A COMPARISON OF THAI AND AMERICAN COUNSELING STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS OF COUNSELING

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