Development of Brief Scales to Monitor Clients' Constructions of Change

This article describes the development and validation of scales to measure clients' outcome optimism, perceived progress, and self-agency related to change in problems presented in therapy. In Study 1, initial confirmatory and subsequent exploratory factor analyses (N= 257) identified effort and persistence as an additional unique factor and guided selection of items to measure the 4 constructs. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis of the revised scales with a new sample (N= 93) confirmed the measurement model. Results of convergent and discriminant validity analyses generally were in the predicted directions. The Perceived Progress scale demonstrated criterion validity with changes in dyadic adjustment and family functioning. The Outcome Optimism and Self-Agency scales showed variability in their relationship to the Perceived Progress scale over the first 3 sessions of therapy.