[The patient and his psychotherapist: an analog study on the choice of therapy and reflections on the significance of person perception in psychotherapy].

In order to analyse the first beginning of therapeutic interaction an analog study was performed considering especially the social psychological elements of the situation. 93 subjects (mainly students of psychology and medicine, 54 female and 39 male, 18-30 years old) were shown two parts of films presenting examples for non-directive and behaviour therapy and then had to make a decision which therapy they would choose if they had psychologically determined problems. According to the demonstration in the film it was hypothesized that the arguments for choosing a therapy would be related more to the technique but instead most of the arguments were concerned with the person of the therapist. The influence of person-perception and halo-effects could also be shown by comparing the two therapist and other relevant roles including the self-description of the subjects by means of grid-technique with a pre-formed list of adjectives. Regarding other hypothetical influences of the required choice, also a set of personality variables gave a significant discrimination for the two therapy preference groups. The meaning and influence of person perception for the whole therapy process is taken up in the discussion. It is argued that person-perception might have greater influence in earlier phases of therapy, but is then succeeded by an interaction of learning strategies required by the therapist and the learning capacity of the patient.