The Therapy Process Questionnaire ‐ Factor analysis and psychometric properties of a multidimensional self‐rating scale for high‐frequency monitoring of psychotherapeutic processes

Abstract

Many outcome measures and session‐related questionnaires in psychotherapy are designed for weekly or biweekly administration. Yet, today, technical developments allow for higher frequency assessments to monitor human change dynamics more closely by daily assessments. For this purpose, the Therapy Process Questionnaire (TPQ) was developed, with a specific focus on inpatient psychotherapy. In this article, we present an explorative and confirmative factor analysis of the TPQ on the basis of the time series data of 150 patients collected during their hospital stay (mean time series length: 69.1 measurement points). A seven‐factor solution was identified, which explains 68.7% of variance and associates 43 items onto the factors, which are “well‐being and positive emotions,” “relationship with fellow patients,” “therapeutic relationship and clinical setting,” “emotional and problem intensity,” “insight/confidence/therapeutic progress,” “motivation for change,” and “mindfulness/self‐care.” The internal consistency (Cronbach's α), the inter‐item correlations of the subscales, and the discriminative power of the items are excellent. The TPQ can be applied in practice and research for creating time series with equidistant measurement points and time series lengths, which are appropriate for the application of nonlinear analysis methods. Especially in clinical practice, it is important to identify precursors of phase transitions, changing synchronization patterns, and critical or instable periods of a process, which now is possible by internet‐ or app‐based applications of this multidimensional questionnaire.

Complex individual pathways or standard tracks? A data‐based discussion on the trajectories of change in psychotherapy

“…The question of sampling rates was addressed in other articles of our group (e.g. Schiepek et al, 2018;Schiepek et al, 2019). In addition to the methodological reasoning in these papers, here we focus on the question of whether the widely used concept of standard tracks may be valid, empirically supported and practically useful, which depends-besides other criteria-on the definition of sampling rates.…”

“…symptom severity, social functioning) or is it a diversity of factors and mediators which may contribute to therapeutic progress? A widely used process questionnaire that was designed for daily self-ratings (Therapy Process Questionnaire, TPQ; Schiepek et al, 2019) includes aspects like experienced progress, self-efficacy and…”

“…The psychotherapeutic change processes were assessed by the Therapy Process Questionnaire (TPQ; Schiepek et al, 2019), which was further developed from the original version that was used in former applications and studies (Haken & Schiepek, 2006;Schiepek, Aichhorn, & Strunk, 2012). This process questionnaire was developed for daily multidimensional self-assessments of inpatient treatments.…”

“…symptom severity, social functioning) or is it a diversity of factors and mediators which may contribute to therapeutic progress? A widely used process questionnaire that was designed for daily self‐ratings (Therapy Process Questionnaire, TPQ; Schiepek et al, ) includes aspects like experienced progress, self‐efficacy and confidence in a successful process, motivation for change, emotions, insight and development of new perspectives, or mindfulness and body awareness.…”

Depression – ein komplexes dynamisches System

“…1). Benutzt werden hierfür standardisierte Prozessfragebögen wie der Therapie-Prozessbogen (TPB, Schiepek et al, 2019) oder aber personalisierte Fragebögen, die auf der Basis einer umfassenden Fallkonzeption gemeinsam mit den Patient*innen erstellt werden. Erkennbar ist in jedem Fall, dass Therapieprozesse keinem Standardverlauf folgen, sondern hoch komplex und individuell verlaufen (Schiepek et al, 2020).…”