Clinical Case Formulation in the Research Program “Subjective Theories”

• Published in: European journal of psychological assessment : official organ of the European Association of Psychological Assessment 2003-09, Vol.19 (3), p.185-194
• Main Author: Wagner, Rudolph F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1015-5759; 2151-2426
• DOI: 10.1027//1015-5759.19.3.185

Clinical case formulation within the research program subjective theories is based on a constructivistic point of view. The relevance of the subjective constructions was first postulated by Kelly (1955) in his personal construct theory. In his model of “man the scientist” Kelly shows the core assumption of a parallelism between naive and scientific theories. Kelly's model was elaborated within the research program subjective theories (RPST). This article shows the clinical case formulation within the RPST with examples of patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis and from chronic back pain. The RPST proposes a two-phase model for the research process of communicative and explanatory validation. In the phase of communicative validation, we are asking whether patients hold subjective theories about their diseases. In the phase of explanatory validation, we are asking whether these theories influence their behavior during illness. The results of the phase of communicative validation reveal that these patients do indeed have differentiated theories about their illnesses and recognize the potential of these ideas to influence the course of their illness. In the phase of explanatory validation, it was also possible to test these subjective theories empirically: Patients view their illnesses realistically and reveal rationally guided coping behavior.