Effects of Counselor's Eye Contact on Student-Clients' Perceptions

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of amount and direction of eye contact with the counselor on a student's perceptions. 48 undergraduate and graduate education majors were randomly assigned to one of six conditions in a 2 × 3 factorial design representing two levels of eye direction (eye-to-eye and eye-to-nose/mouth) and three amounts of eye contact (high = 85%, medium = 50%, low = 15%). Subjects had 10-min. standard interviews that differed only according to the six experimental conditions. Interviews were videotaped to assess maintenance of experimental conditions. Following the interview, subjects rated (5-high to 1-low) the interview on seven variables (comfort, attention, interest, ease, helpfulness, eye contact, and willingness to return). Inter-rater reliability for maintenance of experimental conditions was .87 on amount of eye contact and .03 for direction. Scheffé comparisons showed high and medium eye contact produced significantly higher ratings by student clients on attention, interest, eye contact, and willingness to return than low eye contact. There were no differences for direction of eye contact.