Content analysis of verbal behaviour in psychotherapy research: a comparison between two methods

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research
• Linguistic Analysis

Background:

• Analyzing affective content in psychotherapy is crucial for understanding patient progress.
• Existing content analysis methods may differ in their coding units and contextual information utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the Gottschalk-Gleser method and the 'anxiety topics dictionary' for analyzing verbal affective content.
• To assess the comparability of meaning categories across these two content analytic techniques.

Main Methods:

• Content analysis of verbal behavior from psychotherapeutic interviews.
• Application of the Gottschalk-Gleser method and the 'anxiety topics dictionary'.
• Correlational analysis of resulting affect scores.

Main Results:

• Significant positive correlation found between shame and separation anxiety scores from both methods.
• A weaker, but still present, correlation for guilt anxiety was observed.
• Demonstrated formal similarity in operationalizing certain affective constructs.

Conclusions:

• The Gottschalk-Gleser method and the 'anxiety topics dictionary' show comparable results for specific affective constructs.
• Further research is warranted to explore the full comparability of meaning categories in verbal behavior studies.
• Findings support the pragmatic relevance of both content analytic techniques.