Pathogenic Beliefs and their Relevance in Psychotherapy: A Written Case Study

Objective: Goals of this single-case study are to assess whether tests according to Control Mastery Theory (CMT) can be reliably identified by trained raters and to examine whether the Psychotherapy Process Q-Sort method can adequately represent the test situation. Method: A single case was analyzed by well-trained psychology graduates on the basis of the Plan Formulation Method. The interrater reliability of the identified tests was examined. In addition, the tests were classified according to the Psychotherapy Process Q-Sort. Results: 70 test situations were identified with acceptable overall interrater reliability and slightly better values for single categories. The Q-Sort analysis indicated 34 items that were assigned more than 5 times to 3 tests. Overall, a combination of more than five Q-Sort items represented one test situation. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that even welltrained graduates can identify tests. Indeed, the Psychotherapy Process Q-Sort does not suffice to adequately represent the test concept according to CMT.