Psychological mindedness as a predictor of psychotherapy outcome: a preliminary report

Abstract

This study investigated the properties of a new measure of psychological mindness (PM). A 45-item self-report questionnaire was administered to consecutive admissions to a large outpatient clinic that provides primarily psychodynamically oriented individual psychotherapy. The PM scores of a sample of 44 of these patients who attended a median of 15 sessions were correlated with several outcome measures obtained from retrospective chart reviews. These measures consisted of the number of sessions attended, discharge ratings, and change scores on a Global Assessment Scale (GAS) and on a symptom checklist. Coefficient alpha for the Psychological Mindedness (PM) Scale indicated high reliability. Total PM score correlated significantly with three of the outcome measures. Twenty of the 45-items were good predictors of one or more outcome measures.