CLINICAL JUDGMENTS FOR CLIENTS OF VARYING RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY WITH CLINICIANS-IN-TRAINING
Open Access
- Author:
- Henry, Michele Lynn
- Graduate Program:
- Counseling Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 06, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Kathleen Bieschke, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Keith B Wilson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Joyce Karen Illfelder Kaye, Committee Member
Edgar Paul Yoder, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Clinicians
Clinical Judgments
Religious Orientations - Abstract:
- The therapeutic process is influenced by the therapists’ personal experiences, anticipations, and/or needs (Wallach & Strupp, 1960). Overall, these influences seem to be related to the therapists’ level of attraction toward the client. The more a clinician views a client as similar, the more likely the clinician is to experience warm feelings and positive regard for the client (Feeser, 1997). Furthermore, these influences could have an impact on the clinicians’ clinical judgment depending upon his/her level of awareness regarding the presenting issues in relation to variables (i.e., race or ethnicity, gender, disability, and religious orientation). If clinicians are going to provide effective services to clients who are religious, it would be important for them to have knowledge or an awareness of the factors that may impede the therapeutic process (Richards & Bergin, 1997). The purpose of the current study was to examine the extent to which differences in clinicians’ clinical judgments (as measured by the Therapist Personal Reaction Questionnaire—TRPQ) for clients of varying religious orientations (extrinsic, intrinsic, and quest) attributed to clinicians’ background factors (age, sex, race, field of study, highest degree earned, and number of years conducting psychotherapy), social desirability scale values, and religious orientation. A total of 186 clinicians-in-training enrolled in an APA-approved graduate program in Clinical Psychology or Counseling Psychology participated in the study. When the three religious orientations were entered as a block, the change in R² was not significant. However, within the religious orientation block an intrinsic religious orientation was significant for the Religious Mary vignette. These results suggest that participants with an intrinsic orientation perceived the client in the Religious Mary vignette as attractive.