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Veronica Felstad, PsyD, is a 2020 graduate of the PsyD Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, Seattle.

Dissertation Committee

Christopher Heffner, PsyD, PhD, Committee Chair

Dana Waters, PsyD, ABPP, Committee Member

Juan Camilo Restrepo, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

social support, individualist and collectivist, therapeutic outcomes, cross-cultural research

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Social support plays an integral role in our lives, and recent research demonstrates that the presence or lack of social support has a potential impact on factors of interest to psychologists, such as therapeutic progress and therapeutic alliance. There is a lack of research demonstrating the relationship between social support and treatment outcomes and the role culture plays. This quantitative international study aimed to explore cultural variances in perceptions, utilizations, and functions of social support, particularly between individualist and collectivist cultures, and the potential effect these variances had on the relationship between social support and therapeutic outcomes. Sixty clients and eleven therapists, divided among Bogota and Seattle counseling centers, participated in this study by completing pen- and paper-based questionnaires that included measures of social support, client’s perception of therapy progress and therapeutic alliance, and therapist’s perception of therapy progress and therapeutic alliance. Using nonparametric testing the study sought to find differences and similarities among these factors. Additionally, it explored whether culture had an impact on how people perform in therapy and the relationship between their therapeutic alliance and relationships outside of therapy. Results revealed no significant differences or similarities although paving the way for further research.

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Veronica Felstad, Psy.D., 2020

ORCID Scholar ID #0000-0002-7259-2856

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