To determine whether or not counselors are demonstrably different from noncounselors in terms of empathy, the concept of empathy was translated into an operational variable consisting of an affective (tonal) component and a cognitive (perceptual) component. Some 11 items judged as affect-laden by two rater groups were selected from the Squires Empathy Test. A group of counselors and a control group of graduate science students were selected by random sampling and tested individually. The affective component of empathy was assessed by obtaining four physiological measures: (1) skin conductance, finger blood volume, heart rate, and respiration rate. The cognitive component was assessed by obtaining oral response measures of the subject's interpretation of a tape-recorded dramatic excerpt followed by a slide o f six pictures. It was found that the empathic behavior of counselors differed from that of noncounselors with respect to changes in finger blood volume, although no differentiation could be made with the other physiological measures. It was found that counselors and noncounselors do not differ in their respective abilities to perceptualize in empathetic situations. (IM)