An Examination Of Elaboration Likelihood Model In Real Counseling Context: Clients' Understanding Of Information As A Moderator Moderates The Effect Of Client Perceived Counselors' Credibility On Clients' Attitudes

Clients (N=70) in counseling completed the Counselor Rating Form-Short Version (CRF-S) as a measure of client perceived counselor's credibility, a Semantic Differential Scale, Thought-Listing protocol and a measure developed by researcher to assess the level of client's understanding of information in counseling. Following the hypotheses drawn from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the client's understanding of information as a moderator moderates the effects of the client perceived counselor's credibility on client's attitudes; the higher extent to which client understand the information delivered by counselor in counseling, the less significance the counselor's credibility influence the client's attitudes. The results indicated, consistent with ELM's hypotheses, client's understanding of information showed a significant moderator effect with a form in which, contrary to what ELM hypothesized, the effect of perceived counselor's credibility on client's attitudes trended to be more significant with the increasing of client's understanding of information. Discussions about the common method biases were taken.