Descriptive Analysis of the Verbal Behavior of a Therapist: A Known-Group Validity Analysis of the Putative Behavioral Functions Involved in Clinical Interaction

This study analyzes the interobserver agreement and hypothesis-based known-group validity of the Therapist's Verbal Behavior Category System (SISC-INTER). The SISC-INTER is a behavioral observation protocol comprised of a set of verbal categories representing putative behavioral functions of the in-session verbal behavior of a therapist (e.g., discriminative, reinforcing, punishing, and motivational operations). The complete therapeutic process of a clinical case of an individual with marital problems was recorded (10 sessions, 8 hours), and data were arranged in a temporal sequence using 10-min periods. Hypotheses based on the expected performance of the putative behavioral functions portrayed by the SISC-INTER codes across prevalent clinical activities (i.e., assessing, explaining, Socratic method, providing clinical guidance) were tested using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. Known-group validity analyses provided support to all hypotheses. The SISC-INTER may be a useful tool to describe therapist–client interaction in operant terms. The utility of reliable and valid protocols for the descriptive analysis of clinical practice in terms of verbal behavior is discussed.

Research highlights
► Therapist-client verbal interaction involves operant processes essential to understand clinical change in psychotherapy.
► The SISC-INTER helps to code verbal behavior in a descriptive analysis consistent with operant principles.
► Our results support the reliability (interobserver agreement) and validity (known-group analysis) of SISC-INTER.
► To inform known-group validity we tested hypotheses based on the expected performances of putative behavioral functions.
► ARIMA and social network analyses may be useful to analyze observational data based on naturally occurring verbal behavior.