Epistemology and Psychotherapists: Clarifying the Link Among Epistemic Style, Experience, and Therapist Characteristics
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EPISTEMOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS: CLARIFYING THE LINK AMONG EPISTEMIC STYLE, EXPERIENCE, AND THERAPIST CHARACTERISTICS By GIZEM AKSOY A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2005 Copyright 2005 by Gizem Aksoy ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor and committee chair, Dr. Greg J. Neimeyer, my beloved husband, Ferit Toska, and my dear friend Burhan Öğüt for their extensive guidance, support and encouragement. I am thankful for the assistance given to me by my committee members, Dr. Kenneth Rice and Dr. Michael Farrar. I am grateful to my family and my friends in Turkey and in Gainesville for their love and support. I could not have done this project without their help. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. vi ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Epistemic Style .............................................................................................................2 Personal Epistemology and Personal Qualities ............................................................4 Personal Epistemology and Psychotherapy..................................................................7 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Theories........................................................8 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Preferences...................................................8 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Practices .......................................................9 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapists ........................................................................14 Epistemic Style and Experience .................................................................................17 Aim of the Present Study and Hypotheses .................................................................18 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................................20 Epistemic Style ...........................................................................................................21 Personal Implications of Epistemic Style...................................................................24 Practical Implications of Epistemic Style...................................................................30 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Theories......................................................31 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Preferences.................................................33 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapy Practices .....................................................38 Thinking style...............................................................................................40 Focus of therapy...........................................................................................41 Direction of therapy .....................................................................................42 Therapeutic relationship...............................................................................42 Conceptualization of central constructs .......................................................43 Conceptualization of change ........................................................................45 Epistemic Style and Psychotherapists’ Characteristics and Experiences...................47 Pursuit of Self-Awareness ...................................................................................48 Attending to Emotions.........................................................................................50 Tolerance for Ambiguity .....................................................................................51 iv Social Tolerance for Diversity.............................................................................53 Openness to Experience ......................................................................................55 Epistemology and Psychotherapy Experience............................................................57 Purpose of the Study...................................................................................................60 3 METHODS.................................................................................................................62 Participants .................................................................................................................62 Procedure ....................................................................................................................62 Instruments .................................................................................................................63 4 RESULTS...................................................................................................................69 Demographics.............................................................................................................69 Descriptives and Preliminary Analyses......................................................................70 Primary Analyses........................................................................................................73 5 DISCUSSION.............................................................................................................79 Summary of the Results..............................................................................................79 Link between Constructivist Epistemologies and Therapist Characteristics..............80 Link between Rationalist Epistemologies and Therapist Characteristics...................81 Link between Therapy Experience and Therapist Characteristics .............................82 Epistemology-by-Experience Interaction on Therapist Characteristics .....................84 Limitations of the Present Study and Directions for Future Research .......................86 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................91 APPENDIX A CONSTRUCTIVIST ASSUMPTION SCALE (CAS)...............................................93 B THERAPIST ATTITUDE QUESTIONNAIRE-SHORT FORM (TAQ-SF) ............94 C PRIVATE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS SCALE..........................................................96 D ATTENDING TO EMOTIONS .................................................................................97 E MULTIPLE STIMULUS TYPES AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE..............................98 F TOLERANCE SCALE.............................................................................................100 G OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE SCALE.................................................................101 H DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION........................................................................102 LIST OF REFERENCES.................................................................................................104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................................110 v LIST OF TABLES Table page 1 Summary statistics of variables of interest...............................................................71 2 Intercorrelations among the variables of interesta....................................................72 3 Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses on the five dependent variables ...................................................................................................................77 vi Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science EPISTEMOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS: CLARIFYING THE LINK AMONG EPISTEMIC STYLE, EXPERIENCE, AND THERAPIST CHARACTERISTICS By Gizem Aksoy December 2005 Chair: Greg J. Neimeyer Major Department: Psychology The present study examined the relationship among epistemic style, therapist characteristics and therapists’ experience of conducting psychotherapy, and aimed to clarify whether divergent epistemologies predict different levels of therapist characteristics, and whether epistemic style can predict further differential psychotherapist change as an impact of years spent in clinical practice. Findings suggested that higher constructivism scores predicted higher levels of pursuit of self-awareness, attending to emotions, ambiguity tolerance, social tolerance for individual diversity, and openness to experience, whereas higher rationalism scores predicted lower levels of these characteristics. The obtained results failed to support any epistemology-by-practice interactions on therapists’ personal qualities. The present study extended the developing literature on epistemology as a factor influencing psychotherapists’ personal characteristics. Additional work is needed to vii understand how epistemology is interwoven with psychotherapists’ professional and personal lives. viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Epistemic style refers to an individual’s prevailing set of assumptions regarding the way in which knowledge is acquired, organized and developed. A broad range of therapy variables have been shown to correlate with epistemic style (e.g., Johnson et al., 1988;