Clients’ personality traits as predictors of preferences for specialist image and satisfaction with psychological help experience

Context and relevance. The establishment of a working alliance is a key factor in the effectiveness of psychological assistance. Client personality traits contribute significantly to this process, beginning as early as the stage of selecting a specialist. Nevertheless, empirical research on clients' perceptions of an "appropriate" psychologist remains fragmented. Grounded in the Five-Factor Model of personality and working alliance theories, the present study aims to address this gap. Objective. Within the context of working alliance formation, this study aims to determine how clients' personality traits and socio-demographic characteristics are associated with their perceptions of an "ideal" professional, as well as with parameters of seeking psychological help and satisfaction with the help-seeking experience. Methods and materials. The study involved 439 participants with prior experience of receiving psychological help. The sample, aged 18 to 56, included 286 women and 153 men. Participants' personality traits and those of their preferred specialists were assessed using the Big Five Inventory-2 Short (BFI-2-S). Socio-demographic variables and help-seeking parameters were assessed using a custom-designed questionnaire, which included items on previous experience with psychological help. Data were analyzed using cluster and regression analyses. Results. Four distinct client profiles and four preferred specialist profiles were identified. A significant association was found between a client's personality profile and their preferred image of a specialist. Satisfaction with the help-seeking experience was positively associated with the client's level of education, employment type, number of previous consultations with psychologists, and selecting a specialist based on personal affinity. Conversely, relying on recommendations when choosing a specialist and high levels of client negative emotionality (neuroticism) were negative predictors of satisfaction. Conclusions. The findings confirm the significance of both personality similarity and complementarity within the client-specialist dyad. It is recommended to consider the personality characteristics of both clients and professionals when matching them to facilitate the formation of an effective working alliance in psychological care. Consequently, the development of assessment tools for preliminary diagnostics of client preferences becomes a relevant task.