| Summary: | This investigation explored the effects of two independent variables choosing a therapist and pretherapy training (PTT) and their interaction on psychotherapeutic outcome. The subjects were students who applied for counseling services at the University of Arizona's Student Counseling Serivice. Six therapists participated in the study by seeing the subjects who were assigned to them by the investigator for three sessions each. Subjects were assigned to one of six groups: (1) first choice therapy and viewing of pretherapy training videotape, (2) other than first choice therapist and viewing of pretherapy training videotape, (3) no choice therapist (random assignment) and viewing of pretherapy training videotape, (4) first choice therapist and not viewing the pretherapy training videotape, (5) other than first choice therapist and not viewing the pretherapy training videotape and, (6) no choice of therapist (random assignment) and not viewing the pretherapy training videotape. All therapists in the study were videotaped conducting a ten minute intake interview with the same model client. Subjects that were in groups requiring choosing a therapist, groups one, two, four, and five, viewed videotapes of three therapists and made their selection from that subgroup. The pretherapy training videotape was a model counseling session between a model therapist and model client followed by a commentary of the ways in which the client behaved appropriately during the counseling session. The two instruments used were a self-report instrument for the clients, the Brief Symptom Psychiatric Rating Scale (Overall and Aronson, 1962). Pretest measures were taken using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) prior to treatment and using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) after the first session. Post-test measures using both instruments were taken after the 3rd therapy session. ANCOVAs were performed, using the pre-test score as the covariate. No significant effects were found for the choice variable on either the BSI or the BPRS. Significant effects were found for pre-therapy training on the Depressive Mood and Hostility scales of the BPRS although no effect was found for pretherapy training on the BSI. The only significant interaction effect for the two independent variables was found on the Hostility subscale of the BSI.
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