors) were given 55 statements made by a single client. Subjects were asked to form as clear an impression of the client's personality as they could from the statements. Subjects sorted the statements into categories using category titles of their own choosing. For each category subjects operationalized their impressions of the client by completing a rating scale comprised of 12 bipolar dimensions. Subjects then rated their overall impression of the client based upon the statements in all categories. Meaningfulness of a category was defined by items (number of statements in a category), extremity (sum of the absolute difference from scale mid-point), and centrality (loading on first principle component). Category influence was defined as a category's variance-in-common with the overall judgement. For each subject the three indices of meaningfulness (items, extremity, centrality), were correlated with category influence. -- The results showed the three meaningfulness indices differed in their ability to predict category influence upon overall judgement. The centrality index was found to be a better predictor than either the items or extremity index. It was concluded that meaningfulness of a category was able to predict a category's influence upon overall judgement. However, predictiveness varied with the index of meaningfulness used.

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