ii THE INFLUENCE OF CLIENT SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ON COUNSELORS ’ ATTRIBUTIONAL BIASES AND OBJECTIVE COUNTERTRANSFERENCE REACTIONS

The present study examined the influence of client socioeconomic status (SES) on counselors ’ cognitive (attributional biases) and emotional (objective countertransference) reactions. The purpose of the study was to better understand how counselors respond cognitively and emotionally to clients of different SES backgrounds when other demographic and clinical characteristics remain unchanged. A national sample of 141 participants included licensed professional counselors, marriage and family counselors, social workers, counseling psychologists, addiction counselors and counselor-trainees. Data was collected through an internet survey using an analogue-style design employing a client video simulation of the same actor portraying a higher versus lower SES client with the same clinical presentation. Attributional bias was measured by the Clinical Attribution Scale (CAS) (Chen, Froehle, & Morran, 1997) and objective countertransference was measured by the Impact Message Inventory-Circumplex (Brief Version) (IMI-C) (Kiesler & Schmidt, 2006). ANOVA results revealed no significant main effect for participant attributional bias for the lower versus higher SES clien