An attributional alliance : effect of therapist empathy in marital therapy

Attribution theory provides a rich foundation of literature addressing how individuals infer causes of behavior. While a great deal of marital therapists have utilized attribution theory to examine dysfunctional patterns of couples, no research to date has examined therapists' own attributions. The purpose of this study was to examine therapists' causal explanations, or attributions, for the difficulties of a marital dyad.One hundred thirty masters and doctoral level students completed the Causal Dimension Scale after viewing a videotape of a couple in an initial interview for therapy. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of three conditions when viewing the videotape: (1) Empathy induction for the wife; (2) empathy induction for the husband; or (3) a control group.Results indicated that empathy instructions did not significantly affect subjects' causal explanations for the couple's problems. Additionally, there was no relationship between empathy-induction and the subsequent prognosis for each spouse. While empathy instructions did not significantly affect therapist prognoses, there were gender differences among therapists and their prognoses. In general, female observers rated the prognosis for therapeutic gain for both the husband and wife higher than did male observers; however, the only significant difference between male and female observers was on the prognosis for therapeutic gain for the husband. Finally, another influential variable affecting therapist prognosis was the video scenario. The prognosis for therapeutic gain for both the husband and the wife was judged to be higher when he/she was the "pursuer" who was upset with the other spouse for spending too much time at work with an opposite-sex co-worker. Implications of this study for marital therapists were discussed. Additionally, limitations as well as suggestions for further research in this area were noted and discussed. Further investigation is needed to examine possible therapist biases in working with couples.Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance ServicesThesis (Ph. D.