The A-B therapist "type" distinction, usually made on the basis of a small set of interest items, has proven predictive of therapist-patient compatibility in several clinical and analogue studies. To assess the personality dimensions involved in the A-B distinction among undergraduate males (# = 223), their A-B scale scores were related to the 22 variables of Jackson's Personality Research Form. Multiple discriminant analyses and factor analyses strongly supported the hypothesis that A-B status is explicable in personality terms: so-called A-type Ss (predicted to be compatible with schizoid patients) were characterized by cautious self-expression, social ineptness, and a restricted cognitive scope; B-type Ss (presumably compatible with neurotic patients) appeared socially ascendant and "open" to complex experiences. These results were supported by a cross-validation study of professional 5s (N = SO). As in prior research, the variables differentiating A-B statuses appeared to involve a prominent "masculinity-femininity" component.The distinction between "A" and "B" therapists originated in a series of clinical studies by Betz and Whitehorn (reviewed by Betz, 1967). These investigators found that a small set of items from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank reliably differentiated therapists who achieved high success rates in treating hospitalized schizophrenics ("A" therapists) from other ("B") therapists who performed less adequately with such patients. In treating neurotic outpatients, however, the B-type therapists outperformed the A-type therapists (McNair, Callahan, & Lorr, 1962). The Therapist X Patient interaction effect suggested by these studies has not received further examination in clinical settings; rather, a substantial number of analogue studies have been conducted which, in whole or in part, support the proposition that A-type Ss (generally, male undergraduates) interact more compatibly with schizoid, dis-1 Requests for reprints should be sent to Juris I.

In an attempt to elucidate further the personological basis of the differential compatibility of A and B therapists with schizophrenic and neurotic patients, this study required A and B undergraduate volunteers (20 males, 20 females) to conduct 20-minute interviews with male state hospital inpatients (40 schizophrenics, 40 neurotics) in a 2 (interviewer A-B status) X 2 (interviewer sex) X 2 (patient type) factorial design. As expected from studies of the personality correlates of A-B status, many more B than A interviewers "looked forward" to conducting the interviews. Once in the interview situation, however, A-type interviewers elicited better self-disclosure from schizophrenic patients than did Bs, whereas the latter outperformed As with neurotic patients. The results are discussed in terms of a personological formulation that considers interviewer effectiveness to be a joint function of interviewer personality characteristics and the situational context.The A-B variable emerged from a series of studies conducted by Whitehorn and Betz (1954) in .the early 1950s. In these studies, therapists (arbitrarily labeled A and B) were found to be differentially effective with schizophrenic patients (As more effective than Bs). However, with neurotic patients, Mc-Nair, Callahan, and Lorr (1962) found Bs to be more effective than As. These findings suggested an "interaction hypothesis": As are more effective with schizophrenics than are Bs, whereas .the latter are more effective with neurotics than are As. Subsequent analogue and clinical studies have generally supported the interaction hypothesis (e.g.,

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