Verbal response mode correlates of experiencing.

Abstract

William B. Stiles, Susan H. McDaniel, and Kim McGaugheyUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillThis study, one in a series seeking indices of good psychotherapy processin the client's verbal behavior, compared specific verbal response mode(VRM) indices with the more global Experiencing (EXP) Scale, a mea-sure reported to correlate with positive psychotherapy outcome. Stiles'sVRM taxonomy was used to code the 90 transcribed interview segmentspublished in the EXP manual. As predicted, the strongest VRM correlateof EXP level was the percentage of utterances that were Disclosure in form(first person; I) and intent (revealing subjective experience). Resultssuggest that good process may be measurable on an utterance-by-utterancebasis.Psychotherapists of different theoreticalorientations systematically use different profilesof verbal response modes (VRMs), but clientsuse approximately the same profile despitetherapist differences (Stiles, 1979; Stiles S Disclosure uses the speak-er's internal frame of reference, whereas Edifi-cation uses a neutral frame of reference sharedwith the other. To illustrate, I'm afraid ofhim is D(D); It scared me is E(D) ; Iran away is D(E) ; and He shouted at meis E(E), Running and shouting are objectivematters (Edification intent) ; fear is the speak-er's subjective experience (Disclosure intent).Th e EXP scal is a fully anchored 7-pointLikert-type rating scale developed to measureth e primary client process variabl in thclient-centered theory of personality change:At a low level on the continuum of experiencing,discourse is markedly impersonal or superficial.Moving up the scale, there is a progression fromsimple, limited or externalized self-references to