Date of Award

1-1-1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between client-therapist pretherapy similarity on mental health values and psychotherapy outcome. Previous outcome research has examined client-therapist similarity on values-in-general but neglected the study of mental health values. Mental health values are defined as a subset of values-in-general, those concerned with judgments of good or poor mental health. A sample of outpatients (N = 60) and their therapists (N = 28) completed the Mental Health Values Questionnaire (MHVQ; Tyler, Clark, Olson, Klapp, and Cheloha, 1983) as a measure of mental health values. The MHVQ consists of eight scales: (a) Self-Acceptance, (b) Negative Traits, (c) Achievement, (d) Affective Stability, (e) Interpersonal Relations, (f) Untrustworthiness, (g) Religious, and (h) Unconventional Reality. Outpatients were seen in individual therapy by experienced therapists in three locations, North Dakota mental health centers, Texas mental health clinics, and Texas private practice. Clients remained in therapy an average of 11.4 sessions. Therapy outcome was measured using a variety of measures administered pre- and post-therapy including client and therapist ratings of symptoms, presenting problems, current mood, and attitudes toward the therapy relationship.The major finding was that pretherapy similarity in some mental health values and dissimilarity in others was related to some measures of therapeutic improvement. This suggests the importance of focusing on client-therapist similarity in specific mental health values as a more precise way of understanding how values affect the therapy relationship. One implication of this finding is the suggestion that cleints and therapists could be matched on those values which have been empirically demonstrated to be related to therapy improvement.

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