文摘
This dissertation investigates the utility and validity of a new measure of psychotherapy process, the Alliance Negotiation Scale (ANS； Doran, Safran, Waizmann, Bolger, & Muran, 2012). This scale was constructed to operationalize a theoretical construct in the relational psychodynamic literature - negotiation of the therapeutic alliance (Safran & Muran, 2000). The ANS was designed to extend and refine our current understanding of the working alliance (Bordin, 1979), and improve upon existing measures such as the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI； Horvath & Greenberg, 1986, 1989) and its short form (WAI-S； Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989). This dissertation consists of two empirical studies that evaluate the utility of this construct and examine the psychometric properties of the ANS. The first study investigates the construct validity of the ANS by examining its convergence and divergence with several existing scales that measure theoretically related constructs. The second study continues the psychometric investigation of the measure, and includes some preliminary data on the predictive validity of the ANS by examining its relationship to several measures of psychotherapy outcome. The results provide information about the reliability and validity of the ANS, and begin to illuminate the role that negotiation plays in the therapeutic process and in relation to treatment outcome.
