CONFRONTATION AS A METHOD OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION

The confrontation procedures described here require that the participants—parents, teachers, children, counselors or anyone else who wishes to deal with an interpersonal problem—observe and evaluate overt, concrete aspects of behavior in interpersonal perceptions. These procedures were one of three interventions applied to emotional and behavior problems of elementary school children. The other interventions consisted of brief child psychotherapy and parent counseling. Over a 2-year period, 30 cases were seen in each intervention group. The sample covered a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds.Videotapes, which were an important part of the confrontation, were obtained in a waiting room during the familiesʼ initial visit to the clinic. The families and school personnel participated in other procedures as well, but this presentation focuses only on the videotape material.In the confrontation, each family member individually viewed five to six brief sections of the videotape and rated each of the persons interacting in each scene (e.g., Helenʼs behavior in relation to the father). The rating instrument used was an adjective rating scale with known reliability and validity. Later, the family members were shown profiles of their own ratings and also profiles of ratings of the same material made by trained observers. Similarities and contrasts emphasized by the graphic patterns in the profiles, particularly when seen in conjunction with concurrent replay of videotapes, stimulated evaluation and exploration of the behaviors by the participants themselves. The consultant served as a technical resource whose function was to present the information obtained as clearly, concretely and objectively as possible. He refrained from interpretations, suggestions or advice, leaving all questions about the utilization of the information to those concerned with the childʼs daily life.Analysis of the relative effectiveness of the three methods of intervention focused on school grades and observersʼ ratings of behavior in the classroom and on the playground. Preliminary results indicate that the feedback (confrontation) group generally showed more improvement on both of these measures as compared to cases who were seen in either psychotherapy or parent counseling.We have begun to use videotapes and other methods of confrontation in a variety of ways. This includes videotaping of children in the school setting and providing teachers, parents and the children themselves with v