Divergent Perspectives in Abortion Counseling
Attribution theory predicts that actors have a tendency to see their own behavior as being caused by external factors, whereas observers may perceive the causes to be internal. This study investigated the accuracy of observers' predictions in abortion counseling clinics. As part of intake procedures, 40 clients from 8 abortion clinics completed the Rotter Internal-External scale. The scale was also completed by 40 professional counselors from the same clinics. Contrary to predictions from attribution theory, clients perceived themselves to have substantial internal control in this situation, whereas the counselors expected clients to feel primarily externally controlled. This disparate perspective is suggested as having a possibly counter-productive effect on the counseling process.