Whats to do and whats to say: self-reports emitted by behavior therapists

The present study had the objective of verifying the relationships among the self-reports produced by three behavior therapists (with differing length of professional experience) about their own behavior when interacting with their patients and the respective behavior that in fact occurred. Nine sessions were filmed and transcribed in full. Seven days after the session, a questionnaire was handed out; only in the third session did the therapists attend the filming before the interview. The basis for the categories of analysis was the verbal operant known as tact. Therapist a presented the highest indices of distortion in the self-reports, followed by Therapist b: both presented frequencies of unstable performances; Therapist c presented the lowest indices of distortion and the most steady performance, and was the only one that stated that he did not remember what 1 Instituto de Terapia e Estudo do Comportamento Humano, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Campinas. Mestre em Filosofia, nucleo de concentracao em Etica, pela PUC-Campinas; Doutor em Psicologia como Profissao e Ciencia pela PUC-Campinas. E-mail: itechcampinas@yahoo.com.br. 2 Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Campinas, Hospital de Cirurgia Plastica Crânio Facial – Sobrapar. Professora do Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Psicologia, PUC-Campinas. O que se faz e o que se diz: auto-relatos emitidos por terapeutas comportamentais Rev. Bras. de Ter. Comp. Cogn., Campinas-SP, 2009, Vol. XI, no 1, 132-153 133 occurred during the session. The results corroborate the behavioral analysis theory: Self-reports about past events tend to be imprecise. Key-words: Self-report, Behavior therapy, Behavioral analysis theory.