Gender Bias in Selecting a Counselor

In 1962 at the University of Austin Texas, a study was conducted by Frances Fuller. The study was conducted to help shed some light upon Mr. Fuller’s hypothesis that their may be a difference of emotional expression displayed during psychological counseling sessions between the counselor and client. And, further, Mr. Fuller believed that this may be attributed to gender bias. Mr. Fuller and his team devised a study to test his beliefs and his hypothesis that their was indeed gender bias in counselor selection was proved to be true.

and procedures of Frances Fuller and his team included utilizing a structured observation with 32 clients balanced by sex and preference from a sample population representing the University of Austin, Texas. There were nine university counselors, with one male intake counselor who interviewed the subjects. The counselors interviews were reported and derived from the case notes and audio tapes taken during the sessions. The audio tapes and notes were studied by one male and one female judge. They modified the Kelly Fiske Relationship Index for the study and compiled the data to obtain their results which were that all clients, both males and females showed a preference towards a male counselor.

The most interesting thing which I learned from SAD’s study was that when presented with a photograph, most people will choose a female counselor, however, when no photo is present and just the words male or female are printed, most people will choose a male. More research should be done to determine why this occurs. I do have a few criticisms of SAD’s research work into gender bias though. First, in accidental sampling could they have approached persons whom they felt would be receptive to them intruding upon others with a survey in hand. If so, they may have unintentionally overlooked persons whom might not be so receptive to women. Second, the fact that they had no males on their research team, to hand out fliers, etc.,, may have also biased their study.

There was a 2 to 1 preference for women counselors margin when it came to viewing counselors with photos. 40 people said that they would rather have a female counselor, while 20 people stated their first choice for a counselor would be a man. Similarly, when asked whom respondents would choose last out of the 28 options. 47 people indicated that a man would be their last choice, while only 14 people stated that they’d be least likely to choose a female. When given the option of choosing their least favorite counselor with no photograph males were the least favorite again with 22 votes while females obtained 18 votes. However, when given the first choice of a male or a female counselor without a photo, 85% of respondents chose a male as their first choice while only 15 respondents chose a female as their first choice.

Participants were asked to fill out both pages in the questionnaire and instructed to turn them back to the person whom had distributed them upon completion. . Participants were not told directly, or on the questionnaire what that SAD was trying to determine if their was any gender bias in their s

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