Abstract

VIEIRA-SANTOS, Joene  and  CANAAN, Silvia. Exploratory analysis of an adult client’s interpretative verbal behavior in the clinical setting. Rev. bras. ter. comport. cogn. [online]. 2008, vol.10, n.2, pp. 193-208. ISSN 1517-5545.

ABSTRACT Considering that one of the main behavior therapy purpose is to promote the client’s self-knowledge, the objective of this study was to analyse the verbal responses of an adult client categorized as “interpretative” in the clinical context according to the definitions of a previous study. The method consisted of the analysis and classification of 14 therapeutic sessions. The results showed the occurrence of the following categories in the client’s verbal repertoire: Information, Investigation, Interpretation and Consequencing. It was also found that: a) interpretations occurred in 74,88% of the client’s verbal episodes; b) the client interpreted with the function of explaining something in 78,00% of the interpretations and c) the client focused her own behavior in 73,20% of the interpretations. Such results seem to confirm the hypothesis of that the therapeutical setting is an environment in which the emission of interpretations is favored, thus contributing to the client´s self-knowledge.

Keywords : Interpretation; Verbal behavior; Behavior therapy; Self-knowledge.

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