Dispesitional Bias in Trained Therapists' Diagnoses: Does It Exist?1

Therapists have been charged with a dispositional bias in their diagnoses of clients' problems. While a, review of prior research revealed considerable evidence that at least some trained therapists were more dispositional in their diagnoses than nonprofessionals, there was no clear evidence that therapists' dispositional diagnoses were in error. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to try to detect error in trained therapists' diagnoses. Twelve trained therapists and 16 untrained nonprofessionals each conducted intake interviews with two clients (confederates). Employing a technique based on attribution theory, one client presented a problem that was relatively situational; the other presented a problem that was relatively dispositional. Consistent with previous research, trained therapists were more dispositional in their diagnoses than were untrained nonprofessionals, suggesting that some bias did exist. But there was no clear evidence that therapists were less sensitive than nonprofessionals to differences between situational and dispositional problems. It was concluded that, to the degree that bias implies error, the charge of bias in therapists' diagnoses remains unproven.