The role of personality in psychotherapists’ careers: Relationships between personality traits, therapeutic schools, and job satisfaction

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between psychotherapists' personality traits (i.e., intuition, openness for experience, and need for cognition) and their therapeutic orientation (i.e., insight versus behavior oriented). Results of N = 184 psychotherapists indicate a higher relationship between personality and therapeutic orientation (TO) for the later stages of their careers. Although the TO of therapists? initial psychotherapy training was only explained by their discipline (psychology, medicine) and the TO of their graduate school, their current work as well as the TO of subsequent trainings were predominantly explained by personality traits. Insight orientation was positively correlated with intuition, openess for experience, and need for cognition. The data also reveal that self-employed, open, and psychoanalytically oriented therapists indicated higher job satisfaction. Finally, the congruence between personality and current TO affected job satisfaction.

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