Effects of patient racial attribution on black clinicians' inferences

Abstract

This study was done to determine the impact of patient racial attribution on black practitioners' clinical judgments. Fifty-five professionals indicated their clinical reactions to a bogus case description of a sexually maladjusted male patient identified as black or white and also completed a traditional social beliefs scale. Relatively untraditional clinicians evaluated the black-designated patient more favorably than the white-designated patient. The less traditional practitioners also evaluated the black-designated patient more favorably than did the traditional clinicians. Effects of patient race were found for both clinical impressions and treatment decisions and were not attenuated in the more highly experienced subsample. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Race bias, social class bias, and gender bias in clinical judgment.

“…When clinicians made ratings of severity of mental disturbance or level of adjustment, the effect of race was generally not statistically significant (Amira, Abramowitz, & Gomes‐Schwartz, 1977; Bamgbose et al, 1980; Benefee, Abramowitz, Weitz, & Armstrong, 1976; Bloch, Weitz, & Abramowitz, 1980; Franklin, 1985; McLaughlin & Balch, 1980; Schwartz & Abramowitz, 1975; Seligman, 1968; Strickland et al, 1988; Umbenhauer & DeWitte, 1978; also see Merluzzi & Merluzzi, 1978). In all of these studies, clinicians either read case histories or watched videotapes of interviews.…”

“…When prognostic ratings made by White and Black clinicians were pooled together, prognoses were more favorable for Black clients than for White clients in three studies (Lewis et ah, 1990; Schwartz & Abramow‐itz, 1975; Strickland et al, 1988) and equally favorable for Black clients and White clients in one study (Rabi‐nowitz & Lukoff, 1995). When ratings were analyzed separately for White and Black clinicians, prognoses made by White clinicians were unaffected by client race (Bloch et al, 1980; Franklin, 1985), but Black clinicians tended to make prognoses that were more favorable for Black clients than White clients (Benefee et al, 1976; Franklin, 1985).…”

“…(b) whether clients should be seen for short-term or longterm psychotherapy (Bloch et al, 1980;McLaughhn & Balch, 1980;Tomlinson-Clarke & Cheatham, 1993), and (c) whether clients should be seen in individual, couple, group, or family therapy and whether the therapy should be behavioral, nondrective, or insight-oriented (Franklin, 1985;Lewis et al, 1990;McLaughlin & Balch, 1980;Schwartz & Abramowitz, 1975;Vail, 1970). In the few instances when client race was significant, the treatment recommendations were no more favorable for Whlte clients than for Black clients (Benefee et al, 1976;Franklin, 1985;Strickland et al, 1988). For example, in one of the studies (Strickland et al, 1988).…”

“…In all of the studies on decisions about psychotherapy, different groups of clinicians read case hstories that differed in the designation of client race. Client race generally had no effect when judgmg (a) whether clients were likely to benefit fkom psychotherapy (Benefee et al, 1976;Blake, 1973;Franklin, 1985;Seligman, 1968;Vail, 1970). (b) whether clients should be seen for short-term or longterm psychotherapy (Bloch et al, 1980;McLaughhn & Balch, 1980;Tomlinson-Clarke & Cheatham, 1993), and (c) whether clients should be seen in individual, couple, group, or family therapy and whether the therapy should be behavioral, nondrective, or insight-oriented (Franklin, 1985;Lewis et al, 1990;McLaughlin & Balch, 1980;Schwartz & Abramowitz, 1975;Vail, 1970).…”

“…Client race generally had no effect when judging (a) whether clients were likely to benefit from psychotherapy (Benefee et al, 1976; Blake, 1973; Franklin, 1985; Seligman, 1968; Vail, 1970), (b) whether clients should be seen for short‐term or long‐term psychotherapy (Bloch et al, 1980; McLaughlin & Balch, 1980; Tomlinson‐Clarke & Cheatham, 1993), and (c) whether clients should be seen in individual, couple, group, or family therapy and whether the therapy should be behavioral, nondirective, or insight‐oriented (Franklin, 1985; Lewis et al, 1990; McLaughlin & Balch, 1980; Schwartz & Abramowitz, 1975; Vail, 1970). In the few instances when client race was significant, the treatment recommendations were no more favorable for White clients than for Black clients (Benefee et al, 1976; Franklin, 1985; Strickland et al, 1988). For example, in one of the studies (Strickland et al, 1988), clinical psychology graduate students gave higher ratings of likelihood of successful therapy to Black clients than White clients.…”