INTRODUCTION
In the second clinical study reported in Chapter Five, the supervision effect appeared to be influenced by expectations of supervision, among other factors. It is widely accepted that expectations affect outcomes in many domains including those of perception, cognition, memory and learning. The following sections will review the studies of the influence of expectancy that may well be relevant to and operating in the supervisory experience.
Role Expectations
In the field of social expectations, roles are defined as shared norms concerning the behaviour of certain persons in certain settings (Jones & Gerard, 1967). Following Tolman, stimulus-response formulations began to give way to cognitive formulations about expectations and the build-up of the cognitive map. Role expectation is a cognitive concept made up of beliefs, expectancies and subjective probabilities, defined in terms of actions, behaviours and qualities predicted of the person who occupies the role position. Role expectations facilitate social interaction by providing means of reciprocal prediction of behaviour. Role expectations also include imperatives of a qualitative nature, how the person ’should’ behave: it is an important feature of cultural and social phenomena that predicted, and therefore "expected".
actions become morally correct and good actions.
To assess role expectation, the same techniques are used as those used to measure cognitive structures in general. These include the self-report questionnaire, interview methods or inferences from observed behaviour. Early instruments developed to assess role expectation include an adjective checklist by Sarbin & Jones (1956) of qualities characterizing the role of daughter, which had high agreement among respondents. Sherwood (1958) implemented written essays to assess role expectations of the Bantu clerk; he asked clerk and supervisor to write essays on what is expected of an efficient clerk in government departments. Thomas, Polansky fit Kounin (1955) used a sentence completion test to assess role expectations of those in the helping professions, which included expectations that the helpful person be willing to maintain communication, to assign importance to one's problems, have sensitivity to tension, make efforts to reduce tension and discomfort, and help with decision-making difficulties.
The Influence of Expectancy on Perception. Memory and Learning Bartlett's (1932) early work involving the remembering of complex narratives offers persuasive evidence that cultural expectancies, in terms of category systems, are powerful determinants of learning and the retention of new materials. The first to introduce the idea that expectations could influence actual events as well as perception and memory was the sociologist Robert Merton (1948, 1957) who noted the
phenomenon of the 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. Further to this, studies of the way in which expectations elicit the expected behaviour were made by Snyder, Tanke & Berscheid
(1977).
Asch (1946) demonstrated, in the halo effect, how favourable information initially received brings about a positive feeling tone which influences the subsequent experience. First impressions are so important that they gain autonomy in the face of subsequent disconfirming evidence, as shown by Ross, Lepper & Hubbard (1975). However, studies have been made which show an opposite effect biased toward expectancy-disconfirming information by Hastie & Kumar ( 1979 ), who show, in salience studies, how novel, deviant, negative or otherwise unusual behaviour is preferentially attended to.
Expectancies direct attentional processes, as shown by Zadny & Gerard (1974), who found that recall of information was greater when the information conformed with expectations.
Sherif & Hovland (1961), in weight experiments, showed that perceptual distortion occurs when expectations are not met; when the discrepancy is large, judgements of the difference is exaggerated. Basic research on disconfirmed expectancies in the context of cognitive dissonance theory performed by Aronson & Carlsmith (1962) indicates that subjects altered their own judgements of the identification of schizophrenic faces to conform with experimenter-contrived disconfirmation in order to reduce dissonance.
dissonance theory, to be unpleasant. Carlsmith & Aronson (1962) demonstrated by taste experiments that sweet and bitter substances were rated as more unpleasant when expectations were disconfirmed. Their results were repeated by Samson & Sibley (1965). However, it was demonstrated by Harvey & Clapp (1965) that the direction of expectancy (positive or negative) is an important determinant of post-disconfirmation responses. A violation of background expectations can produce bewilderment and compliance, as shown by Garfinkel (1967). Similarly, a study involving the concepts of cognitive balance, reduction of conflict and inconsistency produced by Rosenberg & Abelson (1960) indicated that failure of the environment to yield situations consistent with expectations can result initially in feelings of embarrassment and awkwardness and can be threatening to the point that there is repression or dissociation of the cognitions involved. The revaluation and cognitive balancing that subsequently takes place in order to accommodate the inconsistency further distorts cognition.
These studies, taken together, point strongly to the powerful influence of expectations and suggest that unmet expectations in supervision may well create a situation in which the trainee appears less able than he is and learning is impaired, thereby influencing the supervisor's evaluation of the trainee.
Expectancy in Psychotherapy Research
psychotherapy that can be considered as relevant to the supervisor-supervisee relationship. As in any other personal-social interaction, patients and psychotherapists approach their relationship with a set of role expectations that guide behaviours, perceptions, assessments and consequences of the situation (Lennard & Bernstein, 1960; Goldstein, 1962; Orne & Wender, 1968; Kiesler, 1982). Many studies have focused on descriptions of patient and therapist role expectations, e.g., Begley & Lieberman, 1970; Tinsley & Harris, 1976; Martin, Moore & Karwisch, 1977; and on the identification of determinants and correlates of these expectations, e.g., Baldwin, 1974; Berstein & LeComete, 1982; Subich, 1983.
A number of researchers have held that expectations are important in regard to the outcome of psychotherapy. Kazdin & Wilcoxon (1976) and Bandura (1977) have made studies of the relationship between expectations of psychotherapeutic treatment and its outcome which suggest that differential outcomes of treatment are based on the existence of differing expectations. Shapiro (1981) confirmed the hypothesis that expectations correlate with outcome, comparing prescriptive therapy with exploratory therapy and finding that clients rated prescriptive therapy as more creditable and thus experienced it as more beneficial. In another study by Morrison & Shapiro (1987) the advantage of prescriptive therapy was more ambiguous and only modest correlations were found between expectancies and outcome. Regression analysis
suggested that the impact of expectancy on outcome was secondary to the treatment effect rather than its cause, giving credence to the notion that specific procedures are more important than expectations.
Similarity between patient and therapist role expectations facilitates psychotherapy according to numerous researchers (Chance, 1959; Goldstein, 1962; Martin, Stern & Hunter, 1976; Abramowitz, Berger & Weary, 1982). When expectations are inappropriate there is interference with the therapeutic task and pre-mature drop-out of therapy (Lennard & Bernstein, 1960; Heitler, 1976). A critical review on drop-out has been offered by Baekland & Lundwall (1975). The association of inappropriate expectations and early drop-out has led to a body of research on pre-therapy preparation to bring expectations into line with the realities of therapy (Heitler, 1973; Acosta et al, 1983.) Results of these studies suggest that although training in role induction into psychotherapy may increase knowledge of what psychotherapy is about, the patient may find he has a therapist who is quite different than the one he has been prepared for, given the range of styles and personalities of therapists. However, some induction into the role of supervisee by the supervisor may well be indicated.
Another body of research following on from these findings has investigated the "working alliance", an important concept in all the therapies which refers to the cooperative, non neurotic, reasonable rapport or contract with the therapist