Effects of clinical experience and client emotion on therapists' responses.

In an Emotion by Therapist Experience design, actresses portraying angry vs sad clients interacted with "therapists" (graduate clinical psychology students) varying in prior therapy experience (high, medium, or low). Results indicate that therapists judged angry clients less favorably than sad clients. More experienced therapists showed greater tolerance of anger. Therapists intervened less with angry clients than with depressed clients, and angry clients received less supportiveness, less directiveness, and fewer requests for information. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)