Effects of therapist title on perceived competence.

Abstract

A study on how perceptions of a therapist's competence IS affected by the therapist's title of address was conducted. The subjects were 204 college students (97 males and 107 females) who watched a brief videotaped segment of an interchange between a therapist and his male client. Each of four groups of subjects (consisting of both males and females) saw a copy of the same tape, but with a different label on the screen. The first group saw a tape with the therapist titled as "Doctor"; the therapist in the second group's tape was titled "Mister"; and the therapist in the third group was identified by name only. The tape shown to the fourth group had no label on the screen. After viewing the tape, they rated the therapist on 11 Likert-type scales. Ratings were compared between the four groups and between male and female subjects. Analysis of the variance on each of the 11 characteristics showed no significant effects for the therapist's title. There was a significant effect for subject gender on 9 of the 11 items, with males giving higher ratings than females in every instance. These results showed that the therapist's title had no bearing on ratings of his competence, but that males rated him higher on several qualities than did females.