Clinical judgment faith bias: Unexpected findings for psychology research and practice.

Abstract

Professional psychologists sometimes make more pathological judgments for clients with socially deviant faith (high religiousness or spirituality) than for otherwise identical clients with socially normative faith (low religiousness or spirituality). This phenomenon is called clinical judgment faith bias, and this study used mathematical modeling to investigate whether this occurs in psychological practice. Previously, Harris (2011) surveyed a national random sample of 141 psychologists in clinical practice to investigate clinical judgment faith bias with a specially designed clinical vignette. The current study reanalyzed the data from Harris (2011), testing 2 alternative regression models with multivariate multiple regressions. The test of the first model was not significant; neither the faith magnitude of a vignette (ranging from low to high) nor its faith type (religious or spiritual) influenced the diagnostic or prognostic judgments of most psychologists. The analysis of the second model yielded significant results-but, unexpectedly, an inverse clinical judgment faith bias was found for the prognostic judgments of highly spiritual psychologists. The more spiritual (but not religious) psychologists were, the more they responded to socially deviant cases by making more positive prognostic judgments. Furthermore, a multicultural knowledge prognostic bias was found-the more multicultural knowledge (but not awareness) psychologists had, the more positive prognostic judgments they made for all cases. These findings are unexpected, contradict predictions, and must be interpreted with caution but suggest prognostic overshadowing, an entirely unanticipated bias in the clinical judgments of spiritual and multicultural psychologists.

What are the primary ethical considerations of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence?

“…For example, some psychologists may hold unhelpful stereotypes about boys and men that undercut their effectiveness as psychotherapists (Mahalik et al, 2012). Other psychologists may have a clinical faith bias-a tendency to assign greater pathology to devoutly religious patients or religious patients with nonmainstream beliefs (Harris et al, 2016). Some will allow their personal like or dislike of patients to influence their clinical judgment.…”

Collaboration with chaplaincy and ministry professionals in addressing moral injury.

“…Compared with other helping professionals (e.g., clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists), psychologists' R/S beliefs and practices differ more from the general public: They are less likely to believe in God, more likely to claim no religious affiliation, and less likely to report that religion is important in their lives (Oxhandler et al, 2017). Furthermore, some studies have shown psychologists to exhibit biases toward religious patients (e.g., Ruff & Elliott, 2016); however, the sparse literature on this topic is mixed, with other studies finding no evidence of bias (e.g., Harris et al, 2016).…”