Psychodrama Participants' Perception of Therapeutic Factors

Abstract

This study investigates psychodrama participants' perception of therapeutic factors with a new questionnaire constructed on the basis of six categories: emotional abreaction (EA), interpersonal relationship (IP), cognitive insight (CI), behavioral learning (BL), therapist qualities (TQ), and nonspecific healing aids (NS). The 60-item questionnaire was administered to 40 participants of psychodrama in an attempt to assess which specific events they found most helpful. This same questionnaire was also given to a control group of 42 persons without any previous experience in psychotherapy who were asked what they ideally would find helpful in psychotherapy. The results show that EA and CI were perceived as most helpful by the psychodrama group, whereas the control group found NS most helpful. These results suggest that participants of psychodrama and verbal group psychotherapy appreciate similar therapeutic factors, which is in agreement with most earlier research in this area.

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