The effects of gender, socioeconomic status, and situation specificity on thinking, feeling, and acting

In the field of counseling the thinking-feeling-acting (T-F-A) trichotomy provides several advantages over conventional approaches to select counseling methods. Hutchins developed the TFA system and a corresponding instrument, the Hutchins Behavior Inventory (HBI), to assess a client’s thinking-feeling-acting orientation. Factors influencing the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of human functioning have been identified, but past research often led to conflicting or unsatisfying results. Some researchers claim that there are significant cognitive, affective, and psychomotor gender differences, whereas others describe the effects of gender as nonexistent. The influences of socioeconomic status on an individual’s level of thinking, feeling, and acting have rarely been studied, and, by and large, the question of whether or not human functioning is situation specific has been theoretically addressed rather than empirically researched. In this study path analysis and the LISREL methodology were used to investigate to what extent thinking-feeling-acting orientations are dependent on gender, socioeconomic status, and the situational context. The Hutchins Behavior Inventory was used to assess the TFA orientations of 172 resident counselors at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The effects of gender and socioeconomic status on thinking, feeling, and acting were minimal, whereas relatively strong influences of situational context on thinking and acting were found. These results provided some evidence that the TFA system does not discriminate on the basis of sociodemographic factors but that counseling professionals should give careful consideration to the specific situation under which behavior is assessed. In addition, arguments were presented showing that HBI scores are not all of an ipsative nature and thus are suitable for statistical analyses. Further evidence was provided that the HBI is a reliable instrument consistently measuring thinking-feeling-acting orientations.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Research and Evaluation

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Research and Evaluation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1987

Author dc:creator

• Mueller, Ralph Otto

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wolfle, Lee M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cross, Lawrence H.
• Hutchins, David E.
• McLaughlin, Gerald W.
• Vogler, Daniel E.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49863

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/49863