Development of the Stroke Pattern Inventory in a Clinical Population

Abstract In transactional analysis, strokes are considered to be a primary motivator of behavior. Analysis of the stroking patterns of individuals can help practitioners and researchers gain insight into maladaptive behaviors that could be indicative of psychopathology. However, an objective standardized tool for use in an Indian clinical population has not existed. The study described here aimed to develop such a tool to measure transactional analysis stroke patterns among a clinical population. Standard procedure was carried out to construct the Stroke Pattern Inventory (SPI). Results showed good reliability and validity for the constructed tool. With the constructed tool, 239 participants, including 119 outpatients of a psychiatric hospital, and 120 controls were assessed. The result indicated a significant difference in clinical and nonclinical participants in accepting negative strokes, asking for negative strokes, giving positive strokes, rejecting negative strokes, rejecting positive strokes, negative self-stroking, and positive self-stroking. The SPI was found to have discriminatory validity to differentiate between clinical and nonclinical participants. Future directions and implications for research and therapy are discussed.