Motivational Interviewing: Contributions From Structure Determinism

Motivational interviewing is a widely used treatment, introduced by William Miller in 1983. The original target of the method was substance use disorders, but it has since been used to address a variety of other mental health concerns. Because it was developed inductively from clinical insights rath...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Professional psychology, research and practice research and practice, 2021-08, Vol.52 (4), p.368-375
Main Authors: Angelini, Frank J., Efran, Jay S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Constructivism
Determinism
Health problems
Human
Interviews
Mental Health
Motivational Interviewing
Substance Use Disorder
Treatment
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Motivational interviewing is a widely used treatment, introduced by William Miller in 1983. The original target of the method was substance use disorders, but it has since been used to address a variety of other mental health concerns. Because it was developed inductively from clinical insights rather than deductively from a set of theoretical postulates, practitioners have had difficulty understanding how or why the method works. Previous attempts to fill that theoretical gap have not been fully successful. Thus, in this article, we apply principles of structure determinism, a constructivist model, in an attempt to clarify how core aspects of motivational interviewing function and how the method might be strengthened. Public Significance Statement Motivational interviewing is a popular and effective treatment modality that has lacked an adequate theoretical underpinning. In this article, structure determinism-a constructivist theory about how we acquire and share knowledge-is used to help fill that gap, potentially clarifying the operation of the method and improving its utility.
ISSN:0735-7028
1939-1323
DOI:10.1037/pro0000377