Overall therapist complementarity across the full therapeutic relationship does not differ significantly between successful and unsuccessful outcome groups¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1974 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? When complementarity was examined across the entire therapeutic relationship, successful and unsuccessful outcome groups showed no significant difference, though successful therapists trended somewhat lower. → Dietzel 1974

Evidence¶

Dietzel 1974¶

Dietzel, C. S.; Abeles, Norman. (1974). Client-Therapist Complementarity and Therapeutic Outcome. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091646 doi:10.1037/h0076731

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Behavioral analysis of 120 rated tape segments from 20 late-adolescent clients (10 successful, 10 unsuccessful outcome by clinician MMPI ratings) compared Complementarity Index values across all sessions. The study reports "no significant differences (t = 1.309, p > .05)" between groups, with only a tendency toward lower complementarity in successful therapists.

"When the level of therapist complementarity during the entire therapeutic relationship was examined, there were no significant differences (t = 1.309, p > .05) between the successful and unsuccessful outcome groups."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Early-stage therapist complementarity does not differ by outcome group, and the predicted later-stage advantage for successful dyads was not supported — related
• During the early stage of therapy, more severely maladjusted clients elicit higher levels of therapist complementarity — related
• Observed interaction frequencies support the Interaction Matrix cell weightings, with the most interactions in the highest-weighted cells — related
• During the middle stage of therapy, successful therapists respond at a significantly lower level of complementarity than unsuccessful therapists — reports the opposite
• Therapy relationships do not show a transition from relational incongruence to congruence across sessions — related
• Response redundancy (relational congruence) is not related to working alliance ratings — related
• Quality of the therapeutic relationship and counseling effectiveness are not correlated with each other, though both correlate with therapist experience — related