Retraction of Robinson et al. (2015)

Reports the retraction of "Crying as communication in psychotherapy: The influence of client and therapist attachment dimensions and client attachment to therapist on amount and type of crying" by Noah Robinson, Clara E. Hill and Dennis M. Kivlighan Jr. (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2015[Jul], Vol 62[3], 379-392). The following article is being retracted (https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000090). This retraction is at the request of coauthors Kivlighan and Hill after the results of an investigation by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB found that the study included data from between one and four therapy clients of the Maryland Psychotherapy Clinic and Research Laboratory (MPCRL) who either had not been asked to provide consent or had withdrawn consent for their data to be included in the research. Robinson was not responsible for obtaining and verifying participant consent but agreed to the retraction of this article. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-23479-001.) Nelson (2005) associated 3 types of crying (inhibited, protest, despair) with 3 dimensions of attachment (avoidant, anxious, and secure). To test this theory, trained judges rated the intensity of inhibition, protest, and despair in 347 crying episodes for 40 clients and 14 therapists in 1,074 psychotherapy sessions. Crying occurred once out of every 7 sessions, and usually was characterized by protest or inhibition. Pre-therapy attachment dimensions of both therapist and client influenced crying. Therapists with high attachment avoidance had clients who cried frequently but less over time, whereas therapists with high attachment anxiety had clients who cried with more protest over time. Clients with high attachment anxiety initially cried with more protest and inhibition, but decreased over time, whereas clients with low attachment anxiety increased protest over time. Throughout the course of psychotherapy, therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing a secure attachment elicited more overall crying and a higher intensity of protest, whereas therapists who were seen by their clients as establishing insecure attachments had clients who cried less. Clients who established a secure or avoidant relationship with their therapists, relative to other clients of that therapist, cried infrequently and with inhibition, whereas clients who established a preoccupied relationship cried relatively often. Changes are suggested for Nelson's (2005) typology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).