Status Homophily, Social Context, and Participation in Psychotherapy

The concept of status homophily was extended to the physician-patient interaction in psychotherapy. Participation of patients in pyschotherapy in a mental hospital was examined as a function of social statuses of both the physicians and the patients. Social class but no religious status homophily played a role in determining the type of patient carried in psychotherapy by different therapists. The social characteristics of the hospital service in which the physician-patient pair was located could either accentuate or attenuate the process of status homophily in the psychiatrist-patient interaction.