Rehabilitation counseling students' perceptions of a client's presenting problem: an attributional analysis.

Abstract

Rehabilitation counseling students, as everyone else, have been raised in a society which has generally neither perceived nor portrayed people with disabilities positively. How then do rehabilitation counseling students perceive those with whom they plan to work? The following study attempts to answer this question. Using attribution theory, the researcher hypothesized that certain demographic variables would be significant in determining the attributions made for the cause of a client's presenting problem. Russell's (1982) Causal Dimension Scale, in a modified form, was used to rate the causes of the problem. Results indicate that those subjects who have the most extensive background in rehabilitation, and/or knowledge of the latest rehabilitation research, perceived the client's problem as internal, or dispositional, to the client. Implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations made for the direction of further research as well as for rehabilitation counselor education.