New prospects for process research in group therapy: Text-based process variables in psychotherapeutic Internet chat...

This study focuses on the operationalization and validation of text-based process variables in psychotherapeutic Internet chat groups. The process variables activity, outdegree (OD; i.e., the frequency at which a group member addresses others in the group), and indegree (ID; i.e., the frequency at which a group member's name is mentioned by other group members or by the therapist [IDT]) were operationalized. Using 1,046 session transcripts from 130 participants of an Internet chat aftercare program, the authors studied the concurrent and predictive validity of activity, OD, ID, and IDT and of 52 text-based variables comprising linguistic, emotional, and cognitive aspects. Results showed consistent correlations between psychometric group ratings and the text-based variables ID, OD, and activity. The predictive validity of the variables IDT, ID, and activity was rather low but as good as the predictive validity of the psychometric ratings. The clinical implications of the results are discussed.