| Abstract: | Examined the agreement among 3 sources (patients, therapists, and independent judges) in their evaluation of psychotherapeutic improvement for 25 outpatients in group psychotherapy. Sources used a "target problem" approach that involved constructing an ideographic problem list for each patient before entering therapy. After 8 and 12 mo of therapy, they rated improvement on each of the individualized problems. Sources did not generally agree either on the content of Ss' problems or on Ss' improvement, even when assessment of agreement was limited to specific problem areas. Furthermore, mean target problem improvement ratings were highly correlated with simple global ratings made by each source, suggesting that the elaborate problem identification procedure was unnecessary. These findings, typical for psychotherapy outcome research, suggest psychometric weaknesses in ideographic assessment approaches that have been gaining popularity. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
