Supervisory-type feedback effects: Feedback discrepancy level, trainee psychological differentiation, and immediate responses

A study was conducted to examine the relationship of 2 variables: (a) a counselor trainee's level of psychological differentiation, and (b) the type of supervisory feedback he or she receives to the trainee's postfeedback agreement, recall, and content evaluation reactions on rating scale measures. 108 counselor trainees, identified as high, moderate, or low on a measure of field dependence-independence, were exposed to 1 of 4 gradations of bogus supervisory feedback, which was experimentally varied from Ss' pretreatment ratings of expected feedback. Field-independent trainees agreed more and evaluated the feedback content more positively than field-dependent trainees. Significantly greater agreement, more positive content evaluation, and more accurate recall were elicited by positive and congruent feedback than by moderate and extreme negative feedback. Based on significant main and interaction effects, the importance for counselor education and supervision of variables such as psychological differentiation, individually determined expectancies, and magnitude and direction of discrepant feedback is discussed. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).