Therapist attitudes and patient outcomes: II. Therapist attitudes influence change during treatment

Abstract

Psychotherapists’ beliefs and attitudes in therapeutic matters, according to the Therapist Attitudes Scales (TASC-2) (Sandell et al., 2004), were related to symptom distress, as measured by the Symptom Checklist-90, in 2 groups of patients: one in ongoing psychoanalytical psychotherapy and the other posttreatment. In the posttreatment group, the zero-order correlations with symptom distress were significant for the therapist's attitudes toward kindness and insight as curative factors and supportiveness as a therapeutic style and his or her views on the nature of psychotherapy as a form of artistry; however, they were all near zero and nonsignificant in the in-treatment group. To account for correlations among the attitude variables, multiple regression analyses were compared between the groups. The multiple correlation was essentially zero in the latter group, whereas there was a significant multiple correlation of .51 in the former group. Thus Posttreatment outcome was significantly related to the therapist's position on the TASC-2 scales. Kindness and Artistry had particularly strong relations with the posttreatment results, with Neutrality acting like a suppressor. The pattern of relations suggested that therapist attitudes functioned as moderators rather than as mediators.