Before patient meets therapist, each has some idea how their interaction should or probably will proceed, i.e., expectancies regarding their roles (rights, obligations, and "appropriate" behaviors). Some writers have viewed role-expectancies as a crucial variable in treatment (see references).Three categories of roles may have some generality. Ruesch ( 1948), using open-ended questions with duodenal ulcer patients, observed that patients expected their physicians to be nurturant or authoritative, or to display an "ideal" personality. Apfelbaum (1958), in a cluster analysis of the pretherapy Q sorts of outpatients at a university clinic, found that patients anticipated dealing with nurturant, critical, or "well-adjusted listener" (Model) therapists. These role-expectancy "types" Apfelbaum interpreted as change-resisting "dimensions of transference." This triad of roles has also been corroborated by several other investigators (Deskins et al., 1960;Goldstein & Heller, 1960;Lorr, 1965). We have chosen to call these three categories Nurturant (NURT), Critical (CRIT), and Self-Reliant (SELF), denoting the respective expectancies of "being taken care of," "being straightened out," and "being helped to help oneself."

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