Comparing Therapeutic Factors in Group CBT and Group Analytic Psychotherapy

The current study compared therapeutic factors (TFs) in Group CBT and Group Analytic Psychotherapy considering the duration of therapy (less than one year or more than one year). The individual scores on four global TFs, namely Instillation of Hope, Secure Emotional Expression, Awareness of Relational Impact and Social Learning were measured by deploying the TFI-19 questionnaire. The sample comprised n=180 members of Group Therapy settings. A 2x2 Factorial Independent Measures ANOVA was deployed to test the differences. Both type and duration of Group Therapy demonstrated a statistically significant effect on all four TFs, where members of Group Analytic settings and members with more than one year participation scored higher. However, the small effect size of Group therapy type on the TFs scores underlines that confounding variables and therapy-specific factors intervene. On the contrary, the medium effect size of the therapy duration on the TFs elucidates that increased curative outcomes are expected over time. No interaction effect was found between type and duration of group therapy. Further research should consider an alternative research design enabling the integration of the Common Factors theory and the Empirical Supported Treatment approach in a new TFs model. Key words: group therapy, therapeutic factors, group analysis, Group CBT, TFI-19