A Computerized Laboratory for a Systemic Approach to Relational Psychotherapy

Summary

The work is concerned with a computer assisted laboratory for experimental analyses in the human interaction field, built up for the Psychiatric Clinic of Bari University, in collaboration with the Institute of Physics. Data acquisition, reduction, storage and retrieval, statistical analysis and simulation are supported by a programme chain, running on two low-cost alternative computer configurations, a time sharing terminal connected to a general purpose computer system and a small minicomputer.

Although our experiments are carried out using a particular interaction model and interaction test, the structure of the Information System, which permits high data rates to be obtained with no repetitive human intervention, is independent from the experimental technique, requiring only well defined and non—ambiguous data collection and data processing methods.