Thesis

Development and testing of a measure of relational depth in counselling and psychotherapy

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  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2012
Thesis identifier
  • T13196
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Abstract
  • Mearns and Cooper (2005), describe relational depth as 'a state of profound contact and engagement between two people...' (p. xii). Regarding the relational aspects of therapy, the wealth of research literature suggests that there is a common set of factors to do with the therapeutic relationship across all approaches of therapy which leads to therapeutic improvement. At the time of writing, there is only one measure designed to assess relational depth; the Relational Depth Inventory (RDI). However, the RDI has not been as thoroughly tested for validity and reliability as have other relational measures. No quantitative studies have yet been conducted that explore the association between relational depth and therapeutic outcome that use a relational depth inventory and traditional outcome measures in a practice base. Therefore, the main objective of this research project was to explore, improve and evidence the reliability and validity of the RDI. Using traditional statistics, the first study found evidence that the RDI is essentially unidimensional but composed of a number of elements especially those associated with deep relational experiences such as love, connectedness and respect. Gender was seen to have a limited roll as a determinant of relational depth events. In the second study, Rasch analyses evidenced that the revised RDI, the RDI-R, had excellent reliability. The RDI-R was found to be largely undimensional but that a significant minority of persons experiencing high strength of relational depth were not targeted. In the third study, presence of relational depth, as assessed by the RDIR, during helpful moments in therapy, was found to be significantly associated with therapeutic improvement. The results imply that the RDI-R has a range of different kinds of validity evidence, although there is room for improvement and that relational depth is related to therapeutic improvement.
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  • Strathclyde theses - ask staff. Thesis no. : T13196
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Date Created
  • 2012
Former identifier
  • 947657

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