The expectation-reality discrepancy and premature termination from psychotherapy

The confirmation or disconfirmation of initial client expectation with regard to the psychotherapy process was related to drop out from psychotherapy for clients of a university psychological clinic. Previous hypotheses and research findings emphasized the existence of a linear relationship between expectancy confirmation or disconfirmation and drop out from psychotherapy. Contrary to those findings, the present study revealed significant curvilinear relationships between the two variables in question. Cultural and intellectual differences between the lower-class patient population, which exhibited linear relationships between expectancy confirmation or disconfirmation and drop out, and the present college population, which exhibited curvilinear relationships between the variables under investigation, were discussed as factors that contributed to the divergent findings of the present study.