title: Development of a suboutcome strategy to measure interpersonal process in psychotherapy from an observer perspective.
abstract: Based on increasing recognition that the therapeutic relationship is critical in psychotherapy, the goal of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of a suboutcome strategy that could identify important in-session events involving patient-therapist interactions. Ten third-party observers were calibrated on a circumplex measure of suboutcome, a shortened version of the Wiggins' Interpersonal Adjective Scale-Revised. These observers rated four sessions from each of 28 cases of short-term psychotherapy. Each session was rated by thirds and selected to represent each quartile of a 40-session treatment protocol. The major findings indicated adequate interrater reliability and evidence for criterion validity that suggested a predictive relationship of patient and therapist affiliation to ultimate outcome, especially as observed early in treatment.
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Muran
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Samstag
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jilton
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Batchelder
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Winston
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011336:Probability; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012917:Social Adjustment; D016896:Treatment Outcome