Examination of the unintentional effect of stimulus medium and context on preference for psychotherapy.
Past research that has examined preferences for different psychotherapy orientations has yielded inconsistent results. This study investigated whether the discrepant results are artifacts of the methods chosen. Stimulus context (therapy session vs. therapy description) and stimulus medium (audiovisual vs. written) were investigated in comparing preferences for the behavioral and person-centered orientations. Over 300 undergraduates rated their preference for both psychotherapy orientations on a 4-item questionnaire. The behavioral orientation received a significantly higher preference score when both orientations were presented audiovisually as a therapy session. Conversely, the person-centered orientation received a higher preference score when both orientations were presented as a written description. Given the current methodology, rated preference for type of therapy may be determined more by how specifically the therapies are presented than by the actual saliency that a particular orientation holds for an individual.
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012107:Research Design; D014743:Videotape Recording