Abstract
Twenty psychotherapists were individually given one of two psychological reports on a patient which either presented the patient as a good or a poor candidate for therapy. Each therapist then viewed a videotape of the patient in a therapeutic session which allowed the therapist to make written comments as if he were the therapist in the session. Therapists' comments were scored in several categories. No significant differences were found on any of the dependent variables for either good vs poor prognostic information or for psychiatrists vs psychologists. Female therapists used significantly more positive comments, more reflections of feeling, and fewer negative comments than did males. The results suggest that therapists' prognostic expectancy may not be as important a variable as previous correlational research has suggested. The finding concerning males vs females supports some previous studies and stresses the possible relative importance of sex differences vs other variables relating to therapists, e.g., expectancy and training.
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