Perceptions of Analogue Therapist Empathy as a Function of Salient Experience Similarity

Therapist empathy is an important ingredient of successful psychotherapy. However, the specific factors that influence patients' perceptions of therapist empathy remain unclear. We examined whether participants' perceptions of a therapist differed as a function of the participant and therapist having had a similar salient experience (parental divorce). Participants were 136 undergraduates randomly assigned to view a brief video vignette of a therapy session involving a therapist who they were led to believe did or did not share the parental divorce experience. Participants' ethnicity, participant gender, confederate patient-therapist gender, and study participant-analogue therapist gender match were controlled for. Counter to our prediction, experience match was unrelated to perceived therapist empathy. However, the higher the participants' ratings of the negative impact of their parent's divorce, the more empathic they viewed the therapist.