Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:57:19.751Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Motivational Interviewing: A Special Ethical Dilemma?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Jacqueline M. J. Withers
Jacqueline M. J. Withers
Affiliation:
Dorset Healthcare NHS Trust
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of the ethical issues in motivational interventions which have recently been raised by Miller (1994). Motivational interviewing is typically used when a therapist perceives a need for behaviour change in someone who is ambivalent about such change. Motivational interviewing aims to evoke motivation by making salient the inconsistency of continuing with a problem behaviour and other longer term or wider life goals. Miller (1994) discussed what was manipulative about this approach and considered both a descriptive and evaluative component. The ethics of motivational interviewing are considered here, within the context of psychological therapy in a general sense, and questions whether the ethical issues relevant to motivational interviewing are different from other psychological interventions. A distinction between the goals and the means of obtaining therapeutic goals is suggested as useful.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 335 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bien, T. H., Miller, W. R., and Boroughs, J. M. (1993). Motivational interviewing with alcohol outpatients. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 21, 347–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. M. and Miller, W. R. (1993). Impact of motivational interviewing on participation and outcome in residential alcoholism treatment. Psychology of Addictive Behaviours 7, 211–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masson, J. (1989). Against therapy. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Miller, W. R., Sovereign, R. G. and Krege, B. (1988). Motivational interviewing with problem drinkers: II. The drinker's check-up as a preventive intervention. Behavioural Psychotherapy 16, 251–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, W. R., Benefield, R. G. and Tonigan, J. S. (1993). Enhancing motivation for change in problem drinking: a controlled comparison of two therapist styles. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61, 455–461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, W. R. (1994). Motivational Interviewing: III. On the ethics of motivational intervention. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 22, 111–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.