Effect of Postural Congruence on Clients Perception of Counselor Empathy

7/30/2019 Effect of Postural Congruence on Clients Perception of Counselor Empathy

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Journal of Counseling Psychology1983, Vol. 30, No. 2,158-163 Copyright 1983 by the Am erican Psychological Association, Inc.0022-0167/83/3002-0158$00.75

Effect of Postural Congruence onClient's Perception of Counselor EmpathyRichard E. MaurerRoosevelt E ducation C enterOssining, N ew York

Jeff rey H. TindallRutgers Medical School

This study investigated the effects of counselor postural cong ruenc e on clientperception of the counse lor's level of em pathy. Specifically, it sought to de-termine whether a counselor who was mirror imaging a congruent arm and legposition of a client would significantly increase th e client's perception of thecounselor's level of empathy over the level of the client's perception when thecounselor did not mirror image congruent arm and leg position. Eighty ado-lescents met indiv idually w ith a counselor for 15 minutes to discuss careerplans. Three varia bles w ere controlled for in this investigation: counselor'sdirect body o rientation, position of counselor's head, and the empathy level ofthe counselor's verba l responses. The dependent variable was the Empathysubscale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. In a 2 X 2 X 2 analy-sis of variance the results were, as predicted, that the clients would rate thecounselor as having a significantly greater level of empathy in the congruentcondition than in the noncongruen t condition. Application to counselortraining and suggestions for further research are discussed.

There has been a great deal of researchreporting th e effects of certain counselornonverbal behavior on the client's evaluationof the counselor (Haase & Tepper, 1972;Harper, W iens, & M atarazz o, 1978). M ostof this research has measured the effect of aspecific counselor nonverbal behavior on aparticular variable. High levels of counseloreye contact, forw ard body lean, direct bodyorientation (Fretz, 1966), smiling (Bayes,1972), head nodding (G ladstein, 1974), touch(Hubble, Noble, & Robinson, 1981), andcertain arm and leg positions (Smith-Hanen,1977) hav e been d em onstrated to affect theclient's positive evaluation of the counseloron such dimensions as empathy, warmth,genuineness, and expertness.In a review of the counseling researchmethodology, M unley (1974) questions th egeneralizability of the results of many ofthese studies. One chief difficulty rests withthe use of an ana logue methodology. Thismethod employs a brief 10-15-minute vid-eotape of a couns eling session in w hich acounselor maintain s or does not maintain a

Requests for reprints should be sent to Rich ard E.Maurer, Roosevelt Education Center, Ossining PublicSchools, Admin istration Building, Ossining, N ew York10562.

specific nonverbal behavior. The client, orin many cases only the viewer, is asked torate the counselor on a specific attribute.Seay and Altekruse (1979) and Fretz, Corn,Tuemmler, and Bellet (1979) have pointedout in a series of studies that the positiveeffects of certain counselor nonverbal be-havior on the client's or viewer's perceptionfound using an analogue methodology do notproduce similar results w hen th e same non-verbal behav ior is manipulated in an actualcounseling setting.

Several factors have been introduced toexplain the inconsistency of reported em-pirical data on the effects of counselor non-verbal behavior in a naturalistic setting.Young (1980) suggested that the client'soverall perce ption of the counselor and thecounseling process is a factor that influencesratings of a counselor. Experimental effecthas also been introduced (Fretz et al., 1979)to explain the discrepancy. For example, acounselor in a naturalistic counseling settingwho is told to exhibit preoccupied ornonempathetic nonverbal behavior m aycompensate for such nonprofessional be-havior by being overly empathetic verbally.Without control for the verb al condition aswell, the researcher may not be able to con-trol fo r this effect.158


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EFFECT OF POSTURAL CONGRUENCE 159It is also possible that there may be otherbehaviors the counselor exhibits that becomeoperative in a naturalistic setting because of

the nature of the counselor-client interac-tion. These specific nonverbal behaviorscannot be anticipated and possibly confoundthe experimental design. This suggestionhas been given strength by Lee, Hallberg,Hassard, & Haase (1979), w ho have demon-strated the presence of a reciprocal processinvolving nonverbal behavior between theclient and counselor. By delivering a num-ber of verbal reinforcers and nonverbal re-inforcers following each reflection of feelingstatement made by the counselor, the clientw as able to influence the counselor's rate ofreflecting of feeling statements.The importance of the reciprocal non-verbal process between client and counselorhas been demonstrated in the observationalstudies ofCharny (1966), Condon &Ogston(1966) and Scheflen (1964). It was observedin naturalistic counseling settings thatcounselors and clients often maintain pos-tural congruence, that is, arm, leg, and headpositions are in'mirror-imaged positions.Scheflen and Scheflen (1972) define thisposturalcongruence between counselors andclient as an indication of empathy betweenthe individuals. However, because thesestudies are of a descriptive nature, the con-clusion that postural congruence is an indi-cation of clien1>-counselor empathy has to bequestioned. In none of these studies haspostural congruence been analyzed experi-mentally as either an independent or de-pendent variable. Moreover, one study(Trout & Rosenfield, 1980), which usedcounselor postural congruence as an inde-pendent variable, had its results limitedbecause it used an analogue methodology ofonly 40-second video segments of a coun-seling session with the verbal sound trackand the view ofthe participant's head elim-inated.In light of the conflicting data about theeffect of counselor nonverbal behavior in anaturalistic setting on the client's perceptionof the counselor and the lack of an experi-mental study in a naturalistic setting on theeffects of counselor postural congruence,thisstudy sought to investigate the effect ofcounselor postural congruence on the client'sperception of counselor levelof empathy. It

w as hypothesized that when the counselormaintains a mirror-imaged postural con-gruence with the client, the client wouldperceive the counselor as more empatheticthan he or she woulda counselorwho did notmaintain postural congruence.

MethodSubjects

Eighty high school juniors (40 males and 40 females)were randomly selected from a group of volunteers toserve as subjects for this study. All juniors at the se-lected high school were scheduled to receive individualcareer counseling as part of their regular guidanceprogram. For the purpose of this study an announce-ment w as made in all the junior classes requesting vol-unteers who wished to begin their career counselingprogram aspart of a counseling study. Students weretold that the first session wouldbe 15 minutes, but anopportunity fo r further sessions with the counselorwould be available. Th e only qualification was that the

s student wouldnot have sought the services ofan indi-vidual counselor in the past fo r career-related plan-ning.Each subject was given a number from a list of ran-do m numbers and then ranked according to numberfrom lowest to highest. Each male subject w as pickedin order from the list and assigned to an experimentalcondition starting with Condition 1, then Condition 2,and so forth, until each of the four conditions had 10male subjects. Each female subject wasassigned to acondition in similar manner until each of four conditionshad 10 female subjects. Each condition then w as ran-domly assigned to a male or female counselor. Thosesubjects not assigned to a condition were referred toanother counselor who was not participating in thestudy.Counselors

The counselors fo r this study were a male and a fe-male in their late thirties certified in NewYork Stateas school psychologists. The male counselor hadcompleted course requirementsfo r a doctorate in psy-- , chology and the female counselor had recently receiveda doctorate in psychology. Both counselors havecounseled adolescents for 8 years.PosturalCongruence

Scheflen (1964) describes apostural congruent con-dition as one in which tw o individuals face each otheran d hold either their arms, legs, and/or heads in mir-ror-imaged positions. For example, when Person 1raises the right arm, Person 2 will raise the left arm.Procedure

Each subject met with a counselor on an individualbasis for 15 minutes. The counseling process had as itsgoal to help the client clarify career plans by establishing


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EFFECT OF POSTURAL CONGRUENCE 161Table 1Means and Standard Deviations of Scores onthe Empathy Scale by Sex of Client and Sex ofCounselor in Congruent and NoncongruentConditions

ClientCondition Male Female

Male counselorCongruentMSDNoncongruent

MSD

29.15.923.38.4

29.27.326.29.5

Female counselorCongruentMSDNoncongruentMSD

33.67.3

21.510.5

28.53.721.315.0

Note, n = 10 for each condition.and in the noncongruent condition was 2.3.The empathy level of the verbal responses ofthe counselors is considered equal duringeach session. The raters agreed 98% of thetime on whether the counselor maintainedpostural congruence in the congruen t con-dition and they agreed 96% of the time onwhether the counselor did not maintainpostural congruence in the noncongruentcondition. The counselors therefore didmaintain the appropriate conditions duringeach session.

DiscussionThe results ofthis study demonstrate thatdifferences in counselor's arm and leg posi-tions (congruent vs. noncongruent) can in-fluence the client's percep tion of counselor'slevel of empathy. These results give em -pirical support to the theoretical concepts

expressed by Scheflen (1964) that body ex-tremity congruence between tw o individualsis an indication of rapport, interest, andunderstanding between them. The resultsalso support the earlier research by Scheflen(1965) and'Charny (1966) indicating thatpostural congruence has an effect on thecounseling process as well. Finally, the re-

sults support the theoretical definition ofempathy expressed by Buchheimer (1963)and Hastorf and Bender (1952) that one ofthe dimensions of empathy, especially in theinitial stages of a relationship, is that of im-itating the kinesic position of another.The relative strength (p < .01) of the ef-fect of the postural congruence condition hasbeen shown. N o significant findings werefound on the effects of counselor sex andclient sex and the interactions of each. Thismay be due to a number of factors. First,the clients may have viewed the counselorsas somewhat similar. The counselors wereapproximately the same age and had aboutthe same number of years' experience incounseling. Also, it has been shown that thecounselors' verbal responses were rated assimilar in level of expressed empathy.Second, the client sample wassimilar in agelevel and grade level for males and femalesand also across conditions. Therefo re, anydifferences accountable to client sample mayhave been sm all.Although this investigation is mo re natu-ra l than past analogue research, it still hassome attributes ofthe analogue realm. Theclients were recruited for an experiment, toldit would last only 15 minutes, and audio-visual equipment was present for recording.The attribute that made this research m orenatural than others perhaps is that it allowsthe counselor and client to interact w ith eachother in a dynamic, spontaneous mannerwithout being limited to predeterminedroles. As a result, the conditions of posturalcongruence are seen by the client as part ofthe natural interaction process of the coun-selor.The importance of the present investiga-tion lies in the fact that it suggests additionalprocedures or skills in the area of nonverbalbehavior that a counselor may use to posi-tively affect the counseling process. Mosttraining programs in the use of counselingskills do not emphasize the opportunity acounselor may have to increase the client'sperception of the counselor's level of empa-thy by using postural congruence. The needfor the client to perceive the counselor w itha high degree of empathy has been empha-sized by Brammer (1973), who cites empathyas the principal cond ition for the counselorto understand the client and for the client to


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162 RICHARD E. MAURER AND JEFFREY H. TINDALLfeel understood. Carkhuff (1969)states thatw ithout the condition of empathy there is nobasis fo r helping in a counseling setting.

There were a number of unexpected ef-fects observed on the videotapes after thedata was collected. The first was that as thesessions progressed, 10% of the clients in thenoncongruent counseling session moved armand/or leg position to match the arm or legposition of the counselors. This resulted inth e counselor having to change arm or legposition to avoid the congruent condition.It ispossible that these clients perceived thecounselors sopositively that they sought toimitate them. The second effect observedwas that 2% of the clients in both conditionsshifted arm and/or le g positions when therew as a change in the context of discussion orwhen th e counselor made a self-disclosurestatement. For example, the client wouldmove an arm or leg when shifting from dis-cussion of career plans to conversation aboutpersonal problems. O r, the client wouldmove arm and leg positions when the coun-selor initiated aconversation about his or herow n personal career decisions. It is possible,then, that postural congruence can be amarker for shifts in the verbal dialogue.Since the effect of postural congruence hasbeen demonstrated with a client populationof adolescents, it is recommended that themethodology of this investigation be ex-tended to include older and younger clients.There was a possible "authority effect"present in this investigation, since thecounselors were on the average 17 years olderthan the clients. Would the same effects bedemonstrable if the clients were of approxi-mately the same age as the counselor? Thisstudy included counseling that dealt pri-marily with career planning fo r adolescents.It is recommended that this technique beused with different types of counseling suchas emotional, academic, assertive training,and behavior modification to determine ifthere is a differential effect fo r type ofcounseling. The unexpected effects ob-served (during the sessions in which theclient matched the counselor's postural po-sition in the noncongruent conditions) andthe possible correlated shifts of posturalpositions and verbal content are other areaswarranting investigation if the effects ofcounselor postural congruenceare to be fully

explored. Last, it is recommendedthat theeffects of client postural congruence with thecounselor be investigated. - The purpose ofthis would be to further study the reciprocalprocess in the counseling setting with regardto nonverbal behavior. Lee et al . (1979)have demonstrated that specific nonverbalbehaviors of the client can influence specificcounselor behaviors. The counselor is nolonger perceived as being able to manipulatethe feelings and behavior of the client byshowing a certain nonverbal behavior.Rather, the counseling process is seen as anactive forum for multiple sets of dynamics tooccur.

ReferencesBarrett-Lennard, G. T. Dimensions of therapist re-sponses as causal factors in therapeutic change.Psychological Monographs, 1962, 76(2, Whole No.562).Bayes, M. A. Behavioral cues of interpersonal warmth.

Journal of Consulting and ClinicalPsychology, 1972,39, 333-339.Brammer, L. M. The helping relationship. Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973.Buchheimer, A. The development of ideas about em-pathy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1963,10,61-70.Carkhuff , R. R. Helping and human relations (Vol.2) . N ew York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969.Charny, E. J. Psychosomatic manifestations of rapportin psychotherapy. Psychosomatic Medicine, 1966,28,305-315.Condon, W. S., & Ogston, W. D. Sound film analysisof normal and pathological behavior patterns.Journal of Nervous an d Mental Diseases, 1966,143,338-347.

Fretz, B. R. Postural movements in acounseling dyad.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1966, 13 ,335-343.Fretz, B. R., Corn, R., Tuemmler, J. M., & Bellet, W.Counselor nonverbal behaviors and client evalua-tions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1979,26,304-311.Gladstein, G. A. Nonverbal communication and, counseling/psychotherapy: A review. CounselingPsychologist, 1974,4, 34-57.Haase, R. F., & Tepper, D. T., Jr. Nonverbal compo-nents of empathetic communication. Journal ofCounseling Psychology, 1972,19,417-424.Harper, R. G., Wiens, A. N., & Matarazzo, J. D. Non-verbal communications: The state of the art. N ewY o rk : Wiley, 1978.Hastorf, A. H., & Bender, I. E. A caution respecting themeasurement of empathetic ability. Journal ofAbnormal Social Psychology, 1952,47, 574-576.Hubble, M. A., Noble, F. C., & Robinson, S. E. Theeffect of counselor touch in an initial counseling ses-sion. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1981,28,533-535.


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EFFECT OF POSTURAL CONGRUENCE 163Lee, D. Y ., Hallberg, E. T., Hassard, J. H., &Haase, R.F. Client verbal and nonverbal reinforcement ofcounselor behavior: Its impact on interviewing be-havior an d postinterview evaluation. Journal of

Counseling Psychology, 1970,26, 204-209.Munley, P. H. A review of counseling analogue re-search methods. Journal of Counseling Psychology,1974,27,320-330.Seay, R., & Altekruse, M. Verbal and nonverbal be-havior in judgments of facilitative conditions.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1979, 26 ,109-118.Scheflen, A. E. The significance of posture on com-munication systems, Psychiatry, 1964,27,316-331.Scheflen, A. E. Stream and structure of communica-tional behavior. Context analysis of a psychotherapysession. Behavioral Studies Monograph No. 1.Philadelphia: Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric

Institute, 1965.Scheflen, A. E., & Scheflen, A. Body language andsocial order. EnglewoodCliffs, N.J,: Prentice-Hall,1972.Smith-Hanen, S . Effects of nonverbal behaviors onjudged levels of counselor warmth an d empathy.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1977, 24 ,87-91. ,trout, D, W., &Rosenfeld, H. M. The effect of posturallean and body congruence on the judgment of psy-chotherapeutic rapport. Journal of Nonverbal Be-havior, 1980,4,176-190.Young, D. Meaning of counselor nonverbal gestures:Fixed or interpretive? Journal of Counseling Psy-chology, 1980,27, 447-452.

Received August 5,1982Revision received November11,1982

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Effect of Postural Congruence on Clients Perception of Counselor Empathy