Analyses of therapist variables in a series of psychotherapy sessions with two child clients

Abstract

Studied the process of child psychotherapy by means of an analyses of therapist verbal behaviors. Audio‐video recordings were made of nine intermittent psychotherapy sessions with 2 child clients, aged 8 and 12. A randomized mastertape of 4‐minute segments was rated for empathic understanding and respect by means of the Carkhuff scales. Transcripts were categorized by means of the Hill Counselor Verbal Response Category System, and a preliminary set of 12 grammatical variables. Transcripts were minutized, and all the therapist variables were intercorrelated and factor‐analyzed. According to the research expectations, high levels of interrater reliabilities for the Carkhuff scales and relatively high agreement levels for Hill's system were found. Analyses of the therapist variables demonstrated the nature of the therapeutic interventions as well as the pattern of change across successive psychotherapy sessions. The overall verbal response behavior of each therapist was summarized best through the factor analyses. Communalities and individual differences between the therapists were discussed. Future directions for the study of therapist variables in child psychotherapy process research were indicated.

Therapist Structure Of Participation: An Application Of P-Technique and Chronographic Analysis

“…1982b; Czogalik & Hettinger, 1988;Hentschel, Kiessling, Heck, & Willoweit, 1992;Czogalik, 1993). Basically, the P-technique has been used (1) to describe the qualitative structure of an individual client's or therapist's participation in the therapeutic process (Mintz & Luborsky, 1970), and (2) to assess quantitative changes in this structure across sessions for a therapist or a client (Mintz & Luborsky, 1970), or a pair of therapists or clients or dyad (Dahl, 1972;Mook, 1982a;1982b). These pioneering studies were neither incorporated into the field nor developed.…”

“…Some early studies had as few as 60 response units, each coded in terms of 18 categories. Other studies with better response unit to variable ratios nevertheless did not conduct reliability assessments at the factor level (Mook, 1982a;1982b). Moreover, none of the early studies applied tests to estimate factor stability.…”

University of Ulm: Interactional processes in psychotherapy.

“…P-technique was derived from Cattell (1963) and the empirical work of Luborsky (1953). The small amount of empirical literature available on the application of this method to psychotherapeutic research (e.g., Mook, 1982aMook, , 1982bMintz, Luborsky, & Auerback, 1971) reports on structural characteristics that describe specific kinds of therapeutic behavior (e.g., interventions, minimal activity, confrontation, or support) and specific kinds of client behavior (e.g., self-exploration, information giving, or active resistance). The temporal course of these structural units emphasizes the developmental characteristic of psy-chotherapeutic interaction, which corresponds with our findings.…”