Delgadillo, J;
Branson, A;
Kellett, S;
Myles-Hooton, P;
Hardy, GE;
Shafran, R;
(2020)
Therapist personality traits as predictors of psychological treatment outcomes.
Psychotherapy Research
, 30
(7)
pp. 857-870.
10.1080/10503307.2020.1731927.
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Abstract
AIM: To investigate if therapists’ personality influences their patients’ treatment outcomes. METHODS: N = 4,052 patients were treated by 69 therapists, including 36 Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) and 33 Cognitive Behavioural Therapists (CBTs). Therapists completed the NEO-PI-R personality inventory, they reported years of clinical experience, and expert assessors rated their clinical competence and reflective abilities. Their patients completed pre and post-treatment measures of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). Associations between therapist personality traits and patient treatment outcomes were examined using multilevel modelling, controlling for therapist demographics, clinical experience, technical competence and reflective ability. RESULTS: Relative to other sources of variability, therapists accounted for 1% to 3% of overall variability in treatment outcomes. However, the magnitude of systematic heterogeneity in performance between therapists was around 6%, such that the best-performing therapists outperformed average therapists by a margin of moderate to large effects (g = .57–1.10). Clinical experience, technical competence and reflective ability were unrelated to treatment outcomes. Patients treated by PWPs with above-average agreeableness scores and CBTs with above-average openness to experience scores had poorer treatment outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Therapist effects may be partly explained by the influence of their personality on their work with anxious and depressed patients.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Therapist personality traits as predictors of psychological treatment outcomes |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10503307.2020.1731927 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2020.1731927 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | therapist effects, cognitive behavioural therapy, depression, anxiety |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093884 |
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