What's Wrong With These People? Clinicians' Views of Clinical Couples

• Published in: Journal of marital and family therapy Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 3 - 17
• Main Authors: Ro, Hye-Sun, Wampler, Richard S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-01-2009; Blackwell Publishing
• Subjects: Adult; Attitudes; Behavior; Behaviour; Beliefs; Bias; Client Characteristics (Human Services); College Faculty; Comparative Analysis; Counselor Attitudes; Couples; Curriculum; Faculty; Family Counseling; Family therapy; Family Therapy - education; Family Therapy - methods; Female; Females; Gender Bias; Graduate Students; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Interpersonal Relationship; Male; Males; Marital Therapy - education; Marital Therapy - methods; Marriage; Marriage Counseling; Married couples; Medical Evaluation; Middle Aged; Patients; Problem Solving; Professional Competence; Resistance (Psychology); Scores; Sex Factors; Sex Role; Sex roles; Sex Stereotypes; Social Perception; Spouses; Stereotypes; Student Attitudes; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teacher Attitudes; Therapists; Therapy; Video Technology
• ISSN: 0194-472X; 1752-0606
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2008.00092.x

Marriage and family therapy (MFT) faculty and graduate students rated the “typical” or predictable behaviors of husbands or wives coming for therapy using the Georgia Marriage Q‐sort. Scores were compared with previously published scores for both “ideal” couples (i.e., showing positive behaviors, attitudes, and problem‐solving skills) and a sample of 136 nonclinical, community couples. A review of correlations between MFT raters’ scores for clients and the scores for “ideal” or actual community husbands or wives indicated that clinicians have negative views of both clinical husbands and wives. Such negative views of clinical husbands and wives are particularly marked in scores by MFT faculty. MFT students had a similarly negative view of clinical husbands, but such views were not evident for clinical wives. Recommendations for MFT training and implications for future research are discussed.