Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:352-357
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Quantitative assessment of the behavior of psychotherapy supervisors
SB Shanfield, PC Mohl, KL Matthews and V Hetherly
Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio 78284-7792.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the behavior of
psychotherapy supervisors by using the Psychotherapy Supervision Inventory.
METHOD: The authors used the Psychotherapy Supervision Inventory to rate 53
videotaped supervision sessions of 34 different supervisors. They also used
the variable of the rater's perception of the excellence of the supervisor
as a teacher. The data were subjected to a cluster analysis and a K-means
analysis. Discriminant function analyses were applied to the comparison of
the behavior of 19 supervisors with two different residents and the
behavior of all 34 supervisors with residents in three different years of
training. The relationship between rater-perceived excellence and
Psychotherapy Supervision Inventory scores was analyzed by using stepwise
multiple regression. RESULTS: There was a high level of agreement among the
four raters' judgments of supervisors' excellence. Empathy accounted for
72% of the variance in rater-perceived excellence and focus on the
therapist accounted for an additional 5%. When empathy was dropped from the
equation, experiential orientation accounted for 60% of the variance in
ratings of excellence, clarification and interpretation accounted for an
additional 16%, and depth accounted for another 3%. CONCLUSIONS: In the
context of established relationships, supervisors have stable behavior
patterns. Rater-perceived excellence is related to the supervisor's
focusing on the resident's immediate experiences and making many
synthesizing comments in depth. The Psychotherapy Supervision Inventory can
be used to orient supervisors to supervision and provide feedback about
their behavior.
