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THERAPISTS' SELF PERCEPTIONS OF EMPATHY AND AUTHORITY: A GENDER ANALYSIS
Abstract
Clinicians and researchers have begun to consider the interface of sex-roles and psychotherapy. This study investigated gender differences among therapists with respect to the dimensions of empathy and authority in an attempt to explore the impact of sex-role socialization on psychotherapy. An integration of literatures on gender and psychotherapy, sex-roles, the psychology of women, and gender identity development suggests that these two dimensions are central to psychotherapy as well as differentially tied to prescriptions for masculinity and femininity. Whereas "good therapy" is believed to involve empathic and authoritative abilities of therapists, masculinity is more powerfully linked with authoritativeness and femininity with empathy. The major questions addressed by the study concern whether or not male and female psychotherapists differ in their self-reported levels of empathy and authority with women outpatients, and whether or not therapy outcome significantly interacts with these process dimensions. Also investigated was whether successful therapists experience higher levels of empathy and authority than unsuccessful therapists. Parallel versions of a questionnaire were devised to assess therapists' experiences of empathy and authority. One version focussed on a successful therapy with a woman client and the other on an unsuccessful therapy. The questionnaires included two adjective scales and two process statement scales. All four measures were found to be highly internally consistent. One hundred and eighty-four Ph.D. psychologists returned analyzable questionnaires. As predicted, ANOVAS revealed that, regardless of gender, therapists who reported on successful cases portrayed themselves as significantly more empathic and authoritative than therapists who reported on unsuccessful cases. Counter to predictions t-tests revealed that women rated themselves as significantly more authoritative than men with respect to successful therapies, and significantly less empathic than men with respect to unsuccessful therapies. The study illustrates that gender is an important variable in psychotherapy and supports the view that empathy and authority are central process dimensions. Methodological and theoretical considerations regarding the gender differences found along these dimensions are discussed.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
LEVY, SANDRA BETH, "THERAPISTS' SELF PERCEPTIONS OF EMPATHY AND AUTHORITY: A GENDER ANALYSIS" (1984). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8500094.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8500094