Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Harold J. Fine

Committee Members

Anne McIntyre, Robert Wahler, Gary Peterson

Abstract

This Study attempted to show that a short-term psychotherapy process using techniques specifically designed for an inpatient psychiatric population could produce demonstrable changes in functioning in a one-month period. It was hypothesized that subjects receiving group therapy would show behavioral changes that indicated increased feelings of inclusion, control, and affection, conscious self-perceptions that correlated more accurately with observed behavior, and a decrease in underlying feelings of distrust and alienation when compared with the same subjects' behavior during periods of baseline assessment and placebo treatment. Baseline, placebo, and treatment conditions allowed for the comparison of the effects of time, special attention, and group therapy respectively, as well as allowing each subject to serve as his own control. Personality measures (Leary Test of Interpersonal Diagnosis, FIRO-B) were taken at the beginning of the baseline, placebo, and treatment conditions, and again at the end of the treatment condition, and objective behavioral ratings (NOSIE) were made on a weekly basis by nursing staff. The 32 subjects used were divided into four treatment groups, two of which were run by one therapist while the other two were run by a second therapist. A coding system was used to compare the interventions of the two group therapists to insure that therapy groups were being conducted in a similar fashion.

Hypotheses about predicted changes were not confirmed for the experimental group as a whole. Similarly, subgroups of subjects who were rated by therapists as making the most and least therapeutic movement in group therapy showed no differences on the measures used. The only statistically significant change involved a temporary exacerbation of psychotic and disruptive behavior when termination issues became the focus of each of the four groups. This was especially evident in female subjects and in the subgroup seen as making the least therapeutic movement. This suggests that group therapy had an appreciable impact on this group despite therapist evaluations to the contrary, a finding that has implications in terms of the types of patients who are seen as suitable for group therapy. The failure of raters' perceptions, subjects' self-perceptions, and therapist evaluations to agree on which patients used group therapy most effectively illustrates a major difficulty in evaluating the results of this type of outcome research.

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