Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T09:30:20.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychiatric Interviewing Techniques: I. Methods and Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. Rutter  and
A. Cox
M. Rutter
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Camberwell, London SE5 8AF
A. Cox
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

An account is given of the overall strategy and measures used in a three-phase study of styles and techniques employed in the initial diagnostic interviews with the parents of children referred to a child psychiatric clinic. The measures of interview style included interviewer activity and talkativeness, directiveness, types of questions and statements, interventions designed to elicit or to respond to feelings, and non-verbal qualities. The informant's response and the interview ‘outcome’ were assessed through measures of the quantity and quality of factual information obtained, and of the extent of expression of emotional feelings by the informant. Good inter-rater reliability was achieved with most measures. Some difficulties were experienced in achieving comparable thresholds for the recognition of expressed emotions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 138 , Issue 4 , April 1981 , pp. 273 - 282
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

Argyle, M. (1972) The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour, (2nd Edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Beattie, G. W. (1978) Floor apportionment and gaze in conversational dyads. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 17, 7–16.Google Scholar
Bessell, R. (1971) Interviewing and Counselling. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Brown, J. E. & O'Shea, J. S. (1980) Improving medical student interviewing skills. Paediatrics, 65, 575–578.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
Cannell, C. F. & Kahn, R. L. (1968) Interviewing. I. Handbook of Social Psychology, (eds. G. Lindzey and F. Aronson), 2nd Edition, Vol 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.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. (1977) Diagnostic appraisal and interviewing. I. Child Psychiatry: Modern Approaches, (eds. M. Rutter and L. Hersov). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Cox, A. & Rutter, M. & Holbrook, D. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: V. Experimental study; eliciting factual information. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.Google Scholar
Davitz, J. R. (1964) The Communication of Emotional Meaning. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. Friesen, W. V. & Ellsworth, P. (1972) Emotion in the Human Face. Guidelines for Research and an Integration of Findings. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Feusterheim, H. (1972) The Initial Interview. I. Clinical Behaviour Therapy, (ed. A. A. Lazarus). London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Flanders, J. P. (1968) A review of research on imitative behaviour. Psychological Bulletin, 69, 316–337.Google Scholar
Gelder, M. G. (1968) Verbal conditioning, as a measure of interpersonal influence in psychiatric interviews. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7, 194–209.Google Scholar
Gill, M. Newman, R. & Redlich, F. C. (1954) The Initial Interview in Psychiatric Practice. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Graham, P. & Rutter, M. (1968) The reliability and validity of the psychiatric assessment of the child. II. Interview with the parent. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 581–592.Google Scholar
Heilbron, A. B. (1971) Female preference for therapist initial interview style as a function of client' and therapist social role variables. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 18, 285–291.Google Scholar
Hopkinson, K. Cox, A. & Rutter, M. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques: III. Naturalistic study; eliciting feelings. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.Google Scholar
Kanner, L. (1957) Child Psychiatry, (3rd Edition). Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Lennard, J. L. & Bernstein, A. (1960) The Anatomy of Psychotherapy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Maguire, G. P. & Rutter, D. R. (1976) History-taking for medical students. I. Deficiencies in performance. Lancet, ii, 556–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W. Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1969) Clinical Psychiatry, (3rd Edition). London: Baillière, Tindall and Cassell.Google Scholar
Menninger, K. A. (1962) A Manual for Psychiatric Case Study. New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Mitchell, K. M. Bozarth, J. D. & Krauft, C. C. (1977) A Reappraisal of the Therapeutic Effectiveness of Accurate Empathy, Non-Possessive Warmth and Genuineness. I. Effective Psychotherapy: A Handbook of Research, (eds. A. S. Gurman and A. M. Razin). Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Quinton, D. Rutter, M. & Rowlands, O. (1976) An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriag. Psychological Medicine, 6, 577–586 Google Scholar
Richardson, S. A. Dohrenwend, B. & Klein, D. (1965) Interviewing, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rutter, D. R. & Maguire, G. P. (1976) History-taking for medical students. II. Evaluation of a training programme. Lancet, ii, 558–560.Google Scholar
Rutter, D. R. Stephenson, G. M. Ayling, K. & White, P. A. (1978) The timing of looks in dyadic conversation. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 17, 17–22.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1975) Helping Troubled Children. Harmondsworth: Penguin.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. Egert, S. Holbrook, D. & Everitt, B. (1981) Psychiatric interviewing techniques. IV. Experimental study: four contrasting styles. British Journal of Psychiatry, in press.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. Cox, A. Tupling, C. Berger, M. & Yule, W. (1975) Attainment and adjustment in two geographical areas. I. The prevalence of psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 493–509.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. & Graham, P. (1968) The reliability and validity of the psychiatric assessment of the child. I. Interview with the child. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 563–579.Google Scholar
Saghir, M. T. (1971) A comparison of some aspects of structured and unstructured psychiatric interviews. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 180–184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, R. J. & Budman, S. H. (1973) Defection, termination and continuation in family and individual therapy. Family Process, 12, 55–67.Google Scholar
Siegman, A. W. & Pope, B. (1972) Studies in Dyadic Communication. London: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Siegman, A. W. Endicott, J. Fleiss, J. L. & Cohen, J. (1970) The psychiatric status schedule. Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 41–55.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L. Fleiss, J. L. Burdock, E. I. & Hardesty, A. S. (1964) The mental status schedule: rationale, reliability and validity. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 5, 384–395.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. S. (1954) The Psychiatric Interview. London: Tavistock Publication.Google Scholar
Trower, P. Bryant, B. Argyle, M. & Marzillier, J. (1978) Social Skills and Mental Health. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Truax, C. B. & Carkhuff, R. R. (1967) Towards Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy: Training and Practice. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Vaughn, C. & Leff, J. P. (1976) The measurement of expressed emotion in the families of psychiatric patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 157–169.Google Scholar
Williams, J. (1964) Conditioning of verbalizations: a review. Psychological Bulletin, 62, 383–393.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
World Health Organisation (1973) Report of the International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia, Vol 1. Geneva: World Health Organisation.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.