The relationship between therapist and client social class and participation in psychotherapy.

Abstract

This study replicates Mitchell and Namenek's (1970) study in which therapists' estimates of their typical clients' social class were significantly related to the therapist's own discipline and self-ascribed socioeconomic background. The relationship between the therapist's discipline and socioeconomic background was also significant. Based on independent estimates of the social-class background and present social class of actual therapist-client dyads, our study partially replicates only one of Mitchell and Namenek's findings, namely, that the relationship between the therapist's discipline and background status tended toward significance (p < . 10). There was, however, a significant difference between the social class of typical versus actual clients for all therapists and for each discipline separately. This difference was primarily due to the preponderance of lower-class (IV and V; Hollingshead <ir Redlich, 1958) clients among the actual clients of all three therapist groups (psychologists, psychiatrists, and both groups together).