Preferences for therapists and related expectancies.

60 male and 60 female undergraduates were shown slides of the faces of potential therapists, older males, younger males, older females, and younger females. Ss indicated how much they would like to talk to each individual if they had a personal or vocational problem. They also indicated how they thought each therapist would act in a discussion and what each was like as a person. Older males were the preferred therapists in all cases except for women with personal problems who tended to prefer older women. Preferences seemed to be related to high expectancies on therapy relevant variables, especially understanding, rather than to similarity to the students. Students' social classes and parent-child relationships were not related to preferences. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)