Personality Change from Experiential Techniques: Relaxation versus Catharsis

Abstract

Relates measures of two treatment-experiences to the measures of personality-change as treatment-outcome. Sixteen of the fifty-eight volunteers for catharsis were randomly allocated to relaxation for comparison. Multivariate analysis of the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) reveals that relaxation vs. catharsis are significantly different treatment-experiences. Univariate analysis, however, reveals significant differences on three PCI dimensions only, i.e., Negative Affect, Arousal, and Memory, with no significant differences for the self-altering features. Treatment-outcome analysis, pre-to-post, reveals significant increases in Positive Emotionality, Wellbeing, and Control, with significant decreases in Negative Emotionality, Stress Reaction, and Alienation, with no significant changes over the six-month follow-up no-treatment period. With PCI measures as the predictors for outcome, there are no unique factors between groups or common factors across groups to predict the variance on outcome measures. Suggests future research to implicate separate functions in personality as predictors for the treatment-experience and the treatment-outcome independently.