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COUPLE AND FAMILY THERAPY ALLIANCE SCALES: EMPIRICAL CONSIDERATIONS 1
Author(s) -
Heatherington Laurie,
Friedlander Myrna L.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1990.tb00851.x
Subject(s) - alliance , psychology , scale (ratio) , clinical psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , family therapy , consistency (knowledge bases) , psychometrics , session (web analytics) , social psychology , psychotherapist , power (physics) , physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , political science , law , world wide web , computer science
The introduction of the concept of the therapeutic alliance to the family literature has considerable heuristic value. We undertook a study of the psychometric properties of the Couple and Family Therapy Alliance Scales (IPAS) (Pinsof & Catherall, 1986), two theoretically derived and systemically based measures of the alliance. Outpatient couple and family clients completed the respective scale and the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) (Stiles, 1980; Stiles & Snow, 1984) immediately following an early‐to‐mid treatment interview. Descriptive analyses provided support for the continued use of the instruments. Specifically, ratings were fairly normally distributed, reliability estimates reflected good internal consistency, and no statistical differences in mean ratings were found between couples and families or between men and women. Patterns of association between the content subscales and the SEQ depth and smoothness scales were consistent with some predictions. Finally, Pinsof and Catherall's theoretical concept of the split alliance was found to be empirically identifiable among family members' ratings.