The goal of this article was to examine theoretically important mechanisms of change in psychotherapy outcome across different types of treatment. Specifically, the role of gains in self-understanding, acquisition of compensatory skills, and improvements in views of the self were examined. A pooled study database collected at the University of…

The influence of treatment preferences on the development of the therapeutic alliance was investigated. Seventy-five patients were followed while participating in a randomized controlled trial comparing supportive-expressive psychotherapy with sertraline or pill placebo in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Therapeutic alliance was…

The belief that rigidity across relationships is related to greater symptoms and poorer functioning commonly informs the practice of many psychodynamic and interpersonal therapists. Using a profile correlation approach, the authors tested this hypothesis in a sample of 250 clients and 90 undergraduate control participants. Symptoms and functioning…

Evaluates the reliability and validity of a new self-report measure of Self-Understanding of Interpersonal Patterns (SUIP). Measure demonstrates good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and discriminant validity. The SUIP further demonstrates convergent validity with measures of analytical and self-improving personality traits in a…

Reviews recently published methods of assessment of dynamic formulations derived from psychodynamic case material, particularly those that emphasize central maladaptive interpersonal patterns. The methods are divided into those based on case studies and those with a moderate sample size. Psychometric properties are reviewed. The question of how…

Shows that the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) can be rated reliably either from therapy sessions or from a special pretreatment interview. Pretreatment CCRTs resembled CCRTs extracted from early sessions of brief dynamic psychotherapy, suggesting that therapist influences in early treatment did not significantly alter patient CCRTs.…

Examines the relation between therapist process variables (adherence and competence) and subsequent symptomatic change in patients. Twenty-nine depressed patients were seen in 16 sessions of weekly supportive expressive (SE) dynamic psychotherapy. Change in depression from intake to session three predicted higher ratings of adherence to expressive…