SEX AND AGE BIASES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY: DIFFERENTIAL PERCEPTION AND MEMORY OF CLIENTS AS A FUNCTION OF CLIENT AGE AND GENDER AND THERAPIST GENDER

Therapists' contribution to the observed age/sex reversal in mental health statistics from male-dominated childhood psychopathology to female-dominated adult psychopathology was investigated. The present analogue study assessed therapists' differential perception and memory of a hypothetical antisocial-hysterical client profile as a function of client gender and age and of therapist gender. It was predicted that therapists would emphasize female clients' (particularly the female adult's) hysterical and social functioning and male clients' (particularly the male child's) antisocial and vocational functioning in summarizing, recalling, questioning, and evaluating client data. It was predicted that male therapists would show more sex and age biases than female therapists. The study was a completely randomized partial hierarchical design with Sex of Therapist and specialization nested within Sex of Client x Age of Client. Eighty practicing child and adult therapists (40 female, 40 male) participated. The results did not support predictions. Client sex generally had little impact on therapists' responses. There was, however, evidence of possible stereotypic overemphasis of the female child client's social functioning but counterstereotypic underemphasis of the female adult client's social concerns. Therapists did not differentially remember female clients' hysterical functioning nor male clients' antisocial and vocational functioning. There were unexpected, consistent client age-related findings. However, possible confounding by therapists' nested specialization limited the validity of these results. Male therapists did not evidence more stereotyped evaluation and memory of client data than did female therapists. No negative information bias was found. Results were consistent with the consensus of other analogue research into sex bias. The findings were discussed in terms of cognitive memory and stereotype theories.