Processes of change assessed by PCQ 2001: A step back or forth in understanding psychotherapeutic change

Abstract

The transtheoretical model of change is an integrative model explaining how people change their behavior. It is key assumption is that the processes of change represent hidden or obvious activities and experiences which people use or rely on attempting to change their problematic behavior. Numerous metatheoretical analyses performed by Prochaska and colleagues have revealed ten basic processes of change organized within the behavioral and experiential processes. The aim of this research was to determine if it could be possible to discover the processes of change based on the activities psychiatric patients use while trying to change their behavior. The processes were assessed by the Processes of Change Questionnaire PCQ-2001 completed by 221 patients diagnosed as neurosis, psychosis and personality disorder. Principle component analysis (SPSS.12.0.1), rotated with Oblimin method and Kaiser normalization, extracted 10 components explaining 65,97% of the total variance. Most items did not load on the dimensions specified by the theoretical model, except Social Liberation and Medical Treatment. The vast majority of items were saturated by two or more components, which was probably due to the specific relation of patients towards their therapeutic change. Similar analysis performed on the component regression scores revealed three higher-order components explaining 50,9% of the variance. In contrast to the theoretically expected experiential and behavioral processes, our findings suggest that the instrument discriminates the following processes: usage of activity and reorganizing-based processes, passive and compliance-based processes, and conversation and social support- based processes