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Trainee estimates of working alliance with upper‐ and working‐class clients
Author(s) -
Kaiser Dakota J.,
Prieto Loreto R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
counselling and psychotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.38
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1746-1405
pISSN - 1473-3145
DOI - 10.1002/capr.12170
Subject(s) - vignette , psychology , alliance , social class , working class , class (philosophy) , upper class , social psychology , identity (music) , social science , physics , artificial intelligence , sociology , politics , political science , computer science , acoustics , law
Background Although social class is recognized as an important variable within multicultural psychology, relatively little research has been conducted on the effects of social class on psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Aims Using a vignette‐based methodology, we examined the effects of therapy trainees’ social class identity and attitudes on their estimation of forming a working alliance with clients from an upper‐ and working‐class status. Materials & Methods Participants were randomly assigned to read one of two clinical vignettes of either an upper‐ or working‐class client presenting for individual therapy. Participants then rated the anticipated strength of their working alliance with the client and their attitudes related to social class. Results Regarding training, our results indicated that participants received very few clock hours of instruction related to social class issues. After controlling for socially desirable responding, although we detected no statistically significant bias against lower‐class clientele, we did find a measure of bias among trainees towards those from the upper class. Lower trainee social class; a greater belief that social class status is earned through personal actions, merit and ability; and a greater level of anticipated difficulty working with their vignette client explained the greatest amount of trainee bias towards those from the upper social class. Discussion We discussed the implications of these findings for training and future research.