Effect of Supervisory Evaluation on Counselor Trainees' Anxiety
Counselor trainees frequently state that a counseling interview is more anxietyproducing when the interview is tape-recorded or evaluated by a practicum supervisor. A recent study (Bowman & Roberts, 1979) which assessed physiological and subjective measures of anxiety by experienced employment and rehabilitation counselors enrolled in an inservice practicum in counseling did not support this contention. Because the counselors' previous counseling experience might serve to reduce anxiety, the purpose of this study was to determine if tape recording or supervisory evaluation affected physiological and subjective anxiety levels of counselor trainees who had no previous counseling experience. Subjects were 14 female and 5 male counselor trainees enrolled in a graduate practicum. GSR and self-reports of anxiety were measured during three stimulus conditions: reading; counseling and tape-recording; and counseling. tape-recording, and subsequent evaluation. A counseling anxiery scale was administered at posttest to tap subjects' recall of awareness of their anxiety at three points during the sessions. Testretest reliability was .91; validity coefficient with the Spielberger State-Anxiety Inventory was .50. Each subject participated in all three conditions which provided a repeated-measures design. Data were analyzed using within-subjects analysis of variance. For GSR no significant differences were found among conditions: means and standard deviations were for reading 7.81 and 5.11, for counseling/reading 7.84 and 4.57, and for counseling/ recording/evaluation 9.49 and 4.46. For self-reported recall significant differences were found among conditions (FZn30 = 17.91, f i < .001). Newman-Keuls follow-up tests indicated that counseling/recording ( M = 3.25, SD = 1.77) was subjectively more anxiety-producing than reading ( M = 1.97, SD = 1.25), while counseling/recording/ evaluation ( M = 4.11, SD = 2.08) was subjectively more anxiety-producing than the other conditions. As these data are not consistent with Bowman and Roberts' (1979) findings, some support may be inferred for the role of cot~nseling experience in reducing counselor trainees' subjective experience of anxiety.