Revista Brasileira de Terapia Comportamental e Cognitiva
Print version ISSN 1517-5545
Abstract
ZAMIGNANI, Denis Roberto and MEYER, Sonia Beatriz. Verbal behavior in clinical context: behavior analysis methodological contributions. Rev. bras. ter. comport. cogn. [online]. 2007, vol.9, n.2, pp.241-259. ISSN 1517-5545.
This article discusses methodological aspects involved in psychotherapy research, especially the so called process research, that identifies the change processes occurring in the client-therapist’s interaction from a behavior analytic point of view. Brazilian behavior-analytic studies of session analysis illustrate the discussed matters. Issues concerning the categorization of behaviors in clinical interaction, such as the nature of events that compose a group of categories, criteria for reliability and validity of a categorization system, delimitation of the occurrence and registration unit in social interactions and the appropriated measures are discussed. Lastly, different strategies are presented for categorized data systematization, as well as some of the limitations and advantages of each.
Keywords : Clinical research; Research methodology; Categorization of behaviors; Clinical behavior analysis.