EFFECTS OF LABELING AND SELF-ESTEEM ON PERCEPTIONS OF A THERAPIST AND WILLINGNESS TO SELF-DISCLOSE BY GAY AND LESBIAN SUBJECTS

Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether gay men and lesbian women would (a) rate therapists of similar sexual orientation more highly on the Counselor Rating Form (Barak & LaCrosse, 1975) than they would rate heterosexual therapists and (b) indicate more willingness to self-disclose to therapists of similar sexual orientation, as measured by a modified Jourard Self-Disclosure Scale (Jourard, 1971). In Experiment 1, gay men viewed a videotape of a male therapist with a male client; in Experiment 2, lesbian women viewed a videotape of a female therapist with a female client. Therapeutic issues were related to depression and existential problems, not to sexual orientation problems. Subjects were given presession information that manipulated the variables of sexual orientation (homosexual-heterosexual) and experience level (experienced-inexperienced) of the therapist in a 2 x 2 factorial design. Subjects' self-esteem levels (as measured by the Texas Social Behavior Inventory; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1975) were also evaluated to determine their effect on the outcome. Results of MANCOVA indicated that there were no significant main or interaction effects for therapist sexual orientation or experience level: Gay men and lesbian women did not rate more highly, nor were they more willing to self-disclose to the homosexual or experienced therapist. These findings are in contrast to those from an earlier reported study (Atkinson, Brady, & Casas, 1981).