The micro-process rating system for psychotherapeutic interventions - CBT (RPI-CBT): development and validation

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Psychotherapy process research investigates in-session dynamics to understand therapeutic change.
• Modern observational methods enhance the scope of psychotherapy process research.
• Systematic identification of micro-level interventions is crucial for detailed analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a rating system for identifying cognitive-behavioral interventions at the micro-process level.
• To determine the optimal rating interval for capturing intervention frequency and duration.
• To assess the inter-rater reliability of the developed rating system.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 67 videos from initial therapy sessions using ANOVA and Tukey's tests to compare rating intervals.
• Calculation of Kendall's W on 171 videos from 26 additional patients to assess inter-rater reliability.
• Descriptive analyses to identify captured interventions and their differentiability.

Main Results:

• A two-minute rating interval was found to be as effective as a one-minute interval without loss of intervention data.
• Excellent inter-rater reliability was achieved for the rating scales (W=.906, W=.836), with variations across specific interventions.
• Interventions from early therapeutic phases were primarily identified and clearly distinguishable.

Conclusions:

• The Rating of Process of Intervention-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RPI-CBT) is a reliable system for identifying and differentiating cognitive-behavioral interventions.
• While effective, the system did not capture all possible interventions.
• The RPI-CBT system contributes to a more granular understanding of psychotherapy processes.