Titles

Theoretical frame

People use titles -such as doctor- as a manner of conveying competence and professionalism. In some areas, such as therapy, they may also serve as a way of portraying emotional distance and objectivity (whereby some therapists prefer using titles for such reason, while others avoid their use in order to prevent such portrayal) (Holmes & Kixmiller, 1989³).

Overall, the available evidence (or its interpretation) suggests that the use of titles, at least in therapy, have no effect on perceived competence (Holmes & Post, 1986¹), or, if one or several significant effects are found, these are clinically meaningless (Reed & Holmes, 1989²; Holmes & Kixmiller, 1989³).

Supporting evidence

• Reed and Holmes (1989²) found that psychiatric patients perceived a therapist as more competent when the therapist used a title than when he did not do so. (The authors, however, concluded that, even when the results were statistically significant, they had no meaningful effect in practice.)
• Holmes and Kixmiller (1989³) found that undergraduate students perceived a female therapist as more competent when the therapist used a title than when she did not do so. (The authors, however, concluded that, even when the results were statistically significant, they had no meaningful effect in practice.)

Refuting evidence

• Holmes and Post (1986¹) found that undergraduate students did not perceived a male therapist as more competent when the therapist used a title than when he did not do so. Therefore, using a title did not show any significant difference to not using it.

Way forward (to do list)

References

1. HOLMES Cooper B & POST TA (1986). Effect of therapist's title on perceived competence. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1986, vol.2, pp.608-610.

2. REED Teresa L & Cooper B HOLMES (1989). Effects of therapist title on competence as perceived by a psychiatric sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1989, vol.45, no.1 (January), pp.129-134.

3. HOLMES Cooper B & Jeffery S KIXMILLER (1989). Effect of therapist title on perceived competence of a female therapist. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1989, vol.45, no.6 (November), pp.980-983.

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JDPerezgonzalez