The affect-graph as a supervisory technique : theoretical foundations, procedures, and applications

The nature of client and therapist affect displayed during psychotherapy has always been of interest within supervision, although systematic measurement of affect-appraisal has been surprisingly limited. The current article describes an innovative supervisory technique, the Affect Graph, designed to chart the nature and intensity of affect and to study (i) within-rater appraisal differences across affect types and over time, (ii) affect-appraisal variability across gender and cultural diversity, (iii) between-rater (e.g., supervisor-supervisee) appraisal differences, and (iv) the identification of appraisal ratings that consistently deviate from peer/expert-based consensus. The Affect Graph's scoring system and its application in three case-scenarios are illustrated.