Abstract

In recent years gender fair attitudes and behaviors begin to be recognized as an alternative to the sexual stereotypes in psychology, education, psychiatry and other disciplines. Studies on psychological sex typed differences, sex roles and feminine counseling have received a great deal of attention. However, there has been no research to date to investigate Korean counselors' types of gender role identity which are likely to influence the process of assessing, diagnosing and treating clients. Theoretically androgynous counselors are expected to facilitate better counseling outcome. Androgynous counselors are believed to be more flexible in their approach to the client. It is our interest to find out how Korean counselors who have brought up in a male dominant traditional society enact gender roles. The result shows that types of gender role identity is significantly different according to sex of Korean counselors; 34 percent of female counselors and 26.8 percent of male counselors are androgynous. Implication of the study is Korean counselors need to be aware of their gender related attitudes and behaviors and gender related issues should be integrated in the training of Korean counselors.