ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of attitude and its relationship to the research and counselling dynamic. It attempts to relate two different concepts in psychology which have conceptual overlaps. This may be because the concepts of transference and attitude are traditionally seen as belonging to two different schools of psychology - ‘transference’ to that of counselling and therapy and ‘attitude’ mainly to that of social psychology. The attitude a therapist adopts towards a Black client was seen as the product of experience during their maturation and development and influenced by the process of socialization. M. Fishbein and I. Ajzen pointed out that a person may have various beliefs about the same objects and that these beliefs are not necessarily always related. The same situation also held true for behavioural intentions. Discursive approaches recognize that understanding is continually being produced out of exploration and a process of movement through various discursive positions coming from social and historical knowledge and experience.
