Adapting psychotherapy to patient reactance level: A meta-analytic review

Resistance and its extreme variation, reactance, are uniformly observed across varieties of psychotherapy. Social psychologists note that reactant individuals prove to be less so when offered a receptive and nondirective environment. We provide definitions of reactance, review its frequent measures, and offer a clinical example. A meta-analysis of 13 controlled studies (1,208 patients) examined the degree to which treatment outcomes are enhanced when therapists offer less directive treatments to high-reactance patients. The results revealed a large effect size (d = .79), confirming that highly reactant individuals did better in psychotherapy when the therapist assumed a reflective and nondirective stance than a directive and authoritative one. To a lesser degree, the opposite was also true. Limitations of the research and diversity considerations are noted. Practice recommendations are provided to minimize a patient's reactant behavior.