Quote:
Originally Posted by jexa
... there is a large subset of somewhat "subversive" research psychologists who are seeking out "process variables" - what are the mechanisms of change in therapy? They admit we don't know why what works, works. And I plan to join them in seeking out these answers. I want to be a clinical research psychologist. I want to help find a way to measure the therapeutic process in a valid way. I want to improve the way therapy is done in the community. I want people to get help that WORKS. So, I want to know HOW it works! This is my dream.. I will do everything I can to achieve this. One of the reasons I love PC is that there is so much process data here. Knowing how others experience therapy.. this will give me great insight when I am attempting to quantify the therapeutic process. It is quite a daunting task.
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I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be an impossible task. Measuring anything about the process would mean focusing on the observable
behavior of the participants but as far as I can tell, what makes the difference between good and bad therapy is their
experience of what's going on.
50 years ago Carl Rogers wrote in some detail about his "process conception of psychotherapy" (Chapter 7 of
On Becoming a Person --
excerpt here). I happen to think he put his finger on, or very near to, how therapy works (when it works). Unfortunately for any attempt to measure how it works, though, it seems to work not
because of what we can measure but
in spite of it.
I once had friends who used to bat around "imponderable" questions such as, "Is the perfect imitation of love the same as love, or not?" At the time, I didn't have an answer but now I'd say: clearly not! In one case you have the experience of loving; in the other case, of imitating. If the person who's the object of your attention isn't able to tell the difference (at first, anyway), that still doesn't change anything.
If you should someday want to quantify the seven stages of therapy that Rogers describes -- how
would you go about it?
