The Validity and Reliability Study of Therapeutic Alliance Scale: Psychological Counselor Version

Abstract

This study aimed to design a measurement tool for measuring the therapeutic alliance skills of the experts providing psychological counseling services. For the preliminary validity and reliability study of the Therapeutic Alliance Scale, 224 people working as psychological counselors were reached. After the preparation of the data for analysis and establishing the hypotheses, exploratory factor analysis was conducted in the study. As a result of the analysis, the Kaise-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was found as 0.90, and the Barlett test was determined as χ2 = 1343.61 (p <.00). The scale was found to have a three-factor structure as a result of the exploratory factor analysis and varimax rotation techniques carried out. In the factor analysis conducted to determine the construct validity of the therapeutic alliance scale, which could measure the three-factor dimension. For reliability, Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients were analyzed, and as a result, the coefficients for the first, second, and third factors were found as .86, .87, and .68, respectively. After that, first and second level confirmatory factor analysis were done. As a result of the first analysis, the values were found as Chi-Square/Degree of Freedom (563, 114 / 167) = 3.72 and RMSEA= .08. Also, the fit coefficients obtained for the tested model were CFI = .91, GFI = .91, IFI = .90, NFI = .89, and TLI = .91. Similar results were obtained in the second level confirmatory factor analysis.