Effect of therapist expectations and need for approval on self-disclosure

Previous therapy analogue studies of self-disclosure have treated Ss as a homogeneous group without examining possibly relevant S variables. In the present study, 68 female students identified as high or low in need for approval listened to a tape-recorded interview between a high self-disclosing therapist and a female client under one of two therapist expectation conditions: Clear expectation of high self-disclosure vs. ambiguous expectation. Ss then indicated on the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire the degrees to which they would be willing to disclose to the therapist. It was predicted that high need for approval Ss would disclose most under the clear expectation condition, while low need for approval Ss would not be affected by the therapist expectation. A significant Need Approval X Therapist expectation interaction supported this prediction. Further analysis indicated that items for the Work, Money, and Personality subsections of the disclosure questionnaire contributed most to the interaction. Implications for differential treatment of high need for approval Ss who were entering therapy were discussed.