Trainee therapist personality and the rating of cognitive-behavioural and dynamic-interpersonal therapy processes

Clin Psychol Psychother. 2022 Feb 24. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2730. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTTherapist factors are generally thought to be important predictors of the capacity to understand and respond to clinical material. The current study aims to identify which features of personality and clinical symptomatology predict a trainee therapist's rating of cognitive-behavioural (CB) and psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) processes in video recordings of these therapies. 80 psychology trainees completed the MMPI-2-RF and watched two video recordings of therapy sessions showing prototypical examples of cognitive-behavioural (CB) and psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) psychotherapy, rating the processes they could identify using the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (CPPS). Trainees accurately differentiated CB from PI process while viewing the CB session, but rated the CB video higher in PI processes than the PI video itself. Bayesian regression models showed that the most consistent MMPI-2-RF scale that predicted variance in ratings was Hypomanic activation (RC9) predicting higher ratings of all psychotherapy processes in both conditions, while clinical scale factors such as Aggression (AGGR-r), and personality scale factors of Psychoticism (PSYC-r) and Neuroticism (NEGE-r) showed some notable but less consistent predictions. The variances in psychotherapy process ratings accounted for by MMPI-2-RF scales ranged from 15% to 51%. The study suggests that some clinical symptoms and...
Source: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research