THE MAGNITUDE OF CLIENT AND THERAPIST WORKING ALLIANCE RATINGS

Researchers studying the working alliance frequently comment that clients and therapists tend to rate the alliance highly. The authors conducted this study to determine the accuracy of these comments by examining of the magnitude of adult client and therapist working alliance ratings in 63 refereed articles published between 1990 and 2007. The authors wondered if clients and therapists generally tend to use just the higher points of rating scales for measures of working alliance. The 63 articles used 9 different measures of the working alliance and provided working alliance ratings by 6,441 clients and 6,359 therapists. Results indicate that clients tend to use only the top 20% of rating points and therapists tend to use only the top 30% of rating points on alliance measures. Implications of the findings include the possibility that clients and therapists do not differentiate among lower rating points on the scales, tend to rate the alliance according to a social desirability or dissonance-reducing response set, or provide ratings that accurately reflect the alliance.