INSIGHT IN COUNSELING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY - MEASUREMENT AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

The identification of moments of client insight offers clinicians and researchers the opportunity to more fully comprehend the therapeutic p rocess and the changes that clients may experience in therapy. The pur pose of this study is (I) to examine whether insight is equally identi fiable by the Category System of Good Moments (CSGM) and the Client Be havior System (CBS), (2) to identify the characteristics of those inst ances that are identified by both scales as insight, and (3) to specul ate on the reasons for any discrepancies between the two raring scales . Sir psychotherapy sessions, conducted by five renowned therapists, w ere rated by two independent groups of judges, each using one of the a bove scales. The results indicated that (I) CBS ratings are subsumed b y and agree with those of the CSGM (2) CSGM identifies more instances of insight than CBS, (3) those instances identified by both instrument s share an articulation on the part of the client of a new way of seei ng him/herself, as well as an acceptance of responsibility and agency on the client's part; and (4) while the CBS is more ''cognitive orient ed'' the CSGM is more ''affect oriented.'' Implications for conceptual ization of and future research into insight are discussed.