E. Mchale et A. Carr, THE EFFECT OF SUPERVISOR AND TRAINEE THERAPIST GENDER ON SUPERVISION DISCOURSE, Journal of family therapy, 20(4), 1998, pp. 395-411
The effects of supervisor and trainee therapist gender on supervision
discourse were examined in this study. Forty episodes of supervision d
iscourse, with ten drawn from each of four types of supervision system
s were videotaped. The systems were (1) male supervisor and male train
ee therapist; (2);male supervisor and female trainee therapist; (3) fe
male supervisor and male trainee therapist; and (4) female supervisor
and female trainee therapist. The episodes of supervision discourse we
re analysed using a supervision discourse coding system which showed a
dequate inter-rater reliability. For supervisors, the coding system al
lowed a directive discourse style and a collaborative discourse styled
to be coded. A cooperative discourse style and a resistant discourse
style could be coded for trainee therapists. Two statistically signifi
cant findings of considerable theoretical and clinical importance emer
ged. First, contrary to stereotypic expectations, discourse characteri
zed by a directive supervision style and a resistant trainee therapist
style was more common for systems containing a female supervisor than
for those containing a male supervisor. Second, for same gender super
visor-trainee-therapist supervision systems, a collaborative systemic
supervision style was correlated with both cooperative and resistant t
rainee therapist styles. This discourse pattern did riot occur for opp
osite gender supervision systems, indicating that a collaborative supe
rvision discourse style is consistently associated with trainee therap
ist participation (either cooperatively or resistantly) within same ge
nder pairings of supervisors and trainee therapists. These results are
discussed in light of relevant literature on gender, power and superv
ision process and the limitations of the study are considered.