An automated method of content analysis for psychotherapy research: A further validation.
The aim of the study is to validate the ability of ACASM (Automated Co-occurrence Analysis for Semantic Mapping) to provide a representation of the content of the therapeutic exchange that is useful for clinical analysis.



We compared the clinical case analyses of a good outcome psychodynamic therapy performed by a group of clinicians (n = 5) based on the verbatim transcripts (transcript-based analysis) with the clinical case analyses performed by another group of clinicians (n = 5) based on the ACASM representation of the same sessions (ACASM-based analysis). Comparison concerned two levels: the descriptive level and the interpretative level of the clinical case analysis.



Findings showed that, inconsistently with our hypothesis, ACASM-based descriptions of the case obtained worse evaluations than transcript-based descriptions of the case (on all 3 criteria adopted). On the contrary, consistently with our hypothesis, ACASM is undistinguishable from the verbatim transcripts as regards the case interpretation (on 2 out of 3 criteria adopted).



ACASM provides a description of the case that, though different from the one provided by the transcripts, enables clinicians to elaborate clinical interpretations of the case which approximate those produced by clinicians working directly on verbatim transcripts.
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.|b Centro Studi di Psicoterapia e Psicologia della Salute (CESP)-Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo (ISBEM) , Lecce , Italy.
Sergio
S
Salvatore
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.|c Department of Psychotherapy Science , Sigmund Freud University , Vienna , Austria.
Omar Carlo Gioacchino
OC
Gelo
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.|b Centro Studi di Psicoterapia e Psicologia della Salute (CESP)-Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo (ISBEM) , Lecce , Italy.
Alessandro
A
Gennaro
b Centro Studi di Psicoterapia e Psicologia della Salute (CESP)-Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo (ISBEM) , Lecce , Italy.
Roberto
R
Metrangolo
d Department of Human Studies , University of Foggia , Foggia , Italy.
Grazia
G
Terrone
b Centro Studi di Psicoterapia e Psicologia della Salute (CESP)-Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo (ISBEM) , Lecce , Italy.
Valeria
V
Pace
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.|b Centro Studi di Psicoterapia e Psicologia della Salute (CESP)-Istituto Scientifico Biomedico Euro Mediterraneo (ISBEM) , Lecce , Italy.
Claudia
C
Venuleo
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.
Annalisa
A
Venezia
a Department of History, Society and Human Studies , University of Salento , Lecce , Italy.
Enrico
E
Ciavolino
D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D064889:Psychotherapy, Psychodynamic / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research
ACASM; automated text analysis; psychotherapy process; thematic analysis