Louis A. Gottschalk - Böcker

The Measurement of Psychological States Through the Content Analysis of Verbal Behavior by Louis A. Gottschalk, M.D., and Goldine C. Gleser, Ph.D., presents a groundbreaking fusion of psychodynamic theory, psychometric methodology, and statistical analysis to advance the scientific study of human behavior. Drawing upon psychoanalytic insights—such as the perception of hidden meanings, the recognition of significant sequences, and the analysis of intrapsychic and interpersonal forces—the authors develop categories of thematic content for the systematic study of verbal expression. These categories are then quantified through probabilistic scales, translating qualitative insights into rigorous, measurable data. By combining modern experimental design with statistical inference, the book demonstrates how probability theory and psychodynamic formulation can work in dialogue, each refining and checking the assumptions of the other. The result is a sophisticated and creative model for understanding psychological states with precision and empirical rigor.Gottschalk and Gleser emphasize the broad potential of content analysis for investigating both interindividual and intraindividual processes, offering tools that can capture the sequential interplay of emotions even within the span of a single psychotherapy session. Their methods extend beyond psychological assessment, showing promise in exploring connections between immediate emotional states and physiological or biochemical functioning, thus bridging psychiatry, psychology, and medicine. At its core, the book argues convincingly that even a brief verbal sample—five minutes of speech—can yield rich and reliable evidence of underlying psychological states. By demonstrating how targeted, empirically validated techniques can illuminate some of psychiatry’s most pressing questions, this volume establishes itself as a major contribution to both clinical practice and the broader scientific understanding of human behavior.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

The Measurement of Psychological States Through the Content Analysis of Verbal Behavior by Louis A. Gottschalk, M.D., and Goldine C. Gleser, Ph.D., presents a groundbreaking fusion of psychodynamic theory, psychometric methodology, and statistical analysis to advance the scientific study of human behavior. Drawing upon psychoanalytic insights—such as the perception of hidden meanings, the recognition of significant sequences, and the analysis of intrapsychic and interpersonal forces—the authors develop categories of thematic content for the systematic study of verbal expression. These categories are then quantified through probabilistic scales, translating qualitative insights into rigorous, measurable data. By combining modern experimental design with statistical inference, the book demonstrates how probability theory and psychodynamic formulation can work in dialogue, each refining and checking the assumptions of the other. The result is a sophisticated and creative model for understanding psychological states with precision and empirical rigor.Gottschalk and Gleser emphasize the broad potential of content analysis for investigating both interindividual and intraindividual processes, offering tools that can capture the sequential interplay of emotions even within the span of a single psychotherapy session. Their methods extend beyond psychological assessment, showing promise in exploring connections between immediate emotional states and physiological or biochemical functioning, thus bridging psychiatry, psychology, and medicine. At its core, the book argues convincingly that even a brief verbal sample—five minutes of speech—can yield rich and reliable evidence of underlying psychological states. By demonstrating how targeted, empirically validated techniques can illuminate some of psychiatry’s most pressing questions, this volume establishes itself as a major contribution to both clinical practice and the broader scientific understanding of human behavior.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

Focusing on language and the assessment of its meaning, this volume concentrates on a method of content analysis developed by the author and Goldine Gleser. Applicable to transcripts of speech or verbal texts, this method uses the grammatical clause as its smallest unit of communication, considers whether or not a verb is transitive and involves an object, or is intransitive and describes a state of being. It derives scores on many scales that have been tested for reliability of scoring and for construct validity with concurrently administered measures, such as rating and self-report scales as well as biochemical and pharmacological criteria. Finally, this volume provides detailed descriptions of the clinical and basic research establishing the validity of these scales, so that a reader can locate studies that have pertinence to any special interest area.A major achievement described in this book is the development of computer software that understands grammar and syntax, can parse natural language, knows most of the words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, has been taught to identify idioms and slang, and is capable of continuing to learn. The program can score all the scales, report whether the scores obtained from a verbal sample are one to three standard deviations from the norms, and suggest APA DSM-IIIR diagnostic classifications the clinician might consider in assessing the patient.

Focusing on language and the assessment of its meaning, this volume concentrates on a method of content analysis developed by the author and Goldine Gleser. Applicable to transcripts of speech or verbal texts, this method uses the grammatical clause as its smallest unit of communication, considers whether or not a verb is transitive and involves an object, or is intransitive and describes a state of being. It derives scores on many scales that have been tested for reliability of scoring and for construct validity with concurrently administered measures, such as rating and self-report scales as well as biochemical and pharmacological criteria. Finally, this volume provides detailed descriptions of the clinical and basic research establishing the validity of these scales, so that a reader can locate studies that have pertinence to any special interest area.A major achievement described in this book is the development of computer software that understands grammar and syntax, can parse natural language, knows most of the words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, has been taught to identify idioms and slang, and is capable of continuing to learn. The program can score all the scales, report whether the scores obtained from a verbal sample are one to three standard deviations from the norms, and suggest APA DSM-IIIR diagnostic classifications the clinician might consider in assessing the patient.

The prospective reader may well ask about the particular merits of this volume, especially in view of several dozen similar offerings, each with its own excellences, and of the easy availability of symposia, conferences, con­ ventional reviews, abstract journals, and serial research reports. In spite of such other attractions, it seems to me that these 34 essays are among the most informative and stimulating which are now available in the areas cov­ ered. The editors have been successful in attracting new articles from many of the most prominent investigators now actively working at research in psychotherapy, who can therefore speak for themselves about what they are doing. Several of the articles have been in the preparatory stage for numerous years. Not only do they represent the vanguard of research, but because of the introduction of relatively new concepts in communication theory in the clinical setting which can be implemented by the new tech­ nology (specifically the use of sound-films and tape), they probably presage the shape of much that is to come. It is commonplace that the history of a science is closely allied to the history of the tools available. Here we see the concepts, attitudes, and working methods on this frontier being set forth frankly and concretely in ways which avoid many of the deficiencies and evasions of previous clini­ cal research.