This article studied the role of therapist acceptance of patient values, patient acceptance of therapist values, and value persuasion on outcome among 13 psychotherapy dyads. A priori assessment of value acceptance was related to patients' perceptions of their therapists and ratings of improvement, with outcome being enhanced by selective value rejection as well as acceptance. A strong relationship (p < .01) was found between the patients' acquisition of their therapists' values and their ratings of improvement.

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Some research suggests that improvement in psychotherapy is related to the degree that a patient adopts his therapist's evaluative attitudes. The present article was designed to pursue the possibility of predicting the outcomes of group psychotherapy using attitude theory. Thirty-four group therapy patients and their therapists were tested on a questionnaire designed to measure seven attitudes varying in centrality. At the conclusion of three months of therapy, it was found that among attitudes of medium centrality initial attitude difference between patient and therapist was more strongly related to attitude change than were either attitude similarity or acceptability. On the other hand, initial patient-therapist similarity and acceptability of attitudes were related more to patient-rated improvement than was attitude dissimilarity. The results are discussed as they relate to psychotherapy as an interpersonal influence process, predictable by persuasion theory.In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in relating variables relevant to interpersonal persuasion to the psychotherapy relationship (Beutler, 1973;Goldstein, 1966;Goldstein & Simonson, 1971), and as a result many (e.g., Beutler, 1971;Samler, 1960) have conceived of psychotherapy as a systematic attempt to modify patient attitudes. Because the therapist is a potential model of "adaptiveness," it has been assumed that success in therapy may be a function of the degree to which patients adopt their therapist's attitudes (e.g.,

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