The Influence of Prior Information about Clients on Evaluations and Responses of Clinicians During Family Therapy

Abstract

An experiment is described in which psychotherapists observed a videotape showing segments of a conjoint therapeutic assessment session with a father, mother, and son of 18 years. Prior to observing the tape the subjects received either negative information about the parents combined with positive information about the son; neutral information; or negative information about the son combined with positive information about the parents. The subjects were given the opportunity to “intervene” at six fixed points, by writing down exactly what they would say to each of the family members at that moment, and to describe their rationale in choosing a particular intervention. The behavioral interventions and the accompanying attitude were rated for amount of sympathy expressed toward each of the family members. It was predicted that the subjects would intervene in a relatively negative way and display a negative attitude toward the person about whom they had received negative prior information while positive prior information would lead to positive interventions and a positive attitude. Both attitude and behavior were significantly biased in the predicted direction, while the influence of prior information on the perceptual level appeared to be less strong. In the discussion, special attention is given to ambiguity of the behavior of targets, the relationship between the source of the prior information and the targets, the external validity of the study, and directives for future research.