Social representation of therapeutic relationship among cognitive-behavioral psychotherapists.

The present study investigates the content and structure of the social representation (SR) that cognitive-behavioral (CBT) psychotherapists have of the therapeutic relationship (TR), through a discovery-oriented, mixed-methods approach. For this purpose, our reference point was social representation theory, in particular, the theory of the central nucleus (Abric, 2003; Moscovici, 1961). Data came from a sample of 63 CBT therapists. The results enabled us to identify a series of contents marking CBTs SR of the TR that overlap with the current pan-theoretical conceptualization of this construct. The results also allowed us to identify the complex, clear, and stratified organization of these contents, which are characteristics of a majority and of a minority of the sample studied. These results are discussed with regard of their theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record