Measurement of anxiety in psychotherapy process research

A new technique designed to measure a patient's anxiety during a psychotherapeutic interview is described. Videotaped recordings were made of interviews between 2 psychotherapists and 6 patients. The anxiety levels experienced by the patients during the interview were measured in three ways. One therapist signalled his recognition of a patient's changing anxiety levels and his interventions to manipulate the patient's anxiety during the interview. Subsequently, the 2 therapists and 6 patients made independent retrospective ratings while viewing a recording of the interview. Significant agreement was found between three sets of ratings and the results suggest that the technique may be of value in psychotherapy process research.