51²è¹Ý

Title: Intersectional Disadvantage in the Therapeutic Context: How Clients’ Social Identities Affect Therapists’ Attitudes

Abstract: Most psychotherapy research views therapists and clients individually, but there is growing recognition that their social identities matter in therapy. Therapists may exhibit negative attitudes towards clients across different stages of therapy. According to social identity theory, personal and group identities are equally significant and operate together in interactions. Moreover, our social identities overlap in unique ways that can shape experiences of disadvantage. Research on how multiple identities overlap to represent both advantage and disadvantage, especially in new and understudied contexts, such as caste and social status, is limited. This study proposes to explore whether trainee therapists’ attitudes and behavioural intentions vary based on the  clients’ advantaged or disadvantaged identities using a between subjects 2*2*2 design with the IV (client social identities): gender (male, female), caste (privileged, unprivileged), and social status indicated by language usage (English, Hindi). In the longitudinal part of the study, these attitudes and behavioural intentions will be compared across 2 years of training. Participants will listen to a vignette of a fictional client sharing their concerns, simulating a typical first therapy session, and then complete post-test forms. Dependent variables will be participants’(trainee  therapists’) attitudes and behavioural indicators using self-report measures. A brief qualitative response will explore participants’ feelings and thoughts about the client. This study supports directives on therapist training in multicultural competence. The findings aim to diversify theoretical and practical knowledge and inform more culturally sensitive training models.

About the Speaker: Archisha is a PhD student at the Identity and Intergroup Relations lab at 51²è¹Ý’s Department of Psychology. Her research interests center on social justice perspectives in the field of counseling psychology. She is also interested in exploring intergroup contact, biases, prejudice, discrimination, and intersectional social identities. She completed her Masters in Counselling Psychology at Christ (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru and BA (Hons) Applied Psychology from Gargi College, University of Delhi. She has worked as a Junior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Bengaluru and as a scientific editor at Cactus Communications. She also has experience as an independent psychotherapy practitioner.

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