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A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF PSYCHOTHERAPY FEES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON OBSERVER RATINGS

A social psychological study of fees and their effects on raters' judgements of a therapy session was conducted. A sample of 257 students was comprised of two groups; those students who were therapy trainees and a contrast group; those students who had no training as therapists. / Subjects viewed a videotaped segment of a role-played therapy session and then were asked to evaluate the therapist and the client via a questionnaire. Subjects had been randomly assigned to a high, moderate, or low fee condition, or the control group in which no mention of a fee was made for the session they had viewed. The data collected were used to test four hypotheses concerning the relationship between the amount of fee purportedly charged for the session and the subsequent evaluation of the therapist and the client by subject. Additionally, the interaction between type of rater (therapist trainee or contrast group) and the four fee conditions was examined. Tests of the four hypotheses proposed were carried out utilizing a series of 2 x 4 analyses of variance. / An inverse relationship between fee and positive perceptions of the therapist was found. Subjects in the higher fee conditions saw the therapist as significantly less attractive (F (3,249) = 4.207, p < .01) and in a less positive light overall as measured by the Counselor Rating Form score (F (3,249) = 3.527, p < .05). In the high fee condition, the therapist was rated less positively than in the moderate, low, and control conditions. / When rating the client, therapist trainees rated the client significantly more negatively than did the contrast group irrespective of the fee condition (F (1,238) = 4.596, p < .05). / Implications are discussed for observers of therapy, teaching strategies, and client evaluations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: B, page: 0554. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74773
ContributorsBRIGHAM, KAROL SOLOMON., Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
Format119 p.
RightsOn campus use only.
RelationDissertation Abstracts International

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