Christoph Flückiger

Universität Kassel · Institut für Psychologie

The Bern Post Session Report 2000, Patient and Therapist Versions: Measuring Psychotherapeutic Processes Abstract. Theoretical background: Monitoring the quality of psychotherapy on a regular basis is crucial for adaptive indications and for maintaining high standards. This can be accomplished using measures that address central aspects of the ther...

Open access: http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2018-23951-001.pdf Abstract: The alliance continues to be one of the most investigated variables related to success in psychotherapy irrespective of theoretical orientation. We define and illustrate the alliance (also conceptualized as therapeutic alliance, helping alliance or working alliance) and then...

Objective: There is little evidence-based knowledge of how psychotherapists should handle both sudden gains and more gradual session-by-session changes, either in general or in individuals suffering from generalized anxiety disorder. Methods: Using an ABAB crossed-therapist randomized clinical implementation trial design (N = 80 patients and 20...

The working alliance (WA) has been widely identified as the key concept for psychotherapy and allied health care services. The WA, measured at different phases of diverse kinds of therapies, has been shown to robustly predict posttreatment outcomes. But the way the clients' conceptualization of the alliance evolves overtime, and the relation betwee...

The concept of alliance reflects the collaborative relationship between a clinician and a patient, defined as consisting of three elements: a) the agreement on the goals of treatment; b) the agreement on a task or series of tasks; c) the development of a bond. Although much of the theory and research on the alliance comes from the domain of psychot...

Objective Recent research suggests that personality traits can be changed by psychological interventions. However, it is unclear whether these intended personality changes can be maintained or merely reflect ephemeral shifts. Method The present study reports 1‐year follow‐up effects of a 3‐month digital intervention for personality trait change. P...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This study aimed to develop and test algorithms to determine the individual relevance of two psychotherapeutic change processes (i.e., mastery and clarification) for outcome prediction. We measured process and outcome variables in a naturalistic outpatient sample treated with an integrative treatment for a variety of diagnoses (n=608) during the fi...

Objective: A great deal of research addresses the mental health implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the general population. Little is known about the implica- tions for mental health of help-seeking outpatients and for the effectiveness of men- tal health services. The present study investigated the mental health and treatment response of hel...

Background: Social rewards (e.g., social feedback, praise, and social interactions) are fundamental to social learning and relationships across the life span. Exposure to social rewards is linked to activation in key brain regions, that are impaired in major depression. This is the first summary of neuroimaging literature on social reward processi...

The desire to change one's personality traits has been shown to be stronger if people are dissatisfied with associated aspects of their life. While evidence for the effects of interventions on personality trait change is increasing, it is unclear whether these lead to subsequent improvements in the satisfaction with various domains of life. In this...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

This book is based on the assumption that skills and methods contribute to the outcome of psychotherapy in addition to many other elements, such as the client, the therapist, the therapeutic relationship, and external factors. We suggest that what therapists do makes a meaningful difference, although there are often a number of skills and methods t...

Background Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in men is complicated by the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) often leading to reluctance toward psychotherapy, therapy interfering processes, or premature termination. In addition, it has been shown that men with MDD have a significantly increased risk of being hypogona...

Mediale Präsenz und gesellschaftliche Sichtbarkeit psychischer Belastungen haben während der Pandemie zugenommen. Schon fast unüberschaubar viel Forschung widmet sich der Fragestellung, wie stark und auf welche Weise die Pandemie die Psyche beeinflusste – mit teilweise deutlich divergierenden Schlussfolgerungen. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblic...

Objective: Although interpersonal problems are assumed to play an important role in the treatment of depression and anxiety, meta-analytic attempts to explore the association between interpersonal problems and outcome in psychotherapy for these patients are missing. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analytic synthesis of the...

Objective: In process-outcome research, there is a growing body of literature investigating the therapeutic mechanisms underlying the promotion of positive change. This study investigated the between- and within-patient effects of problem mastery and motivational clarification on outcome in patients receiving two variations of cognitive therapies...

Transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (TD-CBT) may facilitate treatment of emotional disorders. We investigate short- and long-term efficacy of TD-CBT for emotional disorders in individual, group, and Internet-based settings in randomized controlled trials (PROSPERO CRD42019141512). Two independent reviewers screened results from PubMe...

Objective: In psychotherapy, strength-based methods (SBM) represent efforts to build on patients' strengths while addressing the deficits and challenges that led them to come to therapy. SBM are incorporated to some extent in all major psychotherapy approaches, but data on their unique contribution to psychotherapy efficacy is scarce. Methods: F...

Background: Meta-analytic research shows early response to psychotherapy to predict depression and anxiety outcomes at posttreatment. However, little is known about which variables explain differences in early response. Moreover, for patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), there is limited research on whether early response predict longe...

b> Objective: Psychotherapists differ in their treatment effectiveness as measured by the therapy outcome of their patients. One possible factor for therapist effects seems to be the therapists’ interpersonal skills. Therapist assessments of interpersonal skills have demonstrated sufficient predictive validity, but little is known about underlying...

People differ in the way they live their daily lives. For some people, daily life is characterized by multiple and diverse experiences, while others have more stability and routine in their lives. However, little is known about how variety in daily life relates to the expression of personality states. The present study examined within-person associ...

Working Memory (WM) training has shown promise in supporting cognitive functioning in older adult populations, but effects that generalize beyond the trained task have been inconsistent. Targeting cognitive processes in isolation might be a limiting factor given that metacognitive and motivational factors have been shown to impact older adults’ eng...

Background: Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in men is complicated by the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) often leading to reluctance towards psychotherapy, therapy interfering processes, or premature termination. In addition, it has been shown that men with MDD have a significantly increased risk of being hypogo...

Recent intervention research has shown that personality traits can be modified through psychological interventions. However, it is unclear whether reported effects represent changes in the trait domain or only some facets or items. Using data ( N = 552) from a recent intervention trial, the present study examined the effects of a digital-coaching i...

Recent intervention research has shown that personality traits can be modified through psychological interventions. However, it is unclear whether reported effects represent changes in the trait domain or only some facets or items. Using data (N = 552) from a recent intervention trial (Stieger et al., 2021) the present study examined the effects of...

open access: Hintergrund: Psychotherapeut*innen unterscheiden sich in ihrer Behandlungseffektivität gemessen am Therapieergebnis ihrer Patient*innen. Ein möglicher Faktor für Therapeuteneffekte scheint in den interpersonellen Fähigkeiten der Therapeut*innen zu liegen. Therapeuten-Assessments für interpersonelle Fähigkeiten konnten hinreichend prädi...

Angst ist ein zentraler Bestandteil des menschlichen Erlebens und Verhaltens. Überzogene, klinische relevante Ängste sind nicht ausschließlich phobischer, situationsgebundener Natur, sondern sie können sich auch auf emotive Erwartungen, Grundannahmen und Verhaltenstendenzen beziehen. Der vorliegende Beitrag bietet einen Überblick über aktuelle Mode...

Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), GAD often shows a chronic clinical course and common deterioration after treatment. Many trials have examined the efficacy of treatments in GAD, but little is known about intake predictors of long-term treatment outcomes. This study examine...

Objectives: This paper presents a randomized controlled trial on assimilative integration, which is aimed at integrating elements from other orientations within one approach to enrich its conceptual and practical repertoire. Elements from Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) were integrated into a form of cognitive behavior therapy: Psychological Therapy...

Objective Intervention integrity is the degree to which the study intervention is delivered as intended. This article presents the RIPI-f checklist (Reporting Integrity of Psychological Interventions delivered face-to-face) and summarizes its development methods. RIPI-f proposes guidance for reporting intervention integrity in evaluative studies of...

Background Recent findings indicated that mental disorders are associated with both an up-regulation of negative affect and a down-regulation of positive affect (PA) as distinct processes. Established treatment approaches focus on the modification of problems and negative affect only. Experimental paradigms in healthy samples and research on streng...

Objectives: There is limited information on how a change in patients' expectations over time results in symptom change in psychotherapy. This study aimed to investigate the changes in patients' expectations and symptoms during treatment and across follow-up as well as to determine the within- and between-patient relationships between two types of...

Background Although worry is well-known to share a robust relationship with psychopathology, whether this association is higher in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) versus other anxiety disorders and depressive disorder, and clinical versus nonclinical populations is unclear.Methods We conducted a meta-analysis in which the association between wor...

Objective: The therapeutic alliance has been studied in group interventions, but its relationship to patient outcome is still controversial. This study systematically reviewed the association of both the member-leader and member-group alliance with patient outcomes, and assessed the effects of several theoretically informed moderators. Method: A...

Background: The working alliance refers to an important relationship quality between health professionals and clients that robustly links to treatment success. Recent research shows that clients can develop an affective bond with chatbots. However, few research studies have investigated whether this perceived relationship is affected by the social...

Objective: This study explores in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) to what degree therapists' perceptions of their patients as interpersonally challenging (IC) is explained by the therapist or patient effects, if baseline patients' characteristics predict IC, and if IC is related to outcome. Method: Eight...

Objective: This meta-analysis examined the relative efficacy of bona fide psychotherapy conditions in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) from posttreatment to follow-up in adults. Methods: Omnibus tests of relative efficacy across bona fide psychotherapies for primary and secondary outcomes were conducted. Longitudinal multilevel subgroup analys...

Flirting situations are opportunities to behave in extraverted ways. However, it is not clear whether engaging in flirting behavior predicts extraversion. The current study explored whether extraversion increases following a 3‐h flirt training and compared two training routes to flirting. A two‐arm randomized pre‐post design with two active conditi...

C&BP commemoranding Aaron T. Beck's work. The alliance highlights the qualities of coordination, sincerity, and trust that run through the various (CBT) interventions. Alliance emerges as one of the best-studied process characteristics in psychotherapy, with hundreds of studies on different orientations, treatment conditions, and mental health serv...

A highly relevant but provocative research question is whether and how one can intentionally change personality traits through psychological interventions, given that traits are relatively stable by definition. Recently, research has begun to investigate personality change through intervention in nonclinical populations. One attractive and innovati...

The assessment of safety data has become a standard across many clinical interventions. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the extent to which harm is addressed within psychotherapy study protocols. The review includes study protocols of randomized controlled trials published between 2004 and 2017 investigating the effects of psych...

Die neuropsychologische Behandlungsstrategie ist grundsätzlich ein sehr individuelles Vorgehen auf der Grundlage der diagnostischen Ergebnisse. Während der Therapie soll über gezielte Aktivierung der geschädigten neuronalen Netzwerke sowie Kompensation funktioneller Defizite durch die Nutzung intakter Fähigkeiten und das Erlernen neuer Fähigkeiten...

Neuropsychologische Störungen bezeichnen u. a. Störungen der Aufmerksamkeit, des Gedächtnisses und der exekutiven Funktionen, sowie Verhaltensstörungen und emotional-affektive Störungen. Diese treten häufig in unterschiedlichen Konstellationen nach einer Erkrankung oder Verletzung des Gehirns auf. Neuropsychologische Diagnostik und Therapie dient d...

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of changes in interpersonal cognitions on outcome during cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and how these effects are moderated by patients' interpersonal problems at intake. Method: A sample of 80 adult patients diagnosed with GAD who were undergoing C...

Worry is a central feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although worry is related to anxiety and maintained by beliefs that worry is uncontrollable, there is scarce research on how individuals with GAD react to worry episodes in their daily life and how their positive experiences might impact reactions to worry episodes. The current study...

Free access see above DOI: Estimating the reproducibility of psychotherapy effects is essential. This is particularly crucial for trials with large effects, as the inclusion of false-positive trials can lead to erroneous conclusions about treatment efficacy in research syntheses. We identified 184 papers, of which 30 referred to treatment outcomes...

The study aimed to: (1) Identify distinct trajectories of change in depressive symptoms by mid-treatment during psychotherapy for late-life depression with executive dysfunction; (2) examine if nonresponse by mid-treatment predicted poor response at treatment end; and (3) identify baseline characteristics predicting an early nonresponse trajectory...

BACKGROUND The working alliance refers to an important relationship quality between health professionals and clients that robustly links to treatment success. Recent research shows that clients can develop an affective bond with chatbots. However, few research studies have investigated whether this perceived relationship is affected by the social r...

Positive patient-rated psychotherapy outcome expectation at pre- or early treatment is associated with posttreatment improvement. However, there is limited research on patients’ change in outcome expectation across therapy and participant factors that predict both pretreatment outcome expectation and expectation change. The present study aimed to e...

Open access: click DOI above to download the manuscript. Background: There is cumulating evidence that working memory (WM) processing is impaired in individuals suffering from a psychosomatic and a psychological disorder. However, it is unclear how repetitive negative thinking (RNT), depressive symptoms, and patient characteristics (i.e., age and i...

Due to their predictive abilities, therapist interpersonal behavior is of great relevance for psychotherapy. However, there is a lack of knowledge about its stability inside but also outside of the therapy room within and between therapists. The current study investigates interpersonal behavior of trainee therapists (N = 20) as perceived by 4 patie...

Objective: The relationship between the therapeutic alliance and outcome has been supported consistently over time. More recently, studies have examined therapist effects in the alliance-outcome relationship and came up with somewhat mixed findings. The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend previous meta-analytic work using a much larg...

Abstract: This paper describes an adaptation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale to the Buddhist religious tradition (CBRS) and a validation in Vietnam. The sample included data from 421 Viet�namese Buddhists (300 females, 121 males), aged 17 to 71 years (M = 35.03, SD = 13.09). The results provided evidence for good psychometric properties of t...

Background Individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder are characterized by chronically low heart rate variability (HRV) compared to healthy individuals during resting state conditions. However, when examining HRV and HR in response to a stressor, mixed results have been obtained when comparing anxious and non-anxious groups. Methods The primar...

Significance Personality traits have consequences and are malleable throughout the lifespan. However, it is unclear if and how personality traits can be changed in desired directions. A 3-mo digital personality change intervention was deployed, and a large-scale randomized controlled trial ( n = 1,523) was conducted to examine the effects of intend...

Personality traits predict important life outcomes such as success in love and work life, wellbeing, health, and longevity. Given these positive relations to important outcomes, economists, policy-makers, and scientists have proposed intervening to change personality traits to promote positive life outcomes. However, non-clinical interventions to c...

This paper describes an adaptation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale to the Buddhist religious tradition (CBRS) and a validation in Vietnam. The sample included data from 421 Vietnamese Buddhists (300 females, 121 males), aged 17 to 71 years (M=35.03, SD=13.09). The results provided evidence for good psychometric properties of the short, inter...

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Ansätze, wie die Wirkungsweise von Psychotherapie erklärt werden kann. Basierend auf dem biopsychosozialen Rahmenmodell postuliert die evidenzbasierte Praxis einen Rahmen des professionellen psychotherapeutischen Handelns. Grundsätzlich haben alle an der Therapie beteiligten Persone...

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Die Psychotherapieforschung zu therapeutischen Wirkfaktoren bei Kindern steckt in den Kinderschuhen. Mit dem Stundenbogen für Kinder und Jugendliche Patientenversion (SBKJ-P) wurde ein entsprechendes Messinstrument entwickelt. Die erfassten Wirkfaktoren sind Problemaktualisierung, Ressourcenaktivierung, P...

Abstract Objective: A meta-analysis revealed a positive correlation between patients’ optimistic baseline, or early treatment, outcome expectation (OE) and posttreatment improvement (Constantino, Vîslă, et al., [2018]. A meta-analysis of the association between patients’ early treatment outcome expectation and their posttreatment outcomes. Psychoth...