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Journa l of Consulting an d Clinical Psychology1 9 7 9 , Vol. 47, No. 1 , 198-200

Therapeutic Attraction as a Function of TherapistAttire and Office FurnishingsStephen AmiraVanderbil t University Stephen I.AbramowitzD e par tm e n t of PsychiatryUnivers i ty of California at Davis School of Medicine

Eig h ty - two u n d e r g r a d u a t e s v i e w e d a s im u la ted the rapy s eg m en t p r e se n t ed onone of four v ideo tapes iden t ica l ex cep t for contex tual f o r ma l i ty . Checks con-f i rmed the val id i ty of the f ou r condi t ions created b y v a r y i n g th e t r a d i t i o n a l -ism of the therapis t ' s a t t i re and office. Rat ings of a t tr a c t io n w e r e i n d e p e n d e n tof the rap i s t a t t i r e , r e in fo rc in g f indings of in t e rv i ew an a lo g u es tha t did notinc lude a m an ipu la t io n check or a p ro fe ss io n a l t he rap i s t . S u b j ec t s ' im pre s -s ions were a lso large ly unaf f ec ted by the office a r ran g em en t s , reaf f i rming oneanalogue ou tcome and c l a r i fy in g a d i sc r epan t f inding f rom a po ss i b ly u n rep -r e sen ta t i v e an a lo g u e . T he data r e fu te fo rm u la t io n s tha t as s ig n the rap i s t ac-co u t r em en t s a m ajo r ro le in p r i m i n g nonspeci f ic psycho the rapeu t i c e f fec t s .W h e t h e r or not the p a t i e n t p e r c e i v e s thet h e r a p e u t i c a m b i a n c e a s c o n f i r min g his or herp r e conce p t i on o f proper t r e a t m e n t is tho u g h tto b e c r i t i ca l to the e s t ab l i shm en t of an e f f e c t i v ewo rk in g a l li an ce . Ho w ev e r , t he s t r en g th o f em -p i r i c a l f indings r eg ard in g the i m p o r t a n c e ofsuch nonspeci f ic i n g r e d i e n t s in the psycho the ra -

pe u t i c equat ion as the therapis t ' s a t t i re and of-f ice ar range m ents has lacked the c onv ict ion ofp r e v a i l i n g p r o f e s s i o n a l o p i n i o n .M a n i p u l at io n o f counse lors ' a t t i re fa i l ed toaf f ec t s tu d en t s ' p e rcep t io n s o f the i r ex pe r i en cein two in te rv iew analogues . S t i l lman and Re s-nick ( 1 9 7 2 ) found no d i f f e r e nce in a t t ract ionor d i sc lo su re on the bas i s of v a r i a t i o n in m al edress , and K e r r and D e l l (1976) ob tained nonein a t t r ac t io n or ex pe r tn e ss acco rd in g to f e m a l ed r e ss . Un fo r tu n a t e ly , these o the rwi se n ea t lyex ecu t ed in ve s t ig a t io n s em plo yed in ex pe r i en ceds t u d e n t confederates as co u n se lo r s , and n e i the rs t udy incorporated a check on the v a l i d i t y ofthe ex p e r im en ta l m an ip u la t io n , d e t r ac t in g f romthe cogency of the co unte r in tu i t iv e ou tcom e.The only s tud ies o f the impact o f the thera-pis t 's room adornm ents hav e yie lded incon-s i s t e n t resu l t s .Kerr an d D e l l (1976) t u r n e d u pno m a i n e f f ec ts of profess ional i sm-casualnessalone or in combinat ion wi th dress f o rm a l i ty .

Requests fo r repr in tsshould b e sent to S tephen I.Abramowitz , Depar tment of Psychiat ry ,U n iv e r s it yof California School of M edicine at Davis , 2315Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento, California 95817.

H o w e v e r , B l o o m , W e i g e l , and Trautt (1977)r epo r t ed tha t th e the rap i s t w as fan tas i ed asm o r e qua l i f i ed in the p ro fe ss io n a l office but asm o re sa fe in the h u m a n i s t i c office. The Bloome t al. d a t a a r e p ro vo ca t i ve bu t difficult to i n t e r -p r e t in l ight of the u n r e p r e s e n t a t i v e n e s s of thet r e a tm en t an a lo g u e . Ra the r t han par t i c i pa t e i na s i m u l a t e d in i t ia l in t e rv i ew o r obse rve a v id eo -taped sess ion , a s u b j e c t w as seated in the officeand ask ed to i m a g i n e w h a t the the rap i s t m ig h tb e l ike . S u ch a p ro ced u re m ax im ize s the fullp r o je c t v e p o w e r of the of f ice -as-s t imulus b utd ic ta t e s tha t im pre ss io n s b e fo rm ed in the ab -sense of the the rap i s t , who se pe r so n a l q u a l i t i e sm i g h t t e m p e r th e m e a n i n g of the decor.T hu s , po s i t i v e as we l l as negat ive f indings onth e role of therapis t d ress and office p r o f e s -sional ism on impress ions of psychotherapy areconst rained b y ce r t a in m e tho d o lo g ica l f e a tu r e sof p r io r r e s ea rch . This repor t , based on a cl in-ical analogue that employed checks to ascer ta inthat the s t im u lu s co n d it io n s we re pe rce i ve d asi n t en d ed an d a co n fe d e ra t e who was a g en u in eand p l au s i b ly p r e sen t ed the rap i s t , w as p r e p a r e dto c la r i fy s o m e of the unreso lved i ssues .

M e th odThi r ty - f i v e m al e an d 47 f em al e u n d e rg rad -

u a t e s v i e w e d one of f o u r 5 -minu te v id eo tapeds e g m e n t s of a s im u la t ed in i t ia l therapy sess ion .T he s eg m en t s we re i d en t i ca l ex cep t for thecrossed factors o f formal i ty o f a t t i re ( t i e andj acke t v s . o pen -co l l a r spo r t sh i r t ) and officeCopyright 1979 by the Am eric an Psychological A ssociation, Inc. 0 0 22- 0 0 6 X /7 9 /4 7 0 1 - 0 1 9 8 $ 0 0 . 7 S

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B R I E F R E P O R T S 199(d i p lo m as and dignif ied photoport ra i ts vs . apeasant wall rug and sensitivity posters).Tw o male associates, a 37-year-old advancedpsychiat r ic res ident and a 24-year-old graduates tudent , learned the roles of therapist and pa-t i en t f rom a script adapted from an actual ther-ap y session. The interview was staged forv id eo tap in g in the same room four separa tetimes. The patient sat offscreen right with onlythe t h e r a p i s t in v i e w . N o d i f f e rences among thet ape s were found for clinical psychology grad-uate s tudents ' p rera t ings of the therap is t ' s em-pathy, compe t ence , d i r ec t i v enes s , pos tu re , e yecontact, gestures, and audio and video realism.S u b j ec t s ' o p i n i o n s of the th e rap i s t ' s p e r fo rm-ance were assessed along six 6-point bipolarscales : unde rs tand ing , compe t ence , app rop r ia t e -ness for a close f r iend exp e r i e nc ing p s ych olog-ical p rob l ems , app rop r ia t enes s for one's ow nt r e a t m e n t , degree to which expec ta t ions aboutpsychotherapy were conf i rmed, and favorable-ness of a t t i tude toward th e therap is t . Thesem e a s u r e s w e r e followed by the two ch ecks onth e e f f ec t iveness of the exp e r im en ta l ly induceddress and o f f i c e conditions.

Resul tsSubjects who v i ewed e i th e r of thev i d e o t a p e sin which th e therapist w as presumably formallyat t i red did in fact p e r c e i v e h im to be m o r e so

than did subjects who v iewed e i ther of thev ideotapes in w h i c h he was p re s um ab ly casua llya t t i r e d , F(l, 74) 83.13, p

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200 B R I E F R E P O R T Sal.'s fe m ale- therap is t cues, which l ikewise e l ic -ited more favorable reactions in the traditionalsett ing.Consistent with other data f rom B loom e t al.,aspects of the present da ta fail to establish sub-j e c t var iables such as sex or authori ta r ianismas modera tors of therapist attire or setting e f-fects. Future research would bene f i t from m o r esys t em at i c a t tent ion to subjec t and therap is tm ed ia to r s , cont inued incorpora t ion of checks onthe va l id i ty of exper imenta l p rocedures to en-able dis t in c t ion to be m ade be tween m ethodolog-ical insuffic iency and true null results , and anu p g r a d i n g of the realism of the analogues int e r m s of th e rap i s t c r ed ib i l i ty and s u b j e c t m o-t i va t ion for therapy .

Ref e rencesB loom, L. J., Weigel, R. G., & Trautt, G. N.

Therapeugenic factors in p s y ch o t h e r ap y : E f-f ects of office decor an d subject-therapist se xp a i r i n g on the percept ion of credibil i ty. Journalo Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1977, 45867-873.K e r r , B . A., & De l l , G . M . Perceived in t e r v i ewerex p er tn es s an d a t t r ac t i venes s : Effects of in te r -v i ewer b eh av io r , attire and in t e r v i ewer setting.Journal of Counseling Psychology 1976, 23 553-556.S t i l l m a n , S. S., & Resnick, H. Does counselora t t i r e ma t t e r ? Journal o Counseling Psychology1972, 19 347-348.

Rece iv ed Apr i l 7, 1978