paper

Draft of Introduction and Literature Review

Jaquetta R. Stevens

Southern New Hampshire University

Research Methods

February 3rd, 2019

Research question: “Does self-disclosure of the therapist improve eating disorder treatment.” 

Hypothesis: Self-disclosure of the therapist improves eating disorder treatment.

About Research

The key variables for this research are self-disclosure of the therapist and eating disorder treatment. This research will focus on online research whereby participants will be recruited from an eating disorder charity database. The participants will be asked about the status of their condition and how they feel about having the disorder. The neutral condition will be that the therapists will disclose their sexuality and their feelings towards the patients’ conditions and personality (Marziliano, Pessin, Rosenfeld, & Breitbart, 2018). 

Draft of Introduction and Literature Review

Introduction

The research topic is essentially about self-disclosure of the therapist and the improvement in eating disorder treatment. What would be problematic in this case, is how to determine whether self-disclosure of a therapist will improve eating disorder treatment. The research seeks to answer the question; does self-disclosure of the therapist improve eating disorder treatment? The study will, therefore, examine the topic in detail and come up with convincing answers to the research question.

The research pertaining to the topic is of great importance and is extremely relevant in seeking to propose ways in which the eating disorder conditions can be treated. Clients who were diagnosed with an eating disorder, from prior experience has made it difficult for many therapists who treated these individuals. Many of these therapists have not been able to disclose this particular condition. If the therapists disclose the eating disorder by themselves, will the eating disorder treatment improve? The study, therefore, seeks to approve or disapprove the hypothesis that self-disclosure of the therapists improves eating disorder treatment. When the therapists disclose their conditions their self-esteem is likely to improve and hence they will continue with treatment of the disorder condition.

Many researchers have carried out research on this particular area of study. The research studies on this particular topic are contained in various peer-reviewed articles and various publications. These publications examine deeply the issue of eating disorder conditions among therapists. The research will utilize various articles from the journal of psychotherapy and psychotherapy research. These publications demonstrated vast knowledge of this research topic of discussion. Although many researchers have conducted studies related to the issue of eating disorder conditions among the therapists, they have not given satisfactory answers on the issue of self-disclosure among the therapists. There are different research designs which the previous researchers used. The previous research studies showed that there are some merits and demerits of using the qualitative research design methodology.

The data of previous studies were collected mostly from primary sources. The data collection methods included: questionnaires, observations, and interviews. These methods were efficient and effective in data collection. According to (Tantillo, 2004) the individuals who have eating disorders may express their emotions. Through emotions, they express the lack of interest in food. Women who are undergoing therapy may be very conscious and hence show signs of not wanting to take food. There are activities which may help to improve treatment on eating disorder conditions. Therapists may not be comfortable to share what they are going through. They may not even disclose to their close relatives or friends their issue.

This previous study will be useful to the research because it will give useful information on the difficulty of disclosure of an eating disorder. The types of disclosures and non-disclosures will also be determined. The article by (Kass & Wilfley, July 14, 2015) tried to highlight the issue of relational therapy. This is one of the ways to treat the patients psychologically. This kind of therapy is used to treat the eating disorder. Relational therapy applies the use self-disclosure mechanism when treating the therapists. Eating disorders conditions need intervention mechanisms which have evidence. Diagnosis is usually done in order to evaluate treatment; the techniques and methods used across patients with eating disorder conditions should vary. This is because their responses to treatment are different. The research will, therefore, emphasize on relation therapy since it adopts self-disclosure means.

There are various ways in which adolescent who have eating disorder conditions may be treated (Lock, 2010). The article also highlights signs of progress and challenges when treating adolescents. The author also examines in detail the eating disorder condition in the adolescents. In addition, the text will highlight the consequences of self-disclosure by the adolescents. The information from this study will help to approve the hypothesis of the research. There are many issues with regard to eating disorder conditions (Natenshon, 2017). It sheds more light on the issue. The article highlights the causes, preventive measures and the treatment of eating disorder conditions. This article offers rich knowledge of the subject of eating disorder conditions. Which will make this knowledge useful to the researcher.

The research article by (Simonds & Spokes 2017) examines the mechanism therapeutic alliance as a way of monitoring and controlling eating disorder conditions. It’s important to develop a significant therapeutic alliance. This will help to improve the therapist’s condition. The study will examine the knowledge gap which exists in relation to the therapeutic alliance and fill the existing gap. Clinicians have various experiences as they work in clinics which treat eating disorder conditions (Young, 2012). These are clinicians who have had the chance work in eating disorder clinics. The patients in these clinics may have recovered from eating disorder conditions. The document will aid the researcher because it outlines the significance of self-disclosure as one way of treating eating disorder conditions.

There are some advantages and disadvantages associated with the qualitative research design. The data collected are reliable since it will involve gathering information directly from the respondents. This information will be extremely useful in answering the research question.

There are research errors associated with this particular design. There is a difficulty in discovering mechanisms of doing away with errors in research design and methodology. These errors are likely to have a great impact on the outcome of the research. Pilot testing needs to be conducted in order to find ways of handling the research errors which may arise. There is also an issue of the participants not answering questions correctly. Some clients may fear that the information they give will not be confidential. The design which will be appropriate for the study is the one which will answer the research question directly. Previous researchers have always gathered information from primary sources.

Implementing information from previous researchers, the study will examine whether self-disclosure has been effective in treating eating disorder conditions. The appropriateness of the research design will be clearly determined. The data will also be gathered using online surveys. The current and up to date information on the topic is very useful to the research. Review of previous studies also significant. It will assist the researcher to know existing gaps, weaknesses, strengths and limitations of previous research.

Conclusion

The previous studies related to the topic of eating disorders and self-disclosure is important. They enrich the researcher with sufficient knowledge of the topic. As indicated above, the previous research helps the researcher to expound more on the topic and come up with new information related to the topic. The research will answer if self-disclosure is the best treatment method for patients with eating disorder conditions.

Reference

Fuertes, J. N., Moore, M., & Ganley, J. (2018). Therapists’ and clients’ ratings of real relationship, attachment, therapist self-disclosure, and treatment progress. Psychotherapy Research,

Kass, A., Kolko, R., & Wilfley, D. (July 14, 2015). Psychological Treatments for Eating Disorders. PMC.

Lock, J. (September 2010). Treatment of Adolescent Eating Disorders: Progress and Challenges. PMC, 51(3): 207–216.

Marziliano, A., Pessin, H., Rosenfeld, B., & Breitbart, W. (2018). Measuring Cohesion and Self-Disclosure in Psychotherapy Groups for Patients with Advanced Cancer: An Analysis of the Psychometric Properties of the Group Therapy Experience Scale. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy

Natenshon, A. (2017). Eating Disorders: A Treatment Apart. The Unique Use of the Therapist’s Self in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. DOI: 10.5772/65697.

Simonds, L. & Spokes, N. (2017). Therapist self-disclosue and the therapeutic alliance in the treatment of eating problems, Eating Disorders, 25:2, 151-164

Young, Melissa A. (2012). Eating Disorder Clinicians: From Personal Recovery to Supporting Others. Retrieved from Sophia, the St. Catherine University repository website: https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/108