Improvement in Psychotherapy and Adoption of the Therapist's Meaning System

Abstract

Twelve most improved and 8 least improved clients were used in testing the hypothesis that improvement in therapy is contingent upon the adoption by the client of the personal meaning system of his therapist. The hypothesis was rejected. There was a trend indicating that the most improved client tends to increase in his preference for his own frame of reference, that he tends to become more himself rather than an echo of his therapist. The least improved client tends to internalize the therapist's frame of reference. These conclusions are highly tentative, but suggest the importance of differentiating between “frames of reference” and “specific attitudes” and considering introjection in relationship to different therapeutic approaches.

Measures of Cognitive Complexity and Its Development in Chinese Adolescents

“…Moreover, many researchers (e.g., Stanovich & West, 2000) thought cognitive complexity is closely related to general cognitive abilities (e.g., general intelligence). Several studies (Chen & Zhang, 2007;Nawas & Landfiled, 1963) have found positive correlations between academic achievement and cognitive complexity in adults using an instrument similar to the Repgrid. However, no research has been done yet on the relationship between cognitive complexity systematically measured by the Repgrid or the RCQ and academic achievement in adolescents, especially in Chinese adolescents.…”

Values and Psychotherapy: A Review of the Literature

“…Nevertheless, this was the first empirical demonstration of the effects of values in the psychotherapeutic process. Farson ( 1961), Holzman (1961), and Nawas and Landfield (1963) reported findings which were at least partially inconsistent with the phenomenon noted by Rosenthal and by Parloff, et al Farson ( 1961) found Rosenthal's results to be true only when less adjusted and less competent clinicians served as therapists. Schrier reported that improvement was related to the extent to which the patient developed identification with the therapist's need system.…”

“…In fact, with inpatients the most improved patients became more different from their therapist in their values. Nawas and Landfield (1963) used G. A. Rosenthal's (1955) pacients were all diagnosed as neurotic and 75% of them were inpatients.…”

The Role of Cognitive Process in Social Interaction

“…For example, incompatibility of cognitive structure could account for the failure of patients, therapists, and observers to agree about the outcome and nature of the therapy relationship (14,8). Nawas and Landfield (12) hypothesized that most improved patients would show a significant increase from pre to post-therapy in the number of conceptual dimensions borrowed from the therapist, whereas least improved patients should show a decrease. However, the results of their study pointed in the opposite direction, i.e., that improved patients showed a decrease in the number of constructs borrowed from the therapist.…”