Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Jeffrey S Berman

Committee Member

Kristoffer Berlin

Committee Member

Stephanie Huette

Abstract

The recent Coronavirus pandemic made remote means of conducting psychotherapy more common, and although there is a large amount of research on the mode of therapy, little research exists on the effects of video and audio quality on perceptions of the therapist. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the evaluation of a therapist changes when viewing different audiovisual qualities of recorded in-person therapy interactions. Participants were randomly assigned to view audio or video therapy interactions with differing levels of audiovisual quality. Analyses revealed a statistically significant difference in observer perceptions of interpersonal characteristics, such as empathy and alliance, when viewing different audiovisual qualities. Follow-up analyses indicated higher levels of the interpersonal perceptions when viewing therapy interactions of poor audiovisual quality, indicating that therapists were viewed as having more positive interpersonal characteristics when the audiovisual quality was distorted. These results suggest that concern about audio and video quality in online therapy interactions may be misplaced.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

Notes

Open Access

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