The efficacy of personal construct therapy: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Prior narrative and quantitative reviews have suggested that personal construct therapy (PCT) is an efficacious and viable form of treatment. However, these reviews failed to include all published, controlled PCT outcome studies and did not account for all measures of outcome. The present quantitative review, therefore, offers a comprehensive integration of the 22 published studies that compare PCT to a control group, examining its overall efficacy at posttest and follow-up as well as its effects for different types of outcome measures. Overall, the efficacy of PCT was found to be somewhat weaker than that reported in previous reviews. It was also found that traditional self-report and behavioral observation measures tended to yield larger effects compared to measures that focused on personal meanings and scored content supplied by the client.

Construction of Self and Others in Unipolar Depressive Disorders: A Study Using Repertory Grid Technique

“…Neimeyer and colleagues (Holland, Neimeyer, Currier, & Berman, 2007;Neimeyer, Heath, & Strauss, 1985;Neimeyer, Klein, Gurman, & Griest, 1983) have found that negative constructions of the future self are particularly related to the severity of depressive symptoms and decrease following personal construct cognitive therapy. Given the emphasis on anticipatory processes and core constructions of the self in personal construct theory, therapists may want to consider including the future self as an element in RepGrid assessment.…”

The Efficacy of Personal Construct Therapy as a Function of the Type and Severity of the Presenting Problem

“…More often than not, the client was seen by a female therapist. Further details about the descriptive characteristics of these studies have been reported in another publication (Holland et al, 2007).…”

“…Despite the intuitive appeal of these novel interventions and other related techniques (Neimeyer & Bridges, 2003), a recent meta-analysis of the PCT outcome literature revealed an average effect size of .38 when PCT was compared to a waitlist control group, placebo, or standard care (Holland, Neimeyer, Currier, & Berman, 2007). 1 Although this effect was significantly greater than zero, it was notably smaller than those found for psychotherapy in general, which have shown average effect sizes ranging from about .75 to .85 (Wampold, 2001).…”

“…In an effort to understand these findings, several moderating variables have been explored to see if the effect sizes calculated for a given study vary reliably as a function of other factors. For example, it has been found that PCT tends to yield substantially larger effect sizes when more traditional outcome measures are used whose content is predetermined and supplied by the researcher (e.g., paperand-pencil questionnaires, behavioral observations) compared to more broad-based measures designed to tap into personal meanings of the client (e.g., repertory grids, content analysis scales; Holland et al, 2007).…”

The mystery of the well-attended group. A model of Personal Construct Therapy for adolescent self-harm and depression in a community CAMHS service

“…There are similarities between elements of PCT and many other therapies (e.g., cognitive behavioural therapy, solution-focused therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, narrative therapy, and with systemic approaches). Personal construct psychotherapy has been found to have positive results with adults (Holland, Neimeyer, Currier, & Berman, 2007, Metcalfe, Winter, & Viney, 2007. The use of PCP with children and adolescents has more often been described in the literature of educational psychology and teaching (e.g.…”