Journal of Counseling Psychology 1991, Vol. 38, No. 1,25-29 Copyright 1991 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0022-OI67/91/S3.00 Helpee Introversion, Novice Counselor Intention Use, and Helpee-Rated Session Impact Dennis M. Kivlighan, Jr. and Edgar O. Angelone Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology University of Missouri—Columbia Nocita and Stiles's (1986) hypothesis that differences in session evaluation for introverted clients occur as a result of differences in counselor intention use was examined. Novice counselors saw recruited helpees for four sessions. Findings showed that introverted helpees rated their sessions as less smooth but not less deep than did nonintroverted helpees. Helpee-rated session smoothness was associated with greater use of the support intentions and less use of the resistance and challenge intentions. Novice counselors used more cognitions and challenge intentions and fewer support, relationship, and therapist needs intentions with introverted helpees than with nonin- troverted helpees. Results suggested that the decreased session smoothness ratings for introverted helpees resulted from an increased use of challenge intentions and a decreased use of support intentions by the novice counselors. Implications are discussed. Few of the studies examining counseling process have taken into account Kiesler's (1966) client uniformity myth by delib- erately including client variables in the design. Recent excep- tions include Hill, Helms, Spiegel, and Tichenor's (1988) examination of client's reaction as a function of the client's pretreatment symptomatology and Cummings's (1989) study in which she looked at differences in counselor response mode use as a function of client problem type. In addition, Nocita and Stiles (1986) examined client session evaluation as a function of client's level of introversion. Nocita and Stiles's study is significant because introversion "is a venerable and pervasive constituent of personality theories and theoretically based personality tests" (Nocita & Stiles; 1986, p. 235). The research by Nocita and Stiles indicated that less-introverted clients, as compared with more-introverted clients, rated their sessions as relatively smoother and their postsession mood as relatively more positive. There was, however, no difference in session depth as a function of client introversion. This finding is important because recent research was shown that session smoothness, and not depth, was positively correlated with counseling outcome as measured by changes in client Min- nesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores and by client and therapist target complaints (Stiles, Shapiro, & Firth-Cozens, 1990). Two explanations for these findings are the following: (a) More-introverted clients may experience the sessions differently than less-introverted clients, and (b) coun- selors behave differently with introverted and nonintroverted clients. The effect of the client's behavior on the counselor's ap- proach has been discussed on theoretical grounds (Kiesler, We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Michael Patton and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dennis M. Kivlighan, Jr., Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Missouri, 16 Hill Hall, Columbia, Missouri 65211. 1988; Leary, 1957) and documented empirically. In theoreti- cal terms, "interpersonal acts are designed to invite, pull, elicit, draw, entice, or evoke restricted classes of reactions from those with whom we interact" (Kiesler, 1988, p. 10). This process seems to occur at an unconscious level. There- fore, counselors are likely to respond in a different manner to a socially withdrawn, anxious, and uncomfortable introverted client than to an impulsive, spontaneous, and socially at ease extraverted one (Nocita & Stiles, 1986). In other words, more more-introverted clients would be expected to elicit different behaviors from their counselors than would less-introverted clients. This variation in counselor approach may account for the differences in reports of session smoothness found between more- and less-introverted clients. A number of researchers have argued that counselors should alter their approach on the basis of client individual differ- ences (e.g., DiLoreto, 1971; Kiesler, 1966). For example, DiLoreto (1971) suggested that introverts derive greater ben- efit from directive approaches to treatment, whereas extraverts obtain greater benefit from nondirective approaches. If, as this research suggests, introverted and extraverted clients re- quire different treatment approaches and counselors recognize and respond to these client differences, then one would expect to see a relationship between the client's level of introversion and counselor intention use. Hill and O'Grady (1985) suggested that counselor approach or activity includes two parts: the "how" part and the "why" part. The how part of counselor activity consists of different ways of intervening and can be operationalized as response modes (Elliot et al., 1987). The why part of counselor activity involves different reasons for intervening and can be opera- tionalized as therapist intentions (Hill & O'Grady, 1985). Recent research suggests that counselor intentions are related to the working alliance and to the client's perception of sessions (Fuller & Hill, 1985; Hill & O'Grady, 1985; Kiv- lighan, 1990). Also, Hill et al. (1988) indicated that counselor intentions are better descriptors of counselor interventions than are counselor response modes. Therefore, we hypothe- 25 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.