Dimensions of therapeutic skills and techniques: Empirical identification, therapist correlates, and predictive utility.

Administered a 99-item questionnaire to 319 practicing psychotherapists (mean age 43.9 yrs) from 3 professional associations to assess their use of therapeutic techniques and skills as related to the variables of orientation, experience, sex, and personal psychotherapy. The predictive utility of reported interventions in classifying psychotherapists according to orientation was also examined. Principal component analyses yielded 13 scales. Reported therapy interventions varied as a function of the therapist's orientation and, to a lesser extent, as a function of experience, sex, and personal therapy. Eclectics had either the highest or 2nd-highest mean scores on each of the 13 scales, indicating a varied therapeutic arsenal. Across therapist variables, relationship-enhancing behaviors were reportedly most frequently used; flooding and frustration procedures least frequently used. On the basis of 11 scale scores, 90% of behavior therapists and 88% of psychodynamic therapists were correctly classified, but fewer than half of the eclectics were correctly classified. (62 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)