Development and Evaluation of Therapeutic Assessment for Universal Personality Traits: Extending Therapeutic Assessment Techniques to Address the Five-Factor Model of Personality
Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Universal personality traits have shown to predict important life outcomes and to influence the onset and course of psychopathology. Despite the fact that Five-Factor Model (FFM) traits have consistently shown to change across treatments that do not directly target them, few therapeutic interventions to date have been explicitly designed to help people alter their FFM traits in clinical settings. Therapeutic Assessment (TA) is a short-term intervention that is well-suited for this purpose. It involves using assessment tools to help clients develop insight into their difficulties, foster compassion towards themselves, and wield their resulting self-knowledge to take steps towards cultivating solutions to enduring problems. The goals of this dissertation were: (1) to develop Therapeutic Assessment for Universal Personality Traits (TA-P), an intervention that extends TA techniques to help individuals better understand their personality traits and to work towards changing them if desired; and (2) to evaluate the efficacy of TA-P using a randomized control trial (RCT) design. A TA-P clinician manual was developed, with session guidelines exemplified through case descriptions of undergraduates who received the intervention. The RCT examined differential changes in targeted FFM facets and domains, psychological symptoms, self-reflection/insight, and self-compassion at post-intervention and two-month follow-up in undergraduates receiving the intervention compared to those in a non-active control condition. While significant differential changes were not observed at post-intervention, small effects suggested that individuals receiving TA-P experienced greater changes in primary facet targeted, self-compassion variables, and self-insight in desired directions. Bearing limitations of attrition at follow-up in mind, individuals receiving TA-P also demonstrated significantly greater expected changes in primary facet targeted (moderate effect), primary domain targeted (moderate effect), and self-compassion variables (effects ranging from small to large) at follow-up, compared to those in the control condition. Findings add to the small body of literature suggesting that intentional personality change is possible through short-term targeted intervention. It is hoped that TA-P serves as a tool that clinicians can draw from to incorporate FFM traits in clients’ case conceptualizations and treatment plans.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Gralnick, Tara Michelle
Institution: University of Toronto
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7133099702