The shape of knowledge: Situational analysis in counseling psychology research.
Situational analysis (SA) is a powerful method for visually mapping qualitative data. As an extension of constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz and others, Clarke’s situational analysis encourages researchers to transform qualitative data into various visual maps that can illuminate dynamics that may be obscured by more traditional analytic approaches. Fifteen years since Fassinger’s landmark article on grounded theory in counseling psychology research, I make an argument for SA’s potential uses in counseling psychology using data from a mixed-methods dissertation on White racial affect. I outline the ex...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 16, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Motion energy analysis (MEA): A primer on the assessment of motion from video.
Nonverbal behavior is a central factor influencing the therapeutic relationship. Despite broad agreement on its importance, empirical studies assessing nonverbal behavior in counseling and psychotherapy are relatively scarce and often limited to few cases. One restraining factor may be the resources needed when assessing nonverbal behavior. Movement dynamics are an exemplary aspect of nonverbal behavior that can be captured with computer vision—a discipline concerned with the automated analysis of footage captured on video. One of the simplest methods requiring no special detectors, devices, or markers on patients or the...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Oxytocin as a biomarker of the formation of therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy and counseling psychology.
This article is intended to demonstrate the potential of OT as a biomarker of therapeutic change in psychotherapy and counseling psychology, especially of the therapeutic alliance. We delineate three main potential paths of investigation based on the most recent research on OT in parent–child and romantic partner dyads. For each path, we provide a detailed explanation for whom, when, and how OT should be measured. Each path is illustrated using data collected in a randomized controlled trial of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder. These illustrations demonstrate the great potential of OT as a biomarker of (a) tra...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Language style matching in psychotherapy: An implicit aspect of alliance.
In an attempt to operationalize an implicit aspect of the therapeutic alliance, this article proposes the use of the innovative, objective, and time-efficient analysis of language style matching (LSM; Niederhoffer & Pennebaker, 2002). LSM, defined as the degree of similarity in rates of function words in dyadic interactions, is thought to reflect the extent to which conversational partners are automatically coordinating language styles to achieve a common goal. Although LSM has often been researched in the context of everyday conversations, little is known about the matching of clients and therapists’ language style in t...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Using event-related potentials to explore processes of change in counseling psychology.
The purpose of this article is to serve as a guide for counseling psychologists to learn about a neuroscience methodology that can be used to study psychotherapy change processes. Event-related potential (ERP) is a specific type of electroencephalography that can be time-locked to a stimulus and thus allows researchers to examine neural responses to specific therapeutic techniques. A conceptual overview of the method and its applicability to counseling psychologists is provided. Additionally, this article contains basic guidelines for designing an ERP study, the tools necessary for setting up an ERP lab, and an overview of...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Incorporating physiology into the study of psychotherapy process.
Increasing evidence indicates that psychological factors important to therapy effectiveness are associated with physiological activity. Knowledge of the physiological correlates of therapy process variables has the potential to provide unique insights into how and why therapy works, but little is currently known about the physiological underpinnings of specific therapy processes that facilitate client growth and change. The goal of this article is to introduce therapy process researchers to the use of physiological methods for studying therapy process variables. We do this by (a) presenting a conceptual framework for the s...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
What can be learned from couple research: Examining emotional co-regulation processes in face-to-face interactions.
A crucial component of successful counseling and psychotherapy is the dyadic emotion co-regulation process between patient and therapist that unfolds moment to moment during therapy sessions. The major reason for the disappointing progress in understanding this process is the lack of appropriate methods to assess subjectively experienced emotions continuously during therapy sessions without disturbing the natural flow of the interaction. The resulting inability has forced the field to focus on patients’ overall emotion ratings at the end of each session with limited predictive value of the dyadic interplay between patien...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Feasibility and acceptability of a novel tool for the study of interpersonal processes in psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy process research methods often require extensive time and resources. Technology innovations, such as wearable sensors, have the potential to increase the efficiency of process data collection and processing. One such tool is the Sociometric Badge (SB), which is a portable, palm-sized device that can simultaneously record raw audio and data on social signals (e.g., speech patterns, body movement) in real-time and in varied contexts. In addition to describing the nature and implications of wearable sensing devices for psychotherapy research, this article reports results from a pilot study that examined the feas...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Patterns of early change in interpersonal problems and their relationship to nonverbal synchrony and multidimensional outcome.
In this study, we analyzed patterns of early change in interpersonal problems and their relationship to nonverbal synchrony and multiple outcome measures for the first time. We used growth mixture modeling to identify different latent classes of early change in interpersonal problems with 212 patients who underwent cognitive–behavioral treatment including interpersonal and emotion-focused elements. Furthermore, videotaped sessions were analyzed using motion energy analysis, providing values for the calculation of nonverbal synchrony to predict early change in interpersonal problems. The relationship between early change ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Machine learning and natural language processing in psychotherapy research: Alliance as example use case.
Artificial intelligence generally and machine learning specifically have become deeply woven into the lives and technologies of modern life. Machine learning is dramatically changing scientific research and industry and may also hold promise for addressing limitations encountered in mental health care and psychotherapy. The current paper introduces machine learning and natural language processing as related methodologies that may prove valuable for automating the assessment of meaningful aspects of treatment. Prediction of therapeutic alliance from session recordings is used as a case in point. Recordings from 1,235 sessio...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Physiological synchronization in the clinical process: A research primer.
Physiological synchronization is the study of how individuals in interaction coregulate their physiology. The topic has sparked increasing interest in counseling and psychotherapy research, where it has been found to be associated with the therapeutic alliance, clinicians’ empathy and patients’ outcome. Physiological synchronization allows researcher to investigate subtle but fundamental aspects of the clinical process through objective measures. In this article, we aim to offer a guide to researchers and clinicians to explore this growing field of study. We begin by reviewing the existing literature of physiological s...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Innovative approaches to exploring processes of change in counseling psychology: Insights and principles for future research.
This article serves as an introduction to the “Innovative Approaches to Exploring Processes of Change in Counseling Psychology” special issue. The special issue includes articles representing several of the most promising approaches. Each article seeks to serve as a sourcebook for implementing a given approach in counseling research, in such areas as the assessment of coregulation processes, language processing, physiology, motion synchrony, event-related potentials, hormonal measures, and sociometric signals captured by a badge. The studies included in this special issue represent some of the most promising pathways f...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
“Where is the relationship” revisited: Using actor-partner interdependence modeling and common fate model in examining dyadic working alliance and session quality.
Building on previous studies (e.g., Kivlighan, 2007), we explored the application of actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM) and the common fate model (CFM) in a multilevel framework to examine the dyadic multilevel associations between therapists’ and clients’ perceptions of working alliance and session quality. Forty-four therapists and their 284 adult community clients completed measures of working alliance and session quality after every session (a total of 8,188 sessions included in this study). We used APIM to unravel the mutual interdependence between therapist and client perceptions and used CFM to model ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Longitudinal measurement invariance of the Behavioral Health Measure in a clinical sample.
The practice of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) has grown in popularity and become a fixture in feedback-supported clinical practice and research. However, if the interpretation of an ROM measure changes over time, treatment outcome scores may be inaccurate and produce erroneous or misguided interpretations of client progress and therapist efficacy. The current study examined whether factorial invariance held when using the Behavioral Health Measure (BHM-20) longitudinally in a clinical sample (n = 12,467). Using multidimensional item response theory–based models for the investigation of the BHM-20 factor structure, at ...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - June 25, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The hurdles are high: Women of color leaders in counseling psychology.
Counseling psychologists value cultural diversity and, as a field, include many Women of Color (WoC) in leadership spaces. However, researchers have yet to explore the experiences of WoC leaders within the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP; Division 17 of the American Psychological Association). Specifically, we sought to identify how WoC leaders engage culturally relevant leadership styles and what barriers (if any) WoC leaders experience within leadership in SCP. We utilized a semistructured interview protocol with 10 WoC who have held and/or currently hold a leadership position within SCP. We sought to construct a n...
Source: Journal of Counseling Psychology - June 25, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
