Attraction to psychotherapy: influences of therapist status and therapist-patient age similarity.

Therapist-patient age similarity and therapist status were examined in relation to interpersonal attraction in the psychotherapy dyad. Psychiatric inpatients who comprised three age groupings were assigned randomly to one of four audiovisual treatments that depicted a dyadic psychotherapy situation (N = 60). For each treatment, therapist age and status were differentially presented on color slides with the same accompanying audiotape. Results indicated that age similarity was significantly (p less than .05) more relevant for the younger patients, whereas therapist status had greater significance for older patients. There were several significant interactions that concerned therapist-patient age similarity and therapist status effects on psychotherapeutic attraction. These results suggest that therapist-patient matching on age and/or therapist status should be considered carefully as a potential influence on therapeutic outcome.