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Adapting psychotherapy to patient reactance level: A meta‐analytic review
Author(s) -
Beutler Larry E.,
Edwards Christopher,
Someah Kathleen
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22682
Subject(s) - reactance , psychology , directive , psychotherapist , variation (astronomy) , diversity (politics) , clinical psychology , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , voltage , computer science , astrophysics , programming language , sociology , anthropology
Resistance and its extreme variation, reactance, are uniformly observed across varieties of psychotherapy. Social psychologists note that reactant individuals prove to be less so when offered a receptive and nondirective environment. We provide definitions of reactance, review its frequent measures, and offer a clinical example. A meta‐analysis of 13 controlled studies (1,208 patients) examined the degree to which treatment outcomes are enhanced when therapists offer less directive treatments to high‐reactance patients. The results revealed a large effect size ( d = .79), confirming that highly reactant individuals did better in psychotherapy when the therapist assumed a reflective and nondirective stance than a directive and authoritative one. To a lesser degree, the opposite was also true. Limitations of the research and diversity considerations are noted. Practice recommendations are provided to minimize a patient’s reactant behavior.