THE RELATIONSHIP OF TRADITIONAL IDEOLOGY AND LIFE STRESS TO ATTITUDE TOWARD AND USE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Abstract
The concept of traditional ideology is elucidated, and is used as the primary theoretical perspective of the present study. The ideological-characterological construct of traditional ideology is considered in tandem with the effects of life stress in predicting both attitude toward and use of psychotherapy. The hypothesis that a negative correlation would exist between measures of traditionalism and attitude toward and use of psychotherapy was supported. The hypothesis that stress and traditional ideology would interact, with high stress traditionals having a more negative attitude toward psychotherapy than low stress traditionals, but with no stress effect among nontraditionals was not supported, as stress was not found to be a correlate of attitude toward psychotherapy. Two clusters within the measures of traditionalism were found, one of religious behavior, unrelated to attitude toward or use of psychotherapy, and another of the F-scale and Traditional Family Ideology scale (considered to be the main measures of traditional ideology) which was significantly associated with the psychotherapy attitude and use variables. None of the attitude, use or main traditionalism variables was associated with social desirability. Significant intercorrelations between the measures of attitude toward and use of psychotherapy were also found. The relationship of attitude and use variables to select demographic variables was also investigated. Traditional ideology was found to be associated with a measure of depression. The importance of traditional ideology, implications for offering of psychotherapy to traditionals, and relationship between social and ideological variables are discussed. 150 college volunteers were used as subjects.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
BRODY, STUART MITCHELL, "THE RELATIONSHIP OF TRADITIONAL IDEOLOGY AND LIFE STRESS TO ATTITUDE TOWARD AND USE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY" (1984). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8515892.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8515892
