The effects of supervisors\u27 and therapists\u27 gender on supervisors, therapists and clients behaviour during and after live supervisory phone-ins in family therapy

摘要

The association between supervisors\u27 and therapists\u27 gender and the conversational behaviour of 4 supervisors, 19 trainee family therapists and 20 clients before, during and after 88 live supervisory phone-in events were examined in this study. Clients\u27 co-operation was not directly related to the genders of therapists and supervisors. The quality of supervisors\u27 collaborative behaviour was highest for events in systems where male supervisors were supervising male therapists and lowest for events in systems where male supervisors were supervising female therapists. In systems containing female supervisors and male therapists, therapists engaged in frequent collaborative behaviour and less frequent teaching behaviour with their clients. The quality of therapists’ collaborative and supportive behaviour was highest in these systems. Theunexpected results of this study suggest the way supervisors interact with therapists and therapists interact with clients does not conform to gender stereotypic conversational behaviour in which males are directive and females affiliative. It may be that individuals whose conversational behaviour does not conform to gender stereotypes decide to become family therapists or that family therapy training helps people develop alternatives to gender-stereotypical conversational behaviour.