Linguistic measures of the referential process in psychodynamic treatment: The English and Italian versions

Abstract

The referential process is defined in the context of Bucci's multiple code theory as the process by which nonverbal experience is connected to language. The English computerized measures of the referential process, which have been applied in psychotherapy research, include the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), and measures of Reflection, Affect and Disfluency. This paper presents the development of the Italian version of the IWRAD by modeling Italian texts scored by judges, and shows the application of the IWRAD and other Italian measures in three psychodynamic treatments evaluated for personality change using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). Clinical predictions based on applications of the English measures were supported.

El proceso referencial se define en el marco de la teoría de Bucci de códigos múltiples como el proceso por el cual la experiencia no verbal se conecta con el lenguaje. Las mediciones computarizadas en inglés del proceso referencial, que han sido utilizadas para investigación en psicoterapia, incluyen el diccionario de Actividad Referencial Ponderada (IWRAD) y medidas de Reflexión, Afecto y Disfluencia. Este trabajo presenta la versión italiana del WRAD modelando textos en italiano que son evaluados por jueces y muestra la aplicación del IWRAD y otras medidas diseñadas en Italia en tres tratamientos psicoterapéuticos que buscaron cambios en la estructura de personalidad usando el procedimiento de evaluación de Sheder-Western (SWAP-200). Las predicciones clínicas que pudieron realizarse en base a la versión en inglés fueron sustentadas por esta nueva versión del instrumento.

Der Referenzprozess ist im Kontext von Buccis Multiple Code Theory als Prozess definiert, durch welchen nonverbale Erfahrungen in Verbindung zu Sprache stehen. Die computerisierten englischen Messungen des Referenzprozesses, welche in der Psychotherapieforschung genutzt werden, beinhalten das Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD) und Messungen von Reflektion, Affekt und Sprachfluss1. Dieser Artikel präsentiert die Entwicklung der italienischen Version des IWARD durch die Modellierung von italienischen Texten, welche durch Beurteiler bewertet wurden und die Anwendung des IWARD und anderer italienischer Messinstrumente in drei psychodynamischen Verfahren zur Persönlichkeitsveränderung, welche die Shedler-Westen Assessment Prozedur (SWAP-200) nutzen. Klinische Vorhersagen, welche auf der Anwendung der englischen Messinstrumente beruhen, konnten bestätigt werden.

¹Engl. Disfluency

Il processo referenziale è definito nell'ambito della teoria del codice multiplo della Bucci come il processo attraverso il quale l'esperienza non verbale è collegata al linguaggio. Le misure computerizzate inglesi del processo referenziale, che sono state applicate nella ricerca in psicoterapia, includono il Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), e le misure di Riflessione, Affetto e Non scorrevolezza. Questo articolo presenta lo sviluppo della versione italiana dell'IWRAD a partire dal lavoro su testi italiani valutati da giudici, e mostra l'applicazione dell'IWRAD e di altre misure italiane in tre trattamenti psicodinamici valutati in funzione del cambiamento di personalità usando la Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). Sono state supportate le previsioni cliniche basate sull'applicazione delle misure inglesi.

Keywords:

• process research
• psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy
• outcome research

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers for their thorough reading and many helpful comments on previous versions of this paper.

Notes

¹Engl. Disfluency

1. This is CRA-2 in Mergenthaler and Bucci (1999).

2. Bucci and Maskit (2006) report the dictionary weights as lying between -1 and +1. For purposes of clarity, the WRAD values, and all results derived from them, are linearly rescaled so as to lie between 0 and 1; this rescaling has no effect on correlations or other statistical computations.

3. Unless specifically stated otherwise, we use Pearson correlations throughout this paper.

4. This study used several different sets of judges; in all cases, in both Italian and English, the three judges achieved reliability of at least alpha=.80 for the overall RA measure used here, which is an average of the four scales.

5. One person had data from two psychotherapy sessions; one of these was used to make the dictionary and the other was used to test the dictionary.

6. The DAAP system in either English or Italian, including the dictionaries, can be made available for scientific purposes by contacting [email protected]; see also www.thereferentialprocess.org.

7. Session numbers do not meet the criterion of normal distribution required for the Pearson correlation coefficient probability estimates.

8. Both the RA and IWRAD scores, averaged by participant, follow a pattern that approximates a normal distribution.

9. T scores for all clinically significant features are shown in Table III; T scores close to but not at clinically significant levels are shown in parentheses.

10. Excerpts from sessions were translated from the Italian.