This laboratory analogue investigated the effects of supervisor skillfulness and supervisor-supervisee attitude similarity on the attraction of the supervisee to the supervisor. The subjects were 29 graduate students receiving training in counseling. The experimental procedure varied the similarity of the supervisee with the supervisor by means of an attitude scale purportedly filled out by the supervisor. After the supervisee compared the bogus protocol with his own, each supervisee viewed a videotape of one of two simulated supervisory sessions showing the supervisor working either at a high or low level of skill with two supervisees. Results showed a main effect of supervisor skillfulness on attraction but did not show attraction to vary as a function of supervisor-supervisee attitude similarity. It was concluded that skillfulness was a primary determinant of attraction, but, in contrast to previous findings, similarity did not exert a significant attraction effect under the conditions of this experiment. Supervisor skillfulness appeared to eliminate the similarity attraction effect. The data indicated that the supervisee was willing to tolerate dissimilarity if the supervisor was skillful.If the skills and personal qualities requisite for successful counseling practice were known, questions about training, desiderata would not have to be raised. At present, however, convictions about training tend to reflect theoretical predilections which, in turn, depend largely on personal preference and one's most charismatic supervisor. Thus, analytic apprentices are taught to be aloof and incisive, aspiring humanists are annointed in self-liberating experiential encounters, and neophyte social engineers are shaped to be judicious distributors of This paper is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation.
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