The Effects of Therapist Characteristics Upon Low SES and Racial Minority Clients' Perceptions of Psychotherapy Outcome in Initial Sessions PDF Download

Author: Gordon C. Nagayama Hall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Minorities
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description
This study examined the effects of psychotherapist characteristics upon psychotherapy outcome over three sessions with lower SES [socioeconomic status] and racial minority subjects. Twenty of these subjects received individual psychotherapy and 10 were involved in a non-psychotherapy psychoeducational comparison group. Outcome was determined by pre-post Hopkins Symptom Checklist Scores. Results indicated that subjects who saw therapists of their own race and those who saw male therapists made greater improvements in psychotherapy than those who saw therapists of a different race or subjects who saw female therapists. Level of psychotherapist Machiavellianism, therapeutic orientation, and the administration of psychotropic medications did not differentially affect psychotherapy outcome. A group of 12 dropouts who began in psychotherapy was additionally examined, and was comprised predominantly of young Black subjects who saw female therapists of their own race. These results were discussed in terms of social perception theory, which suggests that external characteristics, such as race and sex, strongly influence impression formation in initial interactions.