The topics of psychotherapy research: An analysis based on keywords

Abstract

A content analysis of the representative Journals in the field of psychothera-py research has been performed. The analysis focused on the articles' keywords. We analyzed 7,086 works published in 17 Journals, in the period 2005-2011, using a two-step multidimensional procedure. Firstly, a cluster analysis led to the extrapolation of 4 groups of keywords, each of them interpreted as the marker of a topic active within the literature. Secondly, a factorial analysis was carried out in order to picture the thematic orientation of the most representative Journals, namely the main topics they focus on and how they differ from each other in this respect. © 2012 Italian Area Group of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.