Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) or Stimulated Recall Interview (SRI) as a method and show its usage in investigating systemic couple therapy processes in two international research projects. IPR/SRI has been designed as a process-focused interview method for training and supervision, expanded into clinical, especially psychotherapy process research: patients and/or therapists watch video (segments) of the therapeutic situation and comment on their experiences during the session. The aim of the presented analysis is to study the mutual dynamic between the couple therapists’ references to their professional practices and to their personal experiences during the interview. To achieve this aim, we employed two methodological approaches: dialogical analysis to investigate the distinction between the therapist’s professional and personal selves, and the narrative storytelling approach in order to describe the therapist’s positioning in terms of his or her discursive identities being displayed in the IPR/SR interview. We discuss the results in three aspects, describing (1) the therapists’ discursive practices of presenting their professional and personal identities; (2) the shifting of their attention between the video episode from the session and displaying their mental state in relation to it; and (3) the thinking aloud phenomena as enhancing the insight into psychotherapeutic processes. We conclude with methodological reflections.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, we will use the terms Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) and Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRI) in a synonymic way and often together as IPR/SRI. This reflects the two backgrounds of the authors: while research project 1 (see below) operates with the term IPR, research project 2 uses SRI.
- 2.
We use the term to re-act when the teller refers to himself as being an actor in the story he is telling. Re-enactment is used with a different meaning in systemic therapy as well as acting-out in psychoanalytic therapy.
- 3.
Traditionally, in psychotherapy the supervision is considered as the professional meeting where the earlier psychotherapeutic session(s) are discussed and reflected upon.
- 4.
The project was approved by the bioethics committee of the Jagiellonian University Medical College: KBET/273/B/2011.
- 5.
By now, results are published as follows: Janusz et al. (2018) show that gender assumptions held unchallenged by a therapist can create difficulty in introducing circular thinking, in terms of the therapist’s inner conversation and the conversation during the session. Bryniarska, Tomasiewicz, Janusz, and Józefik (2019) illustrate that therapists’ biographical experiential voices evoked in IPR tend to deepen reflection on the therapeutic process. Janusz, Matusiak, and Peräkylä (2021) show the emergence of the therapist’s asymmetry of affiliation with both spouses.
- 6.
The research programme The Relational Mind is the first to look at dialogue in terms of both the outer and the inner dialogues of participants (clients and therapists), observed in parallel with Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) measurements. Funded by the Academy of Finland (Principal Investigator: Jaakko Seikkula) the project collaborates with Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, Germany; Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Greece and University Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain. The German part was approved by the bioethics committee of the Medical College of the University of Jena, Germany: 3953-12/13.
- 7.
- 8.
During the Reflecting Team (Andersen 1991), the co-therapists turn to each other and reflect openly in front of the clients about the session.
- 9.
Extract 1 is translated from the Polish language, Extract 2 from the German language; transcription followed transcription rules; I = Interviewer, T = therapist; words in round brackets () signalize that the talk is hard to understand and an assumption; text in square brackets [] gives indication of meaning by the authors, > text in arrows < indicate non-verbal behaviour, (.) short pause, (2) length of pause in seconds.
- 10.
Neutrality was initially understood as a particular attitude of the therapist manifested by temporal shifts of alliances between the therapist and each participant (Selvini-Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, & Prata, 1980), maintenance of neutrality in respect of the therapist’s own belief and value systems (Tomm, 1984), and a particular therapeutic outcome (Brown, 2010). According to the Milan school (Selvini-Palazzoli et al., 1980), neutrality is one of the three central tenets of conducting family therapy sessions, the others being the testing of hypotheses, and circularity. In order to achieve the position of neutrality the therapist constantly forms hypotheses by which to understand the behaviour of a problematic client in a non-judgemental, relational way.
- 11.
In the first research design (see extract 1), the interviewer was more active, commenting the investigated segment herself/himself. In the second one (see extract 2), the role of the interviewer was more standardized asking questions about the cognitions and emotions during the session.
- 12.
Expresses spontaneous feeling or reaction, here used as a hesitation marker.
- 13.
The main concerns in presenting translations in scientific publications usually involve the level of transcription detail and the way the translations are physically present in the text (Nikander, 2008). We decided not to present the original transcripts due to the space in the chapter related to its double focus: presenting the IPR/SRI as a tool as well as presenting results. In order to make the translation transparent to the reader, we have needed to insert three lines: original talk, word-by-word translation in the next line (to give the reader information about structural details of the speech), and idiomatic English translation in the third line.
References
Andersen, T. (1991). The reflecting team: Dialogues and dialogues about the dialogues. New York, NY: W W. Norton & Co.
Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Edited and trans. by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Bamberg, M. (1997). Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7, 335–342.
Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text and Talk, 28(3), 377–396.
Bamberg, M., & Zielke, B. (2007). From dialogical practices to polyphonic thought? Developmental inquiry and where to look for it. International Journal for Dialogical Science, 2(1), 223–242.
Bloom, B. S. (1954). The thought process of students in discussion. In S. J. French (Ed.), Accent on teaching: Experiments in general education (pp. 23–46). New York: Harper & Brothers.
Borcsa, M., & Rober, P. (Eds.). (2016). Research Perspectives in Couple Therapy. Discursive Qualitative Methods. Cham, CH: Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23306-2.
Borchers, P., Seikkula, J., & Lehtinen, K. (2013). Psychiatrists’ inner dialogues concerning workmates during need adapted treatment of psychosis. Psychosis, 5(1), 60–70.
Breuer, F. (1991). Analyse beraterisch-therapeutischer Tätigkeit. Methoden zur Untersuchung individueller Handlungssysteme klinisch-psychologischer Praktiker (Arbeiten zur sozialwissenschaftlichen Psychologie 22). Münster: Aschendorff Verlag.
Breuer, F. (1995). Das Selbstkonfrontations-Interview als Forschungsmethode. In E. König & P. Zedler (Eds.), Bilanz qualitativer Forschung. Bd. II: Methoden (pp. 159–180). Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
Brown, J. M. (2010). The Milan principles of hypothesising, circularity and neutrality in dialogical family therapy: Extinction, evolution, eviction … or emergence. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 31(3), 248–265.
Bryniarska, A., Tomasiewicz, A. K., Janusz, B., & Józefik, B. (2019). Personal therapist’s voices in the systemic first consultations. Psychoterapia, 4(191), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.12740/PT/115041.
Cegala, D. J., McNeilis, K. S., & Socha McGee, D. (1995). A study of doctor’s and patients’ perceptions of information processing and communication competence during the medical interview. Health Communication, 7, 179–203. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327027hc0703_1.
Consuegra, E., Engels, N., & Willegems, V. (2016). Using video-stimulated recall to investigate teacher awareness of explicit and implicit gendered thoughts on classroom interactions. Teachers and Teaching, 22(6), 683–699.
Coupland, N. (2007). Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63.
Deppermann, A. (2015). Positioning. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The handbook of narrative analysis (pp. 369–387). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Elliott, R. (1984). A discovery-oriented approach to significant events in psychotherapy: Interpersonal Process Recall and comprehensive process analysis. In L. Rice & L. Greenberg (Eds.), Patterns of change (pp. 249–286). New York: Guilford Press.
Elliott, R. (1986). Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) as a psychotherapy process research method. In L. S. Greenberg & W. M. Pinsof (Eds.), The psychotherapeutic process: A research handbook (pp. 503–527). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Elliott, R., & Shapiro, D. A. (1988). Brief structured recall: A more efficient method for studying significant therapy events. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 61(2), 141–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1988.tb02773.x.
Elliott, R., & Shapiro, D. A. (1992). Client and therapist as analysts of significant events. In S. G. Toukmanian & D. L. Rennie (Eds.), Sage focus editions, Vol. 143. Psychotherapy process research: Paradigmatic and narrative approaches (pp. 163–186). London: Sage.
Freshwater D., & Rolfe, G. (2001). Critical reflexivity: A politically and ethically engaged research method for nursing. NT Research, 6(1), 526–537. https://doi.org/10.1177/136140960100600109.
Gale, J. (1992). When research interviews are more therapeutic than therapy interviews. The Qualitative Report, Volume 1, Number 4, Fall, 1992 (http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR1-4/gale.html).
Gale, J., Odell, M., & Nagireddy, C. S. (1995). Marital therapy and self-reflexive research: Research and/as intervention. In G. H. Morris & R. J. Chenail (Eds.), The talk of the clinic: Explorations in the analysis of medical and therapeutic discourse (pp. 105–129). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gass, S. M., & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gergen, K. (2009). Relational being: Beyond self and community. New York: Oxford University Press.
Goodwin, C. (1986). Between and within: Alternative sequential treatments of continuers and assessments. Human Studies, 9(2–3), 205–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00148127.
Goodwin, M. H. (1997). Byplay: Negotiating evaluation in storytelling. In G. R. Guy, C. Feagin, D. Schiffrin, & J. Baugh (Eds.), Towards a social science of language (Vol. 2, pp. 77–102). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.128.08goo.
Harré, R., Moghaddam, F. M., Cairnie, T. P., Rothbart, D., & Sabat, S. R. (2009). Recent advances in positioning theory. Theory & Psychology, 19(1), 5–31.
Henretty, J., Levitt, H., & Mathews, S. (2008). Clients’ experiences of moments of sadness in psychotherapy: A grounded theory analysis. Psychotherapy Research, 18, 243–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503300701765831.
Hermans, H. J. M. (2001). The dialogical self: Toward a theory of personal and cultural positioning. Culture & Psychology, 7, 243–281.
Hermans, H. J. M. (2006). The self as a theater of voices: Disorganization and reorganization of a position repertoire. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 19, 147–169.
Hermans, H. J. M., & Dimaggio, G. (2007). Self, identity, and globalization in times of uncertainty: A dialogical analysis. Review of General Psychology, 11(1), 31–61; 1983, p. 22.
Janusz, B., Jozefik, B., & Peräkylä, A. (2018). Gender-related issues in couple therapists’ internal voices and interactional practices. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT), 39(4), 436–449. https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1331.
Janusz, B., Matusiak, F., & Peräkylä, A. (2021). How couple therapists manage asymmetries of interaction in first consultations. Psychotherapy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000348.
Kagan, N. I. (1980). Influencing human interaction: Eighteen years with IPR. In A. K. Hess (Ed.), Psychotherapy supervision: Theory research and practice (pp. 262–283). New York: Wiley.
Kagan, N. I., Krathwohl, D. R., & Farquhar, W. W. (1965). IPR–interpersonal process recall: Stimulated recall by videotape in exploratory studies of counseling and teaching-learning. East Lansing: Michigan State University.
Karvonen, A., Kykyri, V.-L., Kaartinen, J., Penttonen, M., & Seikkula, J. (2016). Sympathetic nervous system synchrony in couple therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 42(3), 383–395.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. (1982). Speech actions and reactions in personal narrative. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Analyzing discourse: Text and talk (pp. 219–247). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experiences. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
Laitila, A., & Oranen, M. (2013). Focused dialogues in training contexts: A model for enhancing reflection in therapist’s professional practice. Contemporary Family Therapy, 35(3), 599–612.
Larsen, D., Flesaker, K., & Stege, R. (2008). Qualitative interviewing using Interpersonal Process Recall: Investigating internal experiences during professional-client conversations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(1), 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690800700102.
Lucius-Hoene, G., & Deppermann, A. (2000). Narrative identity empiricized: A dialogical and positioning approach to autobiographical research interviews. Narrative Inquiry, 10(1), 199–222.
Lucius‐Hoene, G., & Deppermann. A. (2004a). Narrative Identität und Positionierung. Gesprächsforschung, 5, 166–183.
Lucius‐Hoene, G., & Deppermann. A. (2004b). Rekonstruktion narrativer Identität: Ein Arbeitsbuch zur Analyse Narrativer Interviews. Wiesbaden: VS.
Lyle, J. (2003). Stimulated recall: A report on its use in naturalistic research. British Educational Research Journal, 29(6), 861–878.
Macaskie, J., Lees, J., & Freshwater, D. (2015). Talking about talking: Interpersonal process recall as an intersubjective approach to research. Psychodynamic Practice, 21, 226–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753634.2015.
Nikander, P. (2008). Working with transcripts and translated data. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5(3), 225–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780880802314346.
Nyman-Salonen, P., Vall, B., Laitila, A., Borcsa, M., Karvonen, A., Kykyri, V-L., … Seikkula, J. (2020). Significant moments in a couple therapy session: Towards the integration of different modalities of analysis. In M. Ochs, M. Borcsa, & J. Schweitzer (Eds.), Systemic research in individual, couple, and family therapy and counseling (pp. 55–73). Cham, CH: Springer International.
Päivinen, H., Holma, J., Karvonen, A., Kykyri, V.-L., Tsatsishvili, V., Kaartinen, J., … Seikkula, J. (2016). Affective arousal during blaming in couple therapy: Combining analyses of verbal discourse and physiological responses in two case studies. Contemporary Family Therapy, 38(4), 373–384.
Rober, P. (2002). Constructive hypothesizing, dialogic understanding and the therapist’s inner conversation: Some ideas about knowing and not knowing in the family therapy session. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28(4), 467–478.
Rober, P. (2005). Family therapy as a dialogue of living persons: A perspective inspired by Bakhtin, Voloshinov, and Shotter. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 31, 385–397.
Rober, P. (2014). The therapist’s inner conversations in family therapy practice. Person-centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 7(4), 37–41.
Rober, P., Elliott, R., Buysse, A., Loots, G., & De Corte, K. (2008). What’s on the therapist’s mind? A grounded theory analysis of family therapist reflections during individual therapy sessions. Psychotherapy Research, 18(1), 48–57.
Rober, P., Seikkula, J., & Latila, A. (2010). Dialogical analysis of storytelling in the family therapeutic encounter. Human Systems: The Journal of Therapy, Consultation and Training, 21, 27–49.
Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation (2 Vols). Oxford: Blackwell.
Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Whose text? Whose context? Discourse and Society, 8, 165–187.
Seikkula, J., Alakare, B., & Aaltonen J. (2011). The comprehensive open-dialogue approach in Western Lapland: II. Long-term stability of acute psychosis outcomes in advanced community care. Psychosis, 3(3), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2011.595819.
Seikkula, J., Karvonen, A., Kykyri, V. L., Kaartinen, J., & Penttonen, M. (2015). The embodied attunement of therapists and a couple within dialogical psychotherapy: An introduction to the Relational Mind research project. Family Process, 54, 703–715. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12152.
Selvini-Palazzoli, M., Boscolo, L., Cecchin, G., & Prata, G. (1980). Hypothesizing, circularity, neutrality: Three guidelines for the conductor of the session. Family Process, 19, 3–12.
Stivers, T. (2008). Stance, alignment, and affiliation during storytelling: When nodding is a token of affiliation. Research on language and social interaction, 41(1), 31–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810701691123.
Tomm, K. M. (1984). One perspective on the Milan approach: Part I. Overview of development, theory and practice. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 10, 113–125.
Vall, B., Laitila, A., Borcsa, M., Kykyri, V. L., Karvonen, A., Kaartinen, J., … Seikkula, J. (2018). Stimulated Recall Interviews: How can the research interview contribute to new therapeutic practices? Revista Argentina de Clinica Psicologica, XXVII(2), 284–293. https://doi.org/10.24205/03276716.2018.1068.
Voloshinov, V. N. (1976). Discourse in life and discourse in art (concerning sociological poetics). In V. N. Voloshinov (Ed.), Freudianism: a marxist critique (pp. 93–116). New York, NY: Academic Press.
West, W., & Clark, V. (2004). Learnings from a qualitative study into counselling supervision: Listening to supervisor and supervisee. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 4(2), 20–26.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Borcsa, M., Janusz, B. (2021). Interpersonal Process Recall in Systemic Research: Investigating Couple Therapists’ Personal and Professional Selves. In: Borcsa, M., Willig, C. (eds) Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65331-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65331-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65330-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65331-6
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)