Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

It is now a widely held belief that psychotherapy is effective. In fact, teasing out the exact components is a difficult task. Recent research indicates that therapist characteristics are highly correlated with the ability to form a beneficial working alliance; however, understanding the exact nature of these characteristics is under-studied. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop an empirical instrument that identifies and measures therapist characteristics related to the formation of a beneficial working alliance. Developing a more thorough understanding of the characteristics is critical since the relationship has been shown to be a robust predictor of clinical outcomes. To this author's knowledge, no such instrument has been developed for trainees. Initial findings of this study indicate there are specific characteristics related to the formation of a working alliance. These characteristics can be taught during training to enhance trainees' clinical skill development related to forming a working alliance. A principal axis factoring (PAF) was used to analyze the characteristics, which were supported by research and expert opinion. The characteristics loaded on 2 distinct factors. Factor 1, named Belief in Working Alliance and Interpersonal awareness, yielded 23 specific items with a Cronbach's alpha of .95. Factor 2, named Non-verbal Awareness and Cognitive Flexibility, yielded 10 items with a Cronbach's alpha of .87. Initial findings yielded specific characteristics related to the development of a therapeutic relationship. Further studies are needed to address various validity and reliability issues.

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