Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:09:19.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychiatric Interviewing Techniques IV. Experimental Study: Four Contrasting Styles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. Rutter ,
A. Cox ,
S. Egert ,
D. Holbrook  and
B. Everitt
M. Rutter
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AZ
A. Cox
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ
S. Egert
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney Road, London E2
D. Holbrook
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry
B. Everitt
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The development and definition of four contrasting interview styles is described. The four styles were designed using different permutations of techniques which, on the basis of an earlier naturalistic study, appeared to be most effective in eliciting either factual information or feelings. A ‘sounding board’ style utilized a minimal activity approach; an ‘active psychotherapy’ style actively sought to explore feelings and to bring out emotional links and meanings; a ‘structured’ style adopted an active cross-questioning approach; and a ‘systematic exploratory’ style aimed to combine a high use of both fact-oriented and feeling-oriented techniques. Quantitative measures based on video-tape and audio-tape analysis showed that two experienced interviewers could be trained to adopt these four very different styles and yet remain feeling and appearing natural. An experimental design to compare the four styles is described.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 138 , Issue 6 , June 1981 , pp. 456 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balint, M. & Balint, E. (1961) Psychotherapeutic Techniques in Medicine. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Rutter, M. (1966) The measurement of family activities and relationships: a methodological study. Human Relations, 19, 241–263.Google Scholar
Cox, A. & Rutter, M. (1977) Diagnostic appraisal and interviewing. In Child Psychiatry: Modern Approaches (eds. Rutter, M. and Hersov, L.). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Cox, A. Holbrook, D. & Rutter, M. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: VI. Experimental study; eliciting feelings. British Journal of Psychiatry, (in press).Google Scholar
Cox, A. Hopkinson, K. & Rutter, M. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: II. Naturalistic study; eliciting factual information. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 283–291.Google Scholar
Cox, A. Rutter, M. & Holbrook, D. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: V. Experimental study; eliciting factual information. British Journal of Psychiatry, (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, A. Yule, B. & Quinton, D. (1977) Bias resulting from missing information: some epidemiological findings. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 31, 131–136.Google Scholar
Dare, J. Hemsley, R. & Cox, A. A comparison of individual and family assessments. (In preparation).Google Scholar
Finesinger, J. (1948) Psychiatric interviewing. 1. Some principles and procedures in insight therapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 105, 187–195.Google Scholar
Gill, M. Newman, R. & Redlich, F. C. (1954) The Initial Interview in Psychiatric practice. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Hopkinson, K. Cox, A. & Rutter, M. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: III. Naturalistic study; eliciting feelings. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 406–415.Google Scholar
Quinton, D. Rutter, M. & Rowlands, O. (1976) An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriage. Psychological Medicine, 6, 577–586.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. & Brown, G. W. (1966) The reliability and validity of measures of family life and relationships in families containing a psychiatric patient. Social Psychiatry, 1, 38–53.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. & Cox, A. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: I. Methods and measures. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 273–282.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. Birley, J. L. T. Cooper, J. E. Graham, P. & Isaacs, A. D. (1967) Reliability of a procedure for measuring and classifying ‘present psychiatric state’. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 499–515.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. Nixon, J. N. Mann, S. A. & Leff, J. P. (1977) Reliability of the PSE (ninth edition) used in a population study. Psychological Medicine, 7, 505–516.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.