IJTAR Abstracts Vol 1 Iss 1 to Vol 8 Iss 2

IJTAR Abstracts Vol 1 Iss 1 to Vol 8 Iss 2

Volume 1 Issue 1 July 2010

Mathematical Calculation Procedures and Drivers in Action in the Learning Environment

The paper reports on the qualitative results of the experimental phase of a study to examine the links between children’s learning experiences associated with two digit division and the transactional analysis concept of drivers. The author presents results obtained from a process that used a questionnaire developed during a prior heuristic phase of research, combined with undergraduate student observations of the children, drawings produced by the children, and teacher observations on permission transactions used. Examples are provided for each of the five drivers.

Volume 1 Issue 1 July 2010

The affective dimension of alliance in transactional analysis psychotherapy

The study describes an investigation of the significance of the affective dimension of the therapeutic alliance (Bordin 1979), in a psychodynamic form of transactional analysis therapy after the style of “Redecision therapy” (Goulding & Goulding, 1979). We explored the client’s pattern of affective relationships by use of CCRT (the Core Conflictual Relationship method, Luborsky & Crits-Christoph, 1990, 1998) and examined how the therapist responds to the client’s affective messages (“tests”) by use of the Plan Diagnosis method (Weiss & Sampson, 1986). We found that “emotional” aspects play a more decisive role than has been envisioned in the TA redecision method and similar approaches of TA psychotherapy that emphasise contracts, tasks of therapy and a rational approach.

Volume 1 Issue 1 July 2010

Scientific evidence base for transactional analysis in the year 2010

The International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research, IJTAR, has been created to stimulate research and support the continued effort to build a scientific evidence base for transactional analysis (TA). This article is an attempt to locate the starting point for the journal, to identify, evaluate and draw conclusions from what has already been done, and to articulate the existing scientific evidence base for TA in the year 2010.

Volume 1 Issue 1 July 2010

The Empirical Basis of Medicine in search of Humanity and Naturalistic Psychotherapy in search of its Hermeneutic Roots

No abstract appeared. This article was originally published in Italian as 'La base empirica della medicina alla ricerca di umanità e una psicoterapia naturalistica alla ricerca delle sue radici ermeneutiche' in: "Psicologia Psicoterapia e Salute" 2006, Vol.12, No. 1, 1 – 30. The IFREP-93' review. This translation appears with the kind permission of IFREP-93.

Volume 1 Issue 1 July 2010

The Relationship between Teaching Transactional Analysis Theory and College Students’ Locus of Control: an Empirical Research

An investigation, through empirical research, of the relationship between education in Transactional Analysis theory and the Locus of Control of college students. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted before and after the Transactional Analysis classes, and personal narrative reports by the students were collected. It was found that psychology education in Transactional Analysis correlated with a reduction in scores for the External Control proclivity of the 81 students, and their assignments displayed similar proclivity. Transactional Analysis knowledge was shown to help students discover and explore their own potentials and liberate their creativity. It is proposed that an increase of transactional analysis theory in the education of college students should be considered.

Volume 2 Issue 1 January 2011

Studying Acculturation using Transactional Analysis Theory: the Interplay between Existential Positions and Acculturation Styles

This article is a partial report about quantitative research on the role of the Negative Existential Position in Authoritarian Personality formation (reported on elsewhere) and acculturation features among immigrants with authoritarian backgrounds in a democratic milieu (Germany). Data were collected among respondents of different backgrounds: immigrants in Germany from Turkey, the former Soviet Union and Western countries, and native Germans as a quasi-control group (N=1318), with each subsample encompassing at least 200 respondents. Various statistical analyses were performed in order to validate the empirical outcomes (from correlation analysis to structural equation modelling). The hypothesis that a Negative Existential Position is more articulated among individuals who were exposed to an authoritarian socialization was confirmed. The hypothesis that a Negative Existential Position serves as a predictor for the so called Acculturation Dysfunction was confirmed as well. The conceptual analogy between Existential Positions and Styles of Acculturation was examined and the hypothesis that four possible styles of acculturation (Berry et al., 1987, Berry & Kim, 1988; Berry et al., 1989) are correlated with correspondent Existential Position found support.

Volume 2 Issue 1 January 2011

Impact of Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy Training on Self Awareness and Ability for Contact

This research was a small scale quantitative study involving students undergoing Relational Transactional Analysis psychotherapy training at Metanoia Institute in London in the UK between September 2007 and July 2008. The researchers aimed to evaluate the impact of the training on students’ psychological health, using the ‘Autonomy Questionnaire’ (Beekum & Krijgsman, 2000). This allowed measurement of developments in students’ self awareness and ability for contact with others during their second year of training (first year of clinical practice) compared to students in their 4th and final year. The scope of the study and the findings are exploratory. The research raises questions for further research in the areas of psychotherapy training and supervision.

Volume 2 Issue 1 January 2011

Case Study Research Methodology

Commenting on the lack of case studies published in modern psychotherapy publications, the author reviews the strengths of case study methodology and responds to common criticisms, before providing a summary of types of case studies including clinical, experimental and naturalistic. Suggestions are included for developing systematic case studies and brief descriptions are given of a range of research resources relating to outcome and process measures. Examples of a pragmatic case study design and a hermeneutic single-case efficacy design are given and the paper concludes with some ethical considerations and an exhortation to the TA community to engage more widely in case study research.

Volume 2 Issue 2 July 2011

The Impact on Self Perception of Ego States of a Transactional Analysis Introductory Training Course (TA 101)

The research examines the effects of transactional analysis (TA) 101 training upon self perceptions of ego-state dynamics, using the model of ego states incorporated into the Adjective Check List (Gough & Heilbrun, 1980). Subjects completed the question-naires at the beginning and end of the training and one month later. The only statistically significant change was that Critical Parent decreased after the training and was still lowered one month later, although not as much. It was also found that gender was significant, but age was not.

Volume 2 Issue 2 July 2011

Transactional Analysis as Psychotherapy Method – A Discourse Analytic Study

Operational definitions of categorisations by McNeel (1975) were developed and applied by the author and an independent assessor to complete discourse analysis of 72 hours of transactional analysis group therapy in the style of Goulding & Goulding (1976, 1979) conducted during 1984/85. Results showed that the therapist used an average of 42% of the discourse space and that the therapy did indeed contain TA components, with the two main categories being ‘Feeling Contact’ and ‘Contracts’, and with particular use of TA techniques of ‘talking to Parent projections’, ‘make feeling statement’, ‘mutual negotiation’ and ‘specificity/clarity’. Inter-rater reliability was 46.2% (Araujo & Born 1985), Cohen’s (1960) kappa coefficient shows a spread from slight to moderate agreement, and the Odds Ratio (Viera, 2008) is above 1.0 for most categories.

Volume 2 Issue 2 July 2011

Client Assessment in Transactional Analysis – A Study of the Reliability and Validity of the Ohlsson, Björk and Johnsson Script Questionnaire

A script questionnaire and associated checklist developed by Ohlsson, Johnsson & Björk (1992) was used by the author and two professional colleagues to independently assess ten clients of a year-long transactional analysis therapy group conducted by the author. Ratings based on written responses at start of therapy were compared to ratings based on videotape interviews conducted by the author six years after termination of therapy. Moderately high inter-assessor reliability was found but intra-assessor reliability was low for the independent assessors; agreement increased for script components ‘primary injunction from father,’ ‘racket feeling’, ‘escape hatch’, ‘driver from father’ and ‘driver from mother’.

Volume 2 Issue 2 July 2011

Evaluating the Outcomes of Transactional Analysis and Integrative Counselling Psychology within UK Primary Care Settings

The paper reports on a naturalistic study that replicated the evaluative design associated with the UK National Health Service initiative IAPT − Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CSIP 2008, NHS 2011), as previously used to assess Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), with the aim of evaluating 12-session treatments for anxiety and depression, applying Transactional Analysis and Integrative Counselling Psychology approaches within real clinical settings in primary care. Standard outcome measures were used in line with the IAPT model (CORE 10 and 34, GAD-7, PHQ-9), supplemented with measurement of the working alliance (WAI Horvath 1986) and an additional depression inventory BDI-II (Beck, 1996), and adherence to the therapeutic model using newly designed questionnaires. Results indicated that severity of problems was reduced using either approach, comparative to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; that initial severity was predictive of outcome; and that working alliance increased as therapy progressed but was not directly related to outcomes. Adherence was high for both approaches. Several areas for enhancements to future research are suggested.

IJTAR Volume 3 Issue 1

TA Treatment of Depression - A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design Study - ‘Peter’

Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) is a systematic case study research method involving the cross-examination of mixed method data to generate both plausible arguments that the client changed due to therapy and alternative explanations. The present study uses HSCED to investigate the outcome of short-term TA psychotherapy with a young man with severe depression. The objective of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of short-term TA therapy for the treatment of depression and to explore and identify key aspects of the TA therapy process and associated factors promoting change amongst effective cases. To enhance rigour and to address potential for researcher allegiance, independent psychotherapy researchers have adjudicated the case and offer a verdict on outcome. The conclusion of the adjudicators is that the client changed considerably-substantially, and that these changes were substantially due to the effect of therapy.

The author provides detailed appendices to encourage others to replicate the research and add to the body of knowledge based on the HSCED process.

IJTAR Volume 3 Issue 2

TA Treatment of Depression - A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design Study - ‘Denise’

Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) is a systematic case study research method involving the cross-examination of mixed method data to generate both plausible arguments that the client changed due to therapy and alternative explanations. The present study uses HSCED to investigate the outcome of short-term TA psychotherapy with a woman with severe depression. The objective of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of short-term TA therapy for the treatment of depression and to explore and identify key aspects of the TA therapy process and associated factors promoting change amongst effective cases. To enhance rigour and to address potential for researcher allegiance, independent psychotherapy researchers have adjudicated the case and offer a verdict on outcome. The conclusion of the adjudicators is that the client changed substantially, and that these changes were substantially due to the effects of therapy.

Additional rigour was introduced into the HSCED approach for this 2nd case through the use of a more stringent classification of change, an increased reliable change index score, a higher standard of proof, the use of two teams to develop the affirmative and sceptic cases, and the addition of a third judge.

IJTAR Volume 3 Issue 2

TA Treatment of Depression - A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design Study - ‘Tom’

Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) is a systematic case study research method involving the cross-examination of mixed method data to generate both plausible arguments that the client changed due to therapy and alternative explanations. The present study uses HSCED to investigate the outcome of short-term TA psychotherapy with a man with moderate depression and comorbid social anxiety The objective of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of short-term TA therapy for the treatment of depression and to explore and identify key aspects of the TA therapy process and associated factors promoting change amongst effective cases. To enhance rigour and address potential for researcher allegiance, indep-endent psychotherapy researchers have adjudicated the case and offer a verdict on outcome. The majority verdict of two judges in this case was that this was a positive outcome case and that the client had changed substantially and that these changes were substantially due to the effects of therapy. The third judge’s conclusion was that this was a mixed outcome case, and that the client had changed considerably and that this had been considerably due to therapy.

This is the 3rd case reported on and additional rigour was introduced into the HSCED approach in the same way as reported in the accompanying paper about the 2nd case. (IJTAR 3:2, 3-14)

IJTAR Volume 3 Issue 2

The presence of injunctions in clinical and non-clinical populations

Various authors within the transactional analysis community have postulated that a person’s life script is formed on the basis of received injunctions, that people with mental disorders have more destructive and numerous injunctions and that people with depressive and paranoid pathology have different sets of injunctions, with Don’t belong being more common in paranoid disorders and Don’t be important in depressive disorders. This research was conducted to check such assertions, and used Script Injunctions Scale (Gavrilov-Jerković et al., 2010) applied to a convenience sample of 100 adult subjects identified as non-clinical via interviews and 100 adult subjects, equally divided between paranoid and depressive, identified by psychiatrist classification based on ICD-10 criteria. The results provide partially expected validation, with statistically significant difference between the non-clinical and clinical part of the sample. The clinical group had statistically significantly higher scores on the 12 injunctions studied. Subjects with depressive characteristics had seven Injunctions which were more pronounced Don’t feel, Don’t exist, Don’t be well, Don’t be a child, Don’t, Don’t think, and Don’t be close Injunctions.