Students’ perceptions of Neurolinguistic Programming strategies (counseling, communication, clients, therapy)
Author: Day, Rhetta C.G.
Year of publication: 1985
Publishing house / periodical / university: Dissertation Abstracts International 46(4), 1333-B Florida State University, 130 pp.
Abstract
Little empirical research has been carried out on the Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) theoretical model to date. No research investigated strategies: conglomerations of representational systems emitted by individuals. To facilitate therapy, the clients must perceive the therapist as credible (that is, expert, attractive, and trustworthy) and having utility. According to NLP theory, the client can best perceive the therapist as credible and having utility when the therapist uses the NLP model to match the client’s strategies. Four hypotheses were tested in the post-group only control group design. The treatment factor consisted of two levels, representing the matched strategies and the non-matched strategies techniques. The non-matched strategies technique served as the “control group”. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the two class groups. Though all students in the two groups were invited to participate as subjects and to control for the Hawthorne effect, the sample used consisted of 60 white female students who observed, along with the rest of the classes, one 15 minute treatment film randomly assigned to them. Thirty subjects were in each of the two groups. After observing the film, the subjects filled out the Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale (CERS; Atkinson & Carskaddon, 1975). A multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and t-tests were used to assess the data. The MANOVA was significant at the p<.10 level and each of the four t- tests were significant at the p<.025 level. Each of the four hypotheses were supported.