Erhard Mergenthaler

Psychotherapy Transcription Standards

Although use of psychotherapy transcripts is becoming increasingly important in psychotherapy research, large-scale collaborative work is hindered by lack of suitable transcription standards. Guidelines are presented for the transcription of discourse, such as psychotherapy sessions, for research and educational purposes. Transcripts generated by following these standards will be readable by human judges; they will also be easily submitted for computer-aided text analysis, such as formal concordance.

Linking verbal and non-verbal representations: Computer analysis of referential activity

The objective of this study was to develop a computer assisted procedure to model the Referencial Activity scales as scored by raters. Referential Activity is defined as the function of connecting non-verbal experience with language. Using a large text corpus that had been rated by experienced and reliable judges, extreme samples from both ends of the Referential Activity Scales were selected. The Characteristic Vocabularies for each of these corpora, words that were significantly more frequent in each corpus as compared to the other, were then identified. A small set of 181 frequent words was derived that accounted for half of all words in the text corpora. These words were used as dictionaries for a Computerized Referential Activity measure based on computer assisted content analysis techniques. The new measure showed a correlation with judge-scored Referential Activity of around .50 across both the development and test corpora.

The Relationship Among Attachment Representation, Emotion-Abstraction Patterns, and Narrative Style: A Computer-Based Text Analysis of the Adult Attachment Interview

The main aim of this research was to test the discriminant capacity of computer-based, linguistic text measures which are economically compilable (Emotion-Abstraction Patterns, Mergenthaler, 1996; Computerized Referential Activity, Mergenthaler & Bucci, 1999) in differentiating between complex attachment representations in the Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1994). The study of N = 40 healthy controls produced the consistent result that, of the two insecure attachment categories, the group ‘dismissing’ (n = 10) showed the lowest means on all text measures, whereas the group ‘preoccupied’ (n = 10) showed the highest means. The mean of the attachment group ‘secure’ (n = 20) lay between these groups. This ranking is consistent with the results of studies which had another research focus, showing deactivation or hyperactivation of attachment-relevant information in both insecure attachment groups, as well as flexibility in the ‘secure’ group. We also discuss whether the coincidence of language markers for emotion and abstraction, as well as Computerized Referential Activity, is adequate to operationalize the construct of coherence in narrative style.

Resonating minds: A school-independent theoretical conception and its empirical application to psychotherapeutic processes

Abstract The resonating minds theory will be introduced as a means to describe psychotherapeutic processes and change. It builds on the mind-brain interface with psychotherapeutic interventions causing change in the brain, an altered brain causes changes in the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral regulation, and this again will change the types of subsequent therapeutic interventions. For the empirical assessment of this theory the therapeutic cycles model will be used. It is based on computer assisted analysis of verbatim transcripts using emotional tone, abstraction and narrative style as language measures. Sample applications and studies are shortly presented in order to provide evidence for the applicability and face validity of this approach.

Exploring group process

Abstract This study takes as a starting point the need for further observational research in identifying the phenomenon of cohesion in group psychotherapy. The purpose is to test the possibility that there are relevant observational technologies that, like the microscope, can reveal phenomena that cannot be perceived directly but that underpin events at the perceptual level. Two text analytical approaches will be applied to mutually support possible findings: conversation analysis as a qualitative tool and quantitative computer-assisted text analysis following the therapeutic cycles model (TCM). The text to be analyzed is a transcript of Session 9 of a psychodynamic psychotherapy group for seven women diagnosed with an eating disorder. Within the cycles there is higher category density, higher levels of coherence, and tying across turns. The TCM reliably can identify features of the therapeutic process that are of clinical interest.

Therapeutic collaboration: How does it work?

Abstract Research on the role of the therapeutic bond has shown to be central to the psychotherapeutic process and to good outcomes. Exactly what happens at the interactional level remains understudied. This study uses conversation analysis, observing the turn-by-turn analysis of the talk, in combination with a computerized text analysis following the therapeutic cycles model locating clinically significant events. Transcripts from all eight sessions of a successful brief psychodynamic psychotherapy are analyzed. In the transcripts, the authors identify topics and then compute topic density, topic sequence, and participation structure as markers for topic coherence. These are compared with segments that fall into a therapeutic cycle. These findings support the correlation of topic coherence to periods of high therapeutic productivity.

The Penn psychoanalytic treatment collection: A set of complete and recorded psychoanalyses as a research resource

From a set of seventeen complete and tape-recorded psychoanalyses, a sample of findings is presented: (a) the level of agreement of two clinical judges on the psychological health of these patients is adequate for the late sessions, but not for the early sessions; (b) the amount of change during psychoanalysis appears to be similar to that in the Menninger Foundation Psychotherapy Research Project; (c) psychiatric severity measures from the early sessions can yield a significant level of prediction of the later benefits from psychoanalysis. Finally, further research uses of this collection of psychoanalyses are suggested.

Observing therapeutic interaction in the “Lisa” case

Abstract This is the third of a series of pilot studies that seeks to validate a method for the identification and analysis of clinically significant interactions in the psychotherapy process. Using a combined method, the authors demonstrate that the therapeutic cycles model (Mergenthaler, 1996) can be used reliably to identify clinically significant events across sessions, which can then be analyzed at the level of the therapist–client interaction using conversation analysis, a discipline that has generated a substantial body of knowledge of how meaningful interaction is achieved by speakers on a turn-by-turn basis. The authors demonstrate that significant events can be compared within and across cases in order to understand how therapist interventions contribute to within-session micro-outcomes and, ultimately, to outcomes across populations of cases.

Topics and Signs: Defensive Control of Emotional Expression.

This single-case study examined frank disclosure of important topics in a brief exploratory psychotherapy, including topics closely related to a recent, unintegrated stressor life event. Quantitative measures of emotion and control variables showed heightened levels of both emotionally and defensive control during discourse on the topic of the stressor event. In future studies, such measures of verbal and nonverbal signs of emotional expression and defensive control might be used to identify topics in an unresolved state.

Introduction. One case, multiple measures: An intensive case-analytic approach to understanding client change processes in evidence-based, emotion-focused therapy of depression

There is an emerging consensus in the psychotherapy research literature (Kazdin, 2008; Moras, 2006; Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004) that a more differentiated and specific understanding of how client change occurs is critical for the identification of key mechanisms of change in evidence-based treatments of depression. Additionally, as Greenberg (1986) points out, converging strands of research evidence are required in order to provide a convincing case for the therapeutic effectiveness of specific evidence-based treatments. In light of these concerns, single-case methods have recently gained attention as an effective way to demonstrate the usefulness of clinical interventions and provide insight into the specific nature of change processes that contribute to effective therapeutic outcomes (Castonguay, 1993; Mergenthaler, 2008; Morgan & Morgan, 2001), especially in the context of community-based samples (Fishman, 2007; Lampropoulos et al., 2002). Curiously, the potential contributions of intensive case-analytic methods for enriched theory building and elaboration (Stiles, 2007), in the context of completed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of evidence-based treatments of depression (Angus & Hardtke, 2007), have received far less attention in the research literature. The purpose of this special section is to address this gap in the psychotherapy research literature. Recognizing the potential benefits of RCT design for multiple single-case analyses, Les Greenberg and Lynne Angus codeveloped the York I therapy transcript data bank, which now contains all session transcripts for six recovered and six unchanged clients who participated in the York I RCT. This transcript data bank has become a rich spawning ground for international psychotherapy process research collaborations in North America and Europe and was the basis for two research symposia presented at the 2004 International Conference of the Society for Psychotherapy Research in Rome. The papers in panels addressed a diverse array of process research findings emerging from the intensive singlecase analysis of Lisa, a young woman who underwent emotion-focused therapy of depression (York I RCT) and demonstrated clinically significant change, and recovery status, at therapy termination and 6-month follow-up. In light of the lively discussions sparked by the panel presentations in Rome, and in the context of exploring the potential contributions of intensive case analyses for the identification of key processes of change and enriched theory building in evidenced-based treatments, this special section presents four studies that afford readers an opportunity to conduct their own indepth, critical analyses of convergent and divergent findings emerging from the application of five different measures of client change processes evidenced in one intensive case analysis of emotionfocused therapy of depression: the case of Lisa.