Assessment of adherence and competence in cognitive therapy: Comparing session segments with entire sessions

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare the reliability and validity of adherence and competence judgments of four raters, based on session segments on the one hand and on entire sessions on the other. The global adherence/competence judgments based on the middle section of 34 therapy sessions demonstrated satisfactory interrater reliability (ICC=.81/.71) and the highest correlations with therapy outcome (r=.55/.45). These results were comparable with judgments based on entire therapy sessions. However, the reliability of specific aspects of adherence and competence was higher when judgments were based on the entire session. The implications of these results are important in terms of reducing time and costs associated with the judgment process.

Treatment specific competence predicts outcome in cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder

“…For example, although it was useful for our study to have each tape independently rated by two assessors, this is unlikely to be needed for training courses once a reasonable level of agreement between assessors in the team has been established. The assessment of competence on the basis of specific segments rather than the whole videotaped session (Weck, Bohn, Ginzburg, & Stangier, 2011) could also be explored as an alternative to address time and cost issues. Finally, informal use of the cognitive therapy rating scale by students themselves is likely to be helpful.…”

The effects of treatment adherence and treatment-specific therapeutic competencies on outcome and goal attainment in telephone-based therapy with caregivers of people with dementia

“…Thus, these results should be interpreted as preliminary. Future research should identify ways to reduce the costs and to increase the sample sizes, probably by evaluating session segments rather than a whole session (Weck, Bohn, Ginzburg, & Stangier, 2011). Third, our analyses consist of data from a non-clinical sample, so our results cannot be extended to patients with clinically diagnosed disorders.…”

The Effects of Bug‐in‐the‐Eye Supervision on Therapeutic Alliance and Therapist Competence in Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…In previous studies, independent raters evaluated the process variables reliably and validly based on the middle third of the therapy sessions. This procedure provides a cost-effective alternative to considering entire sessions (Weck, Bohn, Ginzburg, & Stangier, 2011;Weck, Grikscheit, Höfling, & Stangier, 2014). Therefore, only the CTS and HAQ from the middle third of the 195 videotaped therapy sessions were considered.…”