Affect Regulation as factor in sex offender treatment -- findings of two contrasting clients
(2018) 49th international annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (27.June.2018)
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- Abstract
- Aim: At the present state of affairs, forensic treatment of sexual offenders predominantly focuses on cognitive change. Some theoretical models and research findings, however, suggest that emotional processes underlie offenders' cognitive schema's and behaviour and thus should be addressed in therapy as well. The present study addresses two major research questions: 1. Does emotional change occur throughout a comprehensive inpatient psychotherapy program for sex offenders? 2. Is there an incremental value of an emotion-focused experiential psychotherapy (EFEP) in such a program? Methods: We use a quasi-experimental ABCA single case design in a clinical setting to address these questions (A = pre-treatment baseline, B=treatment program without EFEP, C=treatment program with EFEP, A=post-treatment baseline). The Difficulties of Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Observer Measure of Affect Regulation (OMAR) will be used on respectively a weekly and monthly basis to assess emotional change. Furthermore, changes in negative affectivity will be assessed by means of mass spectrometry of saliva samples on a monthly basis. The data will be analysed by means of mixed quantitative-qualitative methods. Results: In this paper we will present the findings of two single case studies that are contrasting in terms of under and over regulation of affect. Discussion: Strengths of this study include detailed analysis of the data at the level of different single cases, multi-method assessment of process and outcome, and the use of a biological outcome-indicator. Shortcomings of the study include the lack of correlations with outcome in terms of recidivism.
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Gunst, E., Desmet, M., & Willemsen, J. (2018). Affect Regulation as factor in sex offender treatment -- findings of two contrasting clients. 49th international annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/110554