TYPE Original Research
PUBLISHED 13 October 2022
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998658
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Fco. Pablo Holgado-Tello,
National University of Distance
Education (UNED), Spain
REVIEWED BY
Miguel Pic,
South Ural State University, Russia
José Ángel Martínez-Huertas,
Universidad Nacional de Educación
a Distancia, Spain
*CORRESPONDENCE
Eulàlia Arias-Pujol
eulaliaap@blanquerna.url.edu
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Quantitative Psychology
and Measurement,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
RECEIVED 20 July 2022
ACCEPTED 30 August 2022
PUBLISHED 13 October 2022
CITATION
Arias-Pujol E, Mestres M, Miralbell J,
Bachs N and Anguera MT (2022)
Implementation and evaluation in low
intensity intervention programs from
the CONNECT perspective of mixed
methods: Application in a case of an
autistic child.
Front. Psychol. 13:998658.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998658
COPYRIGHT
© 2022 Arias-Pujol, Mestres, Miralbell,
Bachs and Anguera. This is an
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does not comply with these terms.
Implementation and evaluation
in low intensity intervention
programs from the CONNECT
perspective of mixed methods:
Application in a case of an
autistic child
Eulàlia Arias-Pujol
1
*, Marina Mestres
2
, Júlia Miralbell
2,3
,
Natalia Bachs
1
and M. Teresa Anguera
3
1
Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sports Sciences Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University,
Barcelona, Spain,
2
Carrilet Research and Education Center, Barcelona, Spain,
3
Faculty of
Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
There has been a comprehensive development over the last few years of low
intensity intervention programs that are implemented within a user context
and that are made up of everyday life activities, and it has been necessary
to adapt the necessary methodological channels in order to guarantee an
adequate resolution pathway. The mixed method perspective offers a suitable
framework, and observational methodology – in itself considered mixed
method – is appropriate for studying the implementation and evaluation of
low intensity intervention programs, allowing the development of the QUAL-
QUAN-QUAL stages that correspond to the connect integration pathway of
mixed methods. In this work it was applied to a single case, in a low intensity
intervention, retrieving valuable information obtained, but systematizing it and
applying quantitizing to the qualitative data that was treated quantitatively
in a rigorous manner. The aim was to analyze the psychotherapist-patient
interaction in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in which we sought to identify
which of the therapist’s techniques stimulated actions of reciprocal social
interaction in the child, and which techniques inhibited non reciprocal
social interactions. The observational design was nomothetic, follow-up, and
multidimensional. The patient was a 4-year-old boy with a diagnosis of
severe autism spectrum disorder. We used an ad hoc observation instrument
combining a field format and a category system. Interobserver agreement
was analyzed quantitatively by Cohen’s kappa using the free QSEQ5 software
program. Polar coordinate analysis was carried out using the free program
HOISAN 2.0. Polar coordinate analysis allows us to obtain an inter-relational
map of the connections detected between focal behavior established in each
case and the different categories. The results provide objective evidence –
backed up by the application of polar-coordinate-based data analysis –
that within a framework of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the techniques
Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.org