Abstract
This chapter highlights the potential and variety of qualitative methods that can be applied to counselling and psychotherapy outcome research. The chapter’s main focus is on outlining the various forms of qualitative data collection methods that are available to researchers. This is followed by an overview of the various qualitative analysis methods that can be utilised for interpreting the data. Finally, the limitations of qualitative outcome research are discussed, including a number of approaches evaluating the credibility of such research.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander R (1995) Folie A Deux: an experience of one-to-one therapy. Free Association Books, London
Allport GW (1942) The use of personal documents in psychological science. Social Science Research Council, New York, NY
Anastasi A (1988) Psychological testing, 6th edn. Macmillan, New York, NY
Barker C, Pistrang N, Elliott R (2002) Research methods in clinical psychology: an introduction for students and practitioners, 2nd edn. John Wiley, Chichester
Barkham M, Rees A, Stiles WB, Shapiro DA, Hardy GE, Reynolds S (1996) Dose-effect relations in time-limited psychotherapy for depression. J Consult Clin Psychol 64:927–935. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.64.5.927
Bassman R (2000) Agents, not objects: our fights to be. J Clin Psychol 56(11):1395–1411. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(200011)56:11<1395::AID-JCLP3>3.0.CO;2-W
Bassman R (2001) Whose reality is it anyway? Consumers/survivors/ex-patients can speak for themselves. J Humanistic Psychol 41(4):11–35. doi:10.1177/0022167801414002
Begley A, Lewis A (1998) Methodological issues in the assessment of the self-concept of children with down syndrome. Child Psychol Psychiatry Rev 3(1):33–40. doi:10.1017/S1360641797001457
Bende B, Crossley D (2000) Psychotherapy patients’ views of treatment: on learning from the patient. Psychiatr Bull 24:453–456. doi:10.1192/pb.24.12.453
Bolger N, Davis A, Rafaeli E (2003) Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived. Annu Rev Psychol 54:579–616. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145030
Boulton-Lewis GM (1995) The SOLO taxonomy as a means of shaping and assessing learning in higher education. Higher Educ Res Dev 14(2):143–154. doi:10.1080/0729436950140201
Brott PE (2004) Constructivist assessment in career counseling. J Career Dev 30(3):189–200. doi:10.1023/B:JOCD.0000015539.21158.53
Buck J (1949) The H-T-P technique. J Clin Psychol 5:37–74. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(194901)5:1<37::AID-JCLP2270050104>3.0.CO;2-9
Burnett PC (1999) Assessing the structure of learning outcomes from counselling using the SOLO taxonomy: an exploratory study. Br J Guid Counsel 27(4):567–580. doi:10.1080/03069889908256291
Burnett PC, Meacham D (2002) Learning journals as a counselling strategy. J Counsel Dev 80(4):410–415. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2002.tb00207.x
Burnett PC, Van Dorssen L (2000) What do clients learn from counseling? Int J Adv Counsel 22(3):171–254. doi:10.1023/A:1005611704610
Deacon SA (2000) Creativity within qualitative research on families: new ideas for old methods. Qual Rep 4(3&4), available from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/
Deacon SA, Piercy FP (2001) Qualitative methods in family evaluation: creative assessment techniques. Am J Fam Therapy 29(5):355–373. doi:10.1080/01926180127627
Dees SM, Dansereau DF, Simpson DD (1994) A visual representation system for drug abuse counselors. J Subst Abus Treat 11(6):517–523. doi:10.1016/0740-5472(94)90003-5
Dreier O (2008) Psychotherapy in everyday life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Elliott R (1991) Five dimensions of therapy process. Psychother Res 1:92–103. doi:10.1080/10503309112331335521
Elliott R (1999) Client change interview protocol. http://www.experiential-researchers.org/instruments/elliott/changei.html. Accessed 8 Sep 2014
Elliott R (2002a) Hermeneutic single case efficacy design. Psychother Res 12(1):1–21. doi:10.1080/713869614
Elliott R (2002b) Render unto Caesar: quantitative and qualitative knowing in person-centered/experiential therapy research. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy 1:102–117. doi:10.1080/14779757.2002.9688281
Elliott R (2006) Decoding insight talk: discourse analyses of insight in ordinary language and in psychotherapy. In: Castonguay LG, Hill CE (eds) Insight in psychotherapy. APA, Washington, DC, pp 167–185
Elliott R, Rodgers B (2008) Client change interview schedule (v5). http://www.drbrianrodgers.com/research/client-change-interview. Accessed 8 Sep 2014
Elliott R, James E, Reimschuessel C, Cislo D, Sack N (1985) Significant events and the analysis of immediate therapeutic impacts. Psychotherapy 22:620–630. doi:10.1037/h0085548
Elliott R, Partyka R, Wagner J, Alperin R, Dobrenski R, Messer SB et al (2009) An adjudicated hermeneutic single-case efficacy design of experiential therapy for panic/phobia. Psychother Res 19:543–557. doi:10.1080/10503300902905947
Etherington K (2005) Researching trauma, the body and transformation: a situated account of creating safety in unsafe places. Br J Guid Counsel 33(2):299–313. doi:10.1080/03069880500179400
Fischer CT (1994) Individualizing psychological assessment, vol 1. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ
Fischer CT (2000) Collaborative, individualized assessment. J Pers Assess 74(1):2–14. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA740102
Fischer CT (2006) Qualitative psychological research and individualized/collaborative psychological assessment: implications of their similarities for promoting a life-world orientation. Hum Psychol 34(4):347–356. doi:10.1207/s15473333thp3404_4
Flitton B, Buckroyd J (2002) Exploring the effects of a 14 week person-centred counselling intervention with learning disabled children. Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties 7(3):164–177. doi:10.1080/13632750200507014
Foster K, McAllister M, O’Brien L (2006) Extending the boundaries: autoethnography as an emergent method in mental health nursing research. Int J Ment Health Nurs 15:44–53. doi:10.1111/j.1447-0349.2006.00402.x
Gantt L (1998) Talk, talk, talk, when do we draw? Research. Am J Art Ther 37(2):57–65
Gantt L, Tabone C (2003) The formal elements art therapy scale and “draw a person picking an apple from a tree”. In: Malchiodi CA (ed) Handbook of art therapy. Guildford, New York, NY, p 420
Guenette F, Marshall A (2009) Time line drawings: enhancing participant voice in narrative interviews on sensitive topics. Int J Qual Methods 8(1):85–92
Hampl S (2008) Film and video interpretation with the documentary method. Paper presented at the 7th international conference on social science methodology, Naples, Italy
Hardtke K, Angus L (2004) The narrative assessment interview: assessing self-change in psychotherapy. In: Angus LE, McLeod J (eds) The handbook of narrative and psychotherapy: practice, theory, and research. Sage, London, pp 247–262
Harley JB, Woodward D (1987) The history of cartography, vol 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
Hartman A (1995) Diagrammatic assessment of family relationships. Fam Soc 76(2):111–122
Haw K (2008) ‘Voice’ and video: seen, heard and listened to? In: Thomson P (ed) Doing visual research with children and young people. Routledge, London, pp 95–112
Hill CE, Thompson BJ, Williams EN (1997) A guide to conducting consensual qualitative research. Counsel Psychol 25:517–572. doi:10.1177/0011000097254001
Howe D (1989) The consumer’s view of family therapy. Gower, Aldershot
Howe D (1996) Client experiences of counselling and treatment interventions: a qualitative study of family views of family therapy. Br J Guid Counsel 24(3):367–375. doi:10.1080/03069889608253021
Kaplan I (2008) Being ‘seen’ being ‘heard’: engaging with student on the margins of education through participatory photography. In: Thomson P (ed) Doing visual research with children and young people. Routledge, London, pp 95–112
Klein MJ, Elliott R (2006) Client accounts of personal change in process-experiential psychotherapy: a methodolofically pluralistic approach. Psychother Res 16(1):91–105. doi:10.1080/1050330050009099
Knoblauch H, Baer A, Laurier E, Petschke S, Schnettler B (2008) Visual analysis. New developments in the interpretative analysis of video and photography. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 9(3), doi:10.1167/8.16.10
Korotitsch WJ, Nelson-Gray RO (1999) An overview of self-monitoring research in assessment and treatment. Psychol Assess 11(4):415–425. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.11.4.415
Krippendorff K (2003) Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Kvale S (1996) Interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Levitt HM, Stanley CM, Frankel Z, Raina K (2005) An evaluation of outcome measures used in humanistic psychotherapy research: using thermometers to weigh oranges. Hum Psychol 33(2):113–130. doi:10.1207/s15473333thp3302_3
Mackrill T (2007) Using a cross-contextual qualitative diary design to explore client experiences of psychotherapy. Counsel Psychother Res 7(4):233–239. doi:10.1080/14733140701722455
Mackrill T (2008) Solicited diary studies of psychotherapy in qualitative research – pros and cons. Eur J Psychother Counsel 10(1):5–18. doi:10.1080/13642530701869243
McIlveen P (2008) Autoethnography as a method for reflexive research and practice in vocational psychology. Aust J Career Dev 17(2):13–20. doi:10.1177/103841620801700204
McKenna PA, Todd DM (1997) Longitudinal utilization of mental health services: a timeline method, nine retrospective accounts, and a preliminary conceptualization. Psychother Res 7(4):383–395. doi:10.1080/10503309712331332093
McLeod J (1999) Practitioner research in counselling. Sage, London
McLeod J (2000a) The contribution of qualitative research to evidence-based counselling and psychotherapy. In: Rowland N, Goss S (eds) Evidence-based counselling and psychological therapies: research and applications. Routledge, London
McLeod J (2000b) Qualitative outcome research in psychotherapy: issues and methods. In: Society for psychotherapy research annual conference, Chicago
McLeod J (2001a) An administratively created reality: some problems with the use of self-report questionnaire measures of adjustment in counselling/psychotherapy outcome research. Counsel Psychother Res 1(3):215–226. doi:10.1080/14733140112331385100
McLeod J (2001b) Developing a research tradition consistent with the practices and values of counselling and psychotherapy: why counselling and psychotherapy research is necessary. Counsel Psychother Res 1(1):3–11. doi:10.1080/14733140112331385188
McLeod J (2001c) Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy. Sage, London
McLeod J (2010) Case study research in counselling and psychotherapy. Sage, London
Murray CD, Sixsmith J (2002) Qualitative health research via the internet: practical and methodological issues. Health Inform J 8(47):47–53. doi:10.1177/146045820200800109
Oster GD, Gould Crone P (2004) Using drawings in assessment and therapy, 2nd edn. Brunner-Routledge, New York, NY
Patton MQ (1997) Utilization-focused evaluation: the new century text. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Peavy RV (1997) Sociodynamic counselling: a constructivist perspective. Trafford, Victoria, BC
Peavy RV (1999) An essay on cultural tools and the sociodynamic perspective for counselling. http://www.sociodynamic-constructivist-counselling.com/archives/1990s/an_essay_on_cultural_tools.pdf. Accessed 8 Sep 2014
Peavy RV (2004) Sociodynamic counselling: a practical approach to meaning making. Taos Institute, Chargrin Falls, OH
Przyborski A, Slunecko T (2012) Learning to think iconically in the human and social sciences: iconic standards of understanding as a pivotal challenge for method development. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 46(1):39–56. doi:10.1007/s12124-011-9159-6
Rodgers B (2002) An investigation into the client at the heart of therapy. Counsel Psychother Res 2(3):185–193. doi:10.1080/14733140212331384815
Rodgers B (2003) An exploration into the client at the heart of therapy: a qualitative perspective. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies 2(21):19–30. doi:10.1080/14779757.2003.9688290
Rodgers B (2010) Life space mapping: developing a visual method for investigating the outcomes of counselling and psychotherapy from the client’s frame of reference. University of Abertay, Dundee
Sands A (2000) Falling for therapy: psychotherapy from a client’s point of view. Macmillan, London
Schmitz B, Wiese BS (2006) New perspectives for the evaluation of training sessions in self regulated learning: time-series analyses of diary data. Contemp Educ Psychol 31:64–96. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2005.02.002
Scott-Hoy K (2002) The visitor: juggling life in the grip of the text. In: Bochner AP, Ellis C (eds) Ethnographically speaking: autoethnography, literature, and aesthetics. AltaMira, Oxford, pp 274–294
Semeonoff B (1976) Projective techniques. John Wiley, London
Shiffman S, Stone AA, Hufford MR (2008) Ecological momentary assessment. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 4:1–32. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091415
Slife BD (2004) Theoretical challenges to therapy practice and research: the constraint of naturalism. In: Lambert MJ (ed) Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change, 5th edn. John Wiley, New York, NY, pp 44–83
Smith JA, Flowers P, Larkin M (2009) Interpretative phenomenological analysis: theory, method and research. Sage, London
Sparkes AC (2000) Autoethnography and narratives of self: reflections on criteria in action. Sociol Sport J 17(1):21–43
Sperry RW (1973) Lateral specialization of cerebral function in the surgically separated hemispheres. In: McGuigan FJ, Schoonover RA (eds) The psychophysiology of thinking. Studies of covert processes. Academic, New York, NY
Stephen S, Elliott R, Macleod R (2011) Person-centred therapy with a client experiencing social anxiety difficulties: a hermeneutic single case efficacy design. Counsel Psychother Res 11(1):55–66. doi:10.1080/14733145.2011.546203
Stone AA, Shiffman S (1994) Ecological momentary assessment in behavioral medicine. Ann Behav Med 16:199–202
Strauss AL, Corbin J (1998) Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 2nd edn. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Tenney LJ (2000) It has to be about choice. J Clin Psychol 56(11):1433–1445. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(200011)56:11<1433::AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-5
Timulak L, Creaner M (65) Qualitative meta-analysis of outcomes of person-centred-experiential psychotherapies. In: Cooper M, Watson JC, Hölldampf D (eds) Person-centred and experiential therapies work: a review of the research on counseling, psychotherapy and related practices. PCCS Books, Ross-on-Wye, pp 65–90
Tracy EM, Whittaker JK (1990) The social network map: assessing social support in clinical practice. Fam Soc 71:461–470
Tracz SM, Gehart-Brooks DR (1999) The lifeline: using art to illustrate history. J Fam Psychother 10(3):61–63. doi:10.1300/J085v10n03_05
Traynor W, Elliott R, Cooper M (2011) Helpful factors and outcomes in person-centered therapy with clients who experience psychotic processes: therapists’ perspectives. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies 10(2):89–104. doi:10.1080/14779757.2011.576557
Wheeler L, Reis HT (1991) Self-recording of everyday life events: origins, types, and uses. J Pers 59(3):339–354. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1991.tb00252.x
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer-Verlag Wien
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rodgers, B., Elliott, R. (2015). Qualitative Methods in Psychotherapy Outcome Research. In: Gelo, O., Pritz, A., Rieken, B. (eds) Psychotherapy Research. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1382-0_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1382-0_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-7091-1381-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-1382-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)