For 3 decades, counseling psychologists have drawn ideas from social psychology about the social process of counseling, integrated the ideas into counseling theories, and assessed them in research. This article traces the history of this interface, examines its products, and projects its future. Three propositions have guided and have been supported by much of the research: (a) Successful counseling relationships generate psychological convergence between counselor and client through a systematic developmental process; (b) ideas counselors introduce that are discrepant from clients' understandings stimulate change; and (c) clients' responsiveness to counselors is a function of their dependence on the counselors. These social influence dynamics underlie the processes and outcomes of counseling relationships regardless of the clinical theory that guides the counselors' work.From visionary beginnings in the 1950s (Robinson, 1955), an interface has emerged between social psychology and counseling and clinical psychology (

A strategy is proposed for using the Interpersonal Communication Rating Scale (ICRS; S. R. as a measure of counseling process. Speaking turns were coded for 14 interviews conducted according to J. Mann's (1973) model of brief psychodynamic therapy, and continuous indexes of relationship harmony or accord were derived from these codes. Two such indexes were compared: one based on complementarity as an indicator of accord and the other based on an alternative indicator labeled "engagement." The measure based on complementarity did not behave as predicted by the 3-stage model for successful counseling (T. J. Tracey, 1986). As in previous research, negative and positive complementarity followed different patterns over the course of treatment. We discuss implications for understanding complementarity as an index of influence in counseling, as well as prospects for developing the ICRS as a tool for process researchers.

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