The Effect Of Group Psychotherapy On Interpersonal Perceptions Of Psychiatric Patients

Matched groups of psychiatric patients were randomly assigned either to small group psychotherapy or to a control condition. The Revised Inter- personal Check List was administered three times (zero, three, and six weeks from the time therapy began) with five instructional sets (I am, Most People are, etc.). The results were first factor analyzed by item in accordance with a model developed by Horst (1963), then factor scores were computed, and finally the effects of experimental treatments (group, occasion, set) on the factor scores were evaluated by analysis of variance. Two of eighteen group-by-occasion interactions were significant (p < .01) and suggested that group therapy influenced the interpersonal perceptions of participants in the direction of seeing themselves and others as less assertive and pompous, Seven of eighteen main effects of instructional set were significant (p < .01) and suggested that patients tend to see themselves as unassertive and indulgent of others. It was concluded that Horst's new factor analytic approach to assessing change was promising, particularly in view of the failure of previous efforts to yield significant findings.