MEASURING MOTIVATION TO CHANGE IN OFFENDERS

Measuring motivation to change in offender populations is important bo th for selection into treatment programmes and for assessing progress in therapy. Two studies are reported in this paper, both looking at th e psychometric properties of questionnaires designed to measure stage of change in therapy. The samples used were patients detained in speci al hospitals under the Mental Health Act (1983) classification of psyc hopathic disorder. The first study provides norms for this group on th e stages of change in psychotherapy questionnaire, plus some additiona l information on its relationship with self-esteem and self-efficacy m easures. The second study looked at a brief version of the stages of c hange questionnaire, concluding that its psychometric properties were such that further use was contra-indicated.