Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study 1) examined whether preferences for traditional psychotherapy treatments (i.e.cognitive behavior therapy [CBT], humanistic therapy [HT], psychodynamic therapy [PDT]) differed by sexual orientation (SO) and 2) investigated the appeal of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Affirmative Therapy (LGB-AT) for LGB individuals.Participants were 174 undergraduates from a large Midwestern university and Amazon Mechanical Turk survey-takers.Participants ranked their preferences for the traditional therapies after reading approximately 500-word therapy descriptions with parallel structures including: theory of psychological problems, goals, methods, and client/therapist roles.Heterosexual participants preferred both HT and CBT to PDT, whereas LGB participants most preferred HT.LGB participants completed a second ranking which included LGB-AT and the traditional treatments.Contrary to predictions, LGB participants did not prefer LGB-AT to any of the traditional treatments.The authors theorized that LGB-AT may homogenize sexual minorities' experiences, rather than focusing on each individual's unique experience.Practical implications and future directions are discussed.
Author: Shannon M. McCarrick
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2624278320