COUNSELING CENTER UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND PERCEPTIONS OF "COUNSELORS" AND OTHER HELP GIVERS: A CONSUMER ANALYSIS

This study compared perceptions held by clients seeking counseling of high school counselors, college counselors, advisers, counseling psychologists, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists. While five of the six groups were not differentiated in terms of personal characteristics, wide differences emerged, even within the three counseling fields, regarding the types of problems students would discuss with members of the groups. A recent investigation by Strong, Bendel, and Bretton (1971) indicated that college students viewed professionals labeled "counselors" as very different from psychiatrists in terms of both personal characteristics and types of problems students would discuss with members of the two help-giving specialties. Based on students' perceptions, Strong, et al., concluded that: Counselors are good resources for dealing with vocational and educational problems; they are also sources of help with some specific personal problems. As the problems become more severe and difficult, the More knowledgeable, analytic and intense psychiatrist is more appropriate. While counselors may not be too bright and knowledgeable, they are warm, friendly, and polite people to talk with (1971, p. 237; italics added). Just what is a "counselor? " Gelso and Karl (1974: have noted that this term serves as an umbrella, subsuming a variety of specialists who in some cases differ widely in important variables such as type of degree and training, amount of training, etc. Thus when students describe a "counselor" and his/ her functions, they are probably thinking in highly general terms, with reference 'o all of the diverse specialists with whom they have come in contact, either directly or vicariously. Based on the assumption that the title "counselor" was too generic, Gelso and Karl (1974) examined students' perceptions of high school counselors, college counselors, and counseling psychologists, and also compared perceptions of these counseling specialists with those of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and advisers. Gelso and Karl found greater differences in students' perceptions of the three counseling specialties than, for example, between counseling psychologists and psychiatrists or clinical psychologists. In general, counseling psychologists were seen as having more desirable characteristics (e.g., more knowledgeable) and being more likely sources of help for a variety of problems than either high school or college counselors. The above findings imply that professionals at counseling centers would be wise to inform students that they are, in fact, counseling and clinical psychologists when appropriate. For those college counselors who are not also counseling or clinical psychologists, the Gelso and Karl findings suggest that they should make greater efforts than in the past to inform students of what college counselors do, are like, etc. (see Gelso & McKenzie, (1973). Non-client students were used as the sample in both the Gelso and Karl and the Strong et al. studies. An important but unanswered question pertains to whether the perceptions held by such groups are consistent with those of students who are the actual consumers of counseling services. If so, then professionals at counseling centers need to do public relations work with their clients (e.g., during screening or initial counseling sessions) as well as with their non-client publics. Belatedly, the purpose of the present study was to compare, from the vantage point of students seeking counseling, perceptions of the personal characteristics of and problems appropriately treated by the six professional groups -high school counselors, college counselors, advisers, counseling psychologists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists. Method The Ss were 187 students in the process of requesting an initial counseling interview at the counseling center of a large Eastern university. One hundred three of the Ss were females and 84 were males.