[Results and problems of time series analysis of individual observations in client-centered and psychodynamic brief psychotherapy].

The longitudinal data of five psychotherapies, collected during the Hamburg Short Psychotherapy Comparison Experiment, were statistically reviewed by the method of time series analysis. The intention of the single case studies was to describe the therapist-patient-interactions in details for acquiring greater knowledge of the therapeutical process. The items to study were obtained by ratings. Although there were thirteen nonverbal characteristics of the therapist and the patient as well as one common feature of the relationship between them both. The results did not correspond with the theoretical expectations. There were only few changes in the behaviors of the therapists and the patients and there was little proof of mutual effects in their behaviors during the therapeutical process. Only one of the therapies showed a significant patient's reaction, but it was unexpectedly negativistic. This supports the idea, that the therapist's influence on the patient may not be very strong und may not necessarily be positive. However, there were some severe methodological data problems mainly concerning the applicability of the time series analysis. Nonequidistant measurements as well as the relative shortness of the time series made the validity of the results a topic to be discussed. In dealing with these problems, the necessity of conceptualizing the time structures of psychological processes became evident.