Week 5 (March 7-13)
Topic Choice by the Client and Interactional Effects between Client and Therapist
Introduction
This week extends the implications of the choice of topic in dialogue. We revisit the study by Smock Jordan et al. (2013), focusing now on the client's topic choice and the effects of the therapist's topic choice on the client's next utterance. We will again use the two videos from last week’s exercise. You should have saved your ELAN files for Persons and de Shazer in the Week 4 sub-folder of your course folder, with the therapist's choice of positive or negative topics. This week's analysis will investigate whether therapist’s and client’s choices affect each other.
Learning Objectives
Readings:
Required Readings:
Jordan, S. S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2013). Microanalysis of positive and negative content in solution-focused brief therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy expert sessions. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 32, 46-59.
Smock Jordan, S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2010). Flow chart for identifying positive and negative client content in therapy dialogues. (Focuses on client content)
Smock Jordan, S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2010). Rules for identifying positive and negative content in therapy dialogues. (Pages 1-2, 4-7, amd 17-21 ONLY)
Note: you downloaded each of these readings last week (except for the flow chart for week 5 which focuses on client not therapist content) and they should be in your Week 4 sub-folder in the course folder on your computer.
Exercise
Postings
1. Questions
In your first post (name it "Questions"), answer these questions about your analysis :
a)Did you notice differences in the client’s topic choice for the two clients of the two therapists who represent different models?
b)Then, focusing on each utterance by the therapist, notice what type of topic choice the client made immediately afterward. When the therapist was positive, negative, or both positive and negative, what was the client's next choice? Is it similar to the results presented in Smock Jordan et al.(2013)?
c) Then look the other way: When the client said something positive, negative, or both positive and negative, what choice did the therapist make? You can ignore the ratings of "not analyzable.
d) Did the therapist's topic choice affect the client’s next topic choice? Did the client's choice affect the therapist's next choice?
The "Questions" post is due by midnight Saturday, March 11.
2. Comparisons
a) Download and look over the ELAN files and tables of two other class members for either the SFBT or the CBT video.
b) Then choose one course member's table of results and compare it with your own. To discover why agreements and differences occurred, go back to your ELAN file and compare it with your chosen course member's ELAN file.
c) Write a second post (title it "Comparing with...") on your comparison to this course member's analysis, discussing both agreements and differences in your analyses.
The "Comparisons" post is due by midnight Monday, March 13.
PDF of Week 5 instructions
This week extends the implications of the choice of topic in dialogue. We revisit the study by Smock Jordan et al. (2013), focusing now on the client's topic choice and the effects of the therapist's topic choice on the client's next utterance. We will again use the two videos from last week’s exercise. You should have saved your ELAN files for Persons and de Shazer in the Week 4 sub-folder of your course folder, with the therapist's choice of positive or negative topics. This week's analysis will investigate whether therapist’s and client’s choices affect each other.
Learning Objectives
- How to conduct a microanalysis of the client’s topic choice (positive, negative, both, or neither) in videos from two different therapy sessions.
- Notice differences in topic choice by clients who have therapists representing two different therapy models.
- Look at the effects of the therapist’s topic choice on the client’s next topic choice.
Readings:
Required Readings:
Jordan, S. S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2013). Microanalysis of positive and negative content in solution-focused brief therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy expert sessions. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 32, 46-59.
Smock Jordan, S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2010). Flow chart for identifying positive and negative client content in therapy dialogues. (Focuses on client content)
Smock Jordan, S., Froerer, A., & Bavelas, J. (2010). Rules for identifying positive and negative content in therapy dialogues. (Pages 1-2, 4-7, amd 17-21 ONLY)
Note: you downloaded each of these readings last week (except for the flow chart for week 5 which focuses on client not therapist content) and they should be in your Week 4 sub-folder in the course folder on your computer.
Exercise
- Be sure to review the required reading as it will serve as a guide to all of this week's activities. Also watch the “Week 5 exercise demonstration” video which can be downloaded from the Week 5 sub-folder in the Dropbox folder called “Downloads, IMA online course.”
- Find your “Persons CBT topic choice” (with your initials at the end) ELAN file from last week in the Week 4 sub-folder in your course folder on your computer.
- Open this file and begin by saving it as “Persons CBT topic choice, Week 5 [+ your initials],” and save it to the Week 5 sub-folder in the course folder on your computer. (Note: you already downloaded the “Persons CBT” video last week so you can link to it in the Week 4 sub-folder in your course folder.) If you hid the third and fourth tiers last week, make them visible now.
- Listen to the entire video again before you begin analyzing the client’s topic choice.
- We have already annotated the client content that you need to analyze. Starting at 8:32 (where the client says “Well there’s there’s actually there was two more…”), analyze and annotate the client’s topic choices using the fourth tier (“Client topic choice”), following what you learned from the Smock Jordan et al. 2013 article and the flow chart for analysis. On tier four, label each utterance from the client as positive, negative, both positive and negative, neither positive or negative, or not analyzable.
- Follow the same procedure to analyze the client’s topic choices in your “de Shazer SFBT topic choice” ELAN file. Start analyzing the first client content at 9:58 (where the client says “Um Hmm. I moved…”) continuing to 14:22 (where the client says “three”).
- Now tabulate the sequence of the therapist's and client's topic choices. Download the document entitled “CBT, Persons Table, week 5” from "Downloads, IMA online course.” Starting with your "Persons CBT" analysis, record your rating of the therapist or client content for each utterance. You will have one rating in each row, depending on whether it was the therapist or client speaking.
- Repeat this procedure in #7 for your analysis of the de Shazer video and record your findings in the document named “SFBT, de Shazer Table, week 5.”
- Once you have completed your analysis for this week, upload your completed ELAN files (the ones with your initials for Week 5) and both of your Tables (again with your initials) to the Week 5 sub-folder in the Dropbox folder: “Uploads; IMA online course.”
Postings
1. Questions
In your first post (name it "Questions"), answer these questions about your analysis :
a)Did you notice differences in the client’s topic choice for the two clients of the two therapists who represent different models?
b)Then, focusing on each utterance by the therapist, notice what type of topic choice the client made immediately afterward. When the therapist was positive, negative, or both positive and negative, what was the client's next choice? Is it similar to the results presented in Smock Jordan et al.(2013)?
c) Then look the other way: When the client said something positive, negative, or both positive and negative, what choice did the therapist make? You can ignore the ratings of "not analyzable.
d) Did the therapist's topic choice affect the client’s next topic choice? Did the client's choice affect the therapist's next choice?
The "Questions" post is due by midnight Saturday, March 11.
2. Comparisons
a) Download and look over the ELAN files and tables of two other class members for either the SFBT or the CBT video.
b) Then choose one course member's table of results and compare it with your own. To discover why agreements and differences occurred, go back to your ELAN file and compare it with your chosen course member's ELAN file.
c) Write a second post (title it "Comparing with...") on your comparison to this course member's analysis, discussing both agreements and differences in your analyses.
The "Comparisons" post is due by midnight Monday, March 13.
PDF of Week 5 instructions
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