Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Pro Persona Research, Renkum, The Netherlands.
Clin Psychol Psychother. 2020 Nov;27(6):915-924. doi: 10.1002/cpp.2479. Epub 2020 Jun 1.
Goal setting in psychological treatments may have favourable effects on patients' motivation and treatment outcomes. Therefore, it seems important to detect when patients do not perceive clear treatment goals. The current study presents a questionnaire measuring patients' perceived lack of goal clarity. The cross-sectional study consisted of 742 adult outpatients with diverse mental disorders. Patients completed the perceived lack of goal clarity questionnaire, and additional items measuring goal setting and evaluation, therapeutic alliance, symptom levels, patients' dependency on their treatment, and their expected and needed number of future treatment sessions. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analyses resulted in a unidimensional and reliable questionnaire (nine items, α = .85). Additional findings showed that 23% of the treatments lacked initial goal setting according to the patients. Also, perceived lack of goal clarity was lower when treatment goals were established explicitly at the start of treatment, were formulated together with the therapist, and were discussed regularly during treatment, and treatment progress was monitored regularly. Moreover, patients reporting their goals as unclear also reported a poorer quality of the therapeutic alliance, higher symptom levels, increased need for future sessions, but also lower levels of care dependency. These findings underscore the importance of perceived goal clarity in psychological treatments, although the relation with actual goal setting remains uncertain.
目标设定在心理治疗中可能对患者的动机和治疗结果产生有利影响。因此，检测患者何时没有感知到明确的治疗目标似乎很重要。本研究提出了一种测量患者感知到的目标不明确程度的问卷。该横断面研究包括 742 名患有各种精神障碍的成年门诊患者。患者完成了感知到的目标不明确程度问卷，以及其他测量目标设定和评估、治疗联盟、症状水平、患者对治疗的依赖程度以及他们预期和需要的未来治疗次数的项目。探索性因素分析和可靠性分析得出了一个具有单一维度和可靠性的问卷（九个项目，α =.85）。其他发现表明，根据患者的说法，23%的治疗缺乏初始目标设定。此外，当治疗目标在治疗开始时明确设定、与治疗师一起制定、并在治疗过程中定期讨论时，以及定期监测治疗进展时，患者感知到的目标不明确程度较低。此外，报告目标不明确的患者还报告说治疗联盟质量较差、症状水平较高、对未来治疗次数的需求增加，但对护理的依赖程度较低。这些发现强调了在心理治疗中感知到的目标清晰度的重要性，尽管与实际目标设定的关系仍不确定。
