Objective: The aim of this study was to test a new observerrated instrument, the Alliance and Rupture Observation Scale (AROS). It was designed for repeated measurements of the alliance within sessions and to detect alliance ruptures.Method: Videotaped therapy sessions with depressed adults were analyzed. Reliability was mainly assessed as inter-rater reliability. Convergent, predictive, and discriminant validity of the AROS was assessed by comparing the instrument with both observer-rated and patient-rated measures.Results: The AROS exhibited excellent inter-rater reliability.
Alliance levels measured with the AROS predicted patients'ratings of the alliance in the same session and were highly correlated with another observer-rated alliance measure. Alliance patterns (rupture; repair; and no-rupture) based on AROS scores were significantly correlated with patients' ratings of the alliance.Conclusions: Preliminary support for convergent and predictive validity was found. It is yet to be determined whether AROS scores are related to psychotherapy outcomes. K E Y W O R D S alliance ruptures and repairs, measurement, observer-based alliance measure, psychotherapy process, test development, therapeutic alliance, therapeutic relationship J. Clin. Psychol. 2019;75:404-417. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jclp 404 |