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130 Appendix C: Effect of Ther apist’s Self-Disclosure on Patients’ Impressions of Empathy, Competence, and Trust in an Analogue of a Psychother apeutic Inter action John M. Curtis Los Angeles, California Summary—The present study examined the relationship between a therapist’s self-disclosure and the patients’ impressions of the therapist’s empathy, competence , and trust. Written dialogues were constructed to manipulate three conditions of high, low, and no disclosure by the therapist. Fifty-seven subjects were randomly selected and assigned to one of three treatment conditions, and the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory and Sorenson Relationship Questionnaire were measures of perceived empathy, competence, and trust. Findings confirmed the initial predictions: the greater the use of therapist’s self-disclosure, the lower the subjects’ impressions and evaluations of the therapist’s empathy, competence, and trust. The results raise doubt regarding the predictability of therapist’s self-disclosure as a psychotherapeutic technique and suggest that, at least with respect to the type of self-disclosure used in this study, therapists who utilize self-disclosing techniques may risk adversely affecting essential impressions on which a therapeutic alliance is established. The use of therapist’s self-disclosure has been part of the current controversy regarding the distinctions between counseling and psychotherapy . This controversy presumably began with Rogers (1951) who, in an attempt to deemphasize the “medical model” influence borrowed from psychoanalysis, coined the term counseling to characterize more appropriately the psychotherapeutic endeavor. Classical psychotherapeutic technique, which presumably originated with Freud (1912/1958), contraindicated the utilization of therapist’s self-disclosure; instead, therapist’s anonymity, that is, the “blank screen” or “mirror” posture, and personal restraint (the “rule of abstinence ”) were recommended to help mitigate the contamination of the patients’ transference reactions. effect of therapist’s self-disclosure 131 This preliminary caution was corroborated by many other psychoanalytic theorists and clinicians (Fenichel, 1941; Glover, 1955; Greenson 1967; Langs, 1973, Menninger, 1958) by indicating that the therapist’s expressed personal reactions tended to interfere with the analysis of the patients’ transference discoveries and resolutions. The emergence of non-psychiatric specialties as providers of psychotherapeutic service, a growing discontent with the genetic of psychoanalysis , as well as its limitations in terms of time, expense, and narrow range of patients to whom the treatment was applicable, and the escalating influence of behavioristic and humanistic-existential psychology, led to the development of new psychotherapeutic techniques. In a marked departure from the traditional “blank screen,” psychoanalytic posture, several theorists and researchers have identified what they deem to be essential therapeutic determinants: (a) Rogers (1957), the attitude of congruence; (b) Jourard (1964), who coined the term self-disclosure, the attitude of transparency; (c) Bugental (1965), the attitude of authenticity; (d) Kaiser (1965), the attitude of openness; and (e) Truax and Carkhuff (1967), the attitude of genuineness. Several investigations (Davis & Skinner, 1974; Gary & Hammond, 1970; Jourard & Resnick, 1970; Worthy, Gary, and Kahn, 1969) substantiate what Jourard (1971) designates as a “dyadic effect” of self-disclosure: that self-disclosures offered by the first party in a dyadic interaction elicit self-disclosures in the second party. Other studies (Dies, 1973; Feigenbaum, 1977; Jourard & Friedman, 1970; Murphy & Strong 1972; Vondracek & Vondracek, 1971) have shown that the use of therapist’s self-disclosure favorably influences clients’ perceptions necessary to the development of a strong therapeutic alliance; these findings, of course, are consistent with a humanisticexistential and/or behavioristic perspective. In contradistinction to the aforementioned studies, however, are yet other investigations (Chaikin & Derlega, 1974a, 1974b; Derlega et al., 1976; Polansky, 1967; Truax et al., 1965; Vondracek, 1969; Weigal et al., 1972; Weigal & Warnath, 1968) which show that therapist’s selfdisclosure has adversely affected clients’ impressions, that is, perceptions and evaluations, regarding the therapist’s “mental health” and professional comportment. These findings, of course, are consistent with the established recommendations of a psychodynamic orientation (cf. Freud, 1912/1958; Fenichel, 1941; Glover, 1955; Greenson, 1967; appendix c 132 Langs, 1973; Menninger, 1958) and display noticeable equivocality in the available research. Since the use of therapist’s self-disclosure represents a salient distinction between psychodynamic and humanistic-existential paradigms of psychotherapy and because the inconsistencies found in previous research raise doubt as to the predictability of its [therapist’s self-disclosure ] technique, further research has become necessary. A major objective of the present study was to help test the effectiveness of therapist’s self-disclosure as a psychotherapeutic technique by achieving increased control over the independent variable. To accomplish this, following the research...

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