[Attitudes towards psychotherapy in South Korea and Germany : A cross-cultural comparative study]

Due to the relatively recent introduction of psychotherapy in South Korea and against the background of collectivist and Confucian values, it has been suggested that South Koreans harbor more negative attitudes towards psychotherapy compared to Germans and that the social acceptance of psychotherapy is lower.

We compared the attitudes of 99 women from South Korea with 98 German women using the questionnaire on attitudes towards psychotherapeutic treatment (FEP). For the study of the South Korean women we translated the questionnaire into the Korean language.

The results of the psychometric analysis suggest that the Korean version of the FEP is of acceptable quality. South Korean women reported a significantly more negative attitude towards psychotherapy compared to German women. Furthermore, South Korean women anticipated a more skeptical social attitude towards psychotherapy compared to Germans.

The presented results suggest the relevance of cultural imprinting in psychotherapy. They are discussed with respect to culture-specific self-concepts, concepts of disease and healing expectations and the increase of individualistic values in the Korean society.