Value concordance in the prediction of decisions to enter and continue individual psychotherapy

The present study investigated the theoretical ramifications associated with the role of values in the prediction of decisions to enter and remain in psychotherapy. The value construct as established by Milton RoReach and modified by Norman Feather was employed within an expectancy-value paradigm in order to identify the most salient tenets from current value theory which applied to the objective of this investigation. The study consisted of two basic experiments designed to analyze variance associated with the predictive utility of all aspects of value system concordance for decisions to enter and continue psychotherapy, respectively. The subjects used in the present study consisted of two hundred thirty undergraduate students enrolled in psychology classes at the University of Houston. The measurement of value systems was assessed with the Rokeach Value Survey, and the measurement of willingness to both enter and continue therapy was based upon an average score derived from each subject's ratings of five problem statements. Value system concordance was determined with Spearman rank correlation coefficients, which were further analyzed in stepwise-multiple linear regression equations to determine the role of concordance between value systems in the prediction of the decisions in question. All subjects participated in two paper and pencil sessions; forty subjects from the original population were randomly selected to participate in an actual therapy session. The results from both experimental treatments were as follows: (1) an individual's personal value system does not predict attitudes toward commitment to therapy; (2) prior to exposure to information about psychotherapy, concordance between personal values and those expected to be operating for a therapist and therapeutic process does predict willingness to enter therapy, but only for value conditions identifying basic goals; (3) following exposure to information about psychotherapy, prediction was enhanced by negative correlations between value conditions identifying modes of instrumentality for goal actualization; (4) within an expectancy-value paradigm, an interactionist model was found to be superior to a cognitive-balance model in the prediction of willingness to enter therapy; and, (5) once subjects were actually exposed to a psychotherapy session, the prediction of a decision to continue therapy was found to be beyond the scope of the variables tested. Value concordance, as it relates to decisions about therapy, was demonstrated to be a viable building block in the development of a value oriented prediction model for therapy. Essentially, the value construct was found to be a very useful variable, which can be productively employed in the quest for understanding the theoretical dynamics of the psychotherapeutic experience.