Therapist's preference on motivational interviewing and its relationship to interpersonal functioning and personality traits

Abstract

Background: Excessive directiveness runs contrary to the principles of motivational interviewing. Aims: This study investigated the connection between the therapist's attitude to such directiveness and interpersonal functioning or personality traits. Method: Participants (N = 162) were Finnish substance abuse therapists. Interpersonal functioning was measured with a vignette task and personality traits with a test based on the five-factor model. Results: Attitude to excessive directiveness was connected to interpersonal functioning: the more important a participant considered it to avoid this, the better was her/his interpersonal functioning. However, there was no connection between attitude to directiveness and personality traits. There was only a weak connection between interpersonal functioning and personality traits. Conclusions: Therapists with critical attitude towards excessive directiveness were more skilled in interpersonal functioning than others.