The present study implemented an experimental design to investigate the impact of psychotherapists' transient affective states (mood) on the formulation of client problem and on treatment recommendations. Moderating influence of personality traits and situational factors was also explored. / Thirty-two counseling interns participated in a between-subject experiment which compared the impact of 20 minutes of positive or negative mood inductions (achieved by exposure to a humorous or a conflictive film segment) upon their assessment of stimulus material consisting of a 20-minute segment of an initial counseling interview. Three measures were obtained prior to mood induction: (a) background information consisting of demographic data, theoretical orientation, and clinical experience, (b) the Life Events Report (LER) measuring level of satisfaction in various life areas and self-reported actual mood, and (c) the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) to define levels of Extraversion and Neuroticism. Immediately following mood induction a double mood check was obtained through rating of the film just watched, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Finally, the Client Assessment Form (CAF) was administered immediately after exposure to the stimulus material in order to obtain an assessment of the client and ensuing treatment recommendations. / Although a series of univariate analyses of variance failed to reveal between-group differences, multivariate statistical tests showed significant differences relative to client assessment. Results indicated that mood and current life events accounted for a substantial percentage of the variance for the assessment variables considered. Findings suggest that negative mood (distressed) clinicians assess global severity in less serious terms than positive mood (nondistressed) clinicians. Clinicians reporting current negative life events (stressed clinicians) assess client problems in less serious terms than clinicians reporting current positive life events (nonstressed clinicians). Additionally, a post-hoc exploratory series of two-way univariate analyses of variance showed unexpected biasing effects of mood on the assessment produced by psychodynamicists relative to their humanist counterparts. Findings of this study support the main hypotheses in that they show significant differences in assessment ability attributable to clinicians' mood and current life events. In addition, post-hoc data analyses suggest that clinicians with certain theoretical approaches may be more sensitive to the biasing effects of mood than others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.39930 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Herskovitz-Kelner, Nora |
| Contributors | Dumont, Florence (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001488912, proquestno: NN12399, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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