A COMPARISON OF THAI AND AMERICAN COUNSELING STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS OF COUNSELING

The expectancies that people of different cultures bring to counselling affect the outcomes of counselling. It was the purpose of this study to examine the ways that counselling students in two different countries, Thailand and the United States, perceived Counselling. The evaluative and potency scales of the Semantic Differential were used to compare the attitudes of these students related to Counselling, Counsellors, and Group Counselling. No significant difference were found in the ratings of the two groups of students on the evaluative scale for Counselling, Counsellors, or Group Counselling, but the American students rated the potency scales for these three variables significantly higher than the Thai students. Implications of these findings are discussed.