Motivational areas rating scale: developing a new tool for studying psychotherapy process and outcome

This article presents theoretical principles, coding modalities, and the first empirical evidences regarding Motivational Areas Rating Scale (MARS), a new tool designed for studying psychotherapeutic process and outcome. The MARS is an observer rating scale, which is codified on the basis of audioregistered psychotherapeutic transcripts. It consists of 16 macroitems, which cover the problematic aspects in four motivational areas (active relational, passive relational, corporeal, and self-realization) from four different perspectives (objective object, subjective object, objective self, subjective self). In preliminary studies, the MARS appears to be reliable, sensitive to change in psychotherapeutic process, practical, and inexpensive. It provides a brief but complete research instrument for assessing patients’ psychological distress. This report contains the full description of the instrument for learning and application by interested users