THE MEASUREMENT OF PERSONAL CONFLICT

Personal conflict is considered to be an important factor in the devel opment and psychotherapy of affective, behavioral, somatoform, and psy chosomatic disorders. Yet empirical research into the role of personal conflict in psychopathology, and its change in therapy, is lacking. O ne reason for the lack of research may be the lack of objective method s for assessing ecologically valid, human conflicts. This article sugg ests that personal conflict can be assessed within a cognitive field t hat consists of attitudes, values, and beliefs pertaining to a persona lly relevant range of topics. In a validation study, degrees of confli ct differed between groups of pre-treatment, post-treatment, and absti nent alcoholic patients and correlated with symptom severity. It is su ggested that computerized conflict measurement be used for evaluating the effects of psychotherapy, directing therapists' attention to cruci al, conflictual topics, attitudes and beliefs, and predicting the stab ility of dysfunctional attitudes and beliefs.