# Development of the Therapeutic Language Coding System (SICOLENTE): Reliability and construct validity wiki by: Alberto Zamanillo ---------- **Citation**: Rodríguez-Morejón A, Zamanillo A, Iglesias G, Moreno-Gámez A, Navas-Campaña D, Moreno-Peral P, et al. (2018) Development of the therapeutic language coding system (SICOLENTE): Reliability and construct validity. PLoS ONE 13(12): e0209751. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209751 ## Abstract Since the use of language is a core aspect of psychotherapy, its study requires instruments that allow for further research. The aim of this study is to present an observational instrument capable of analyzing the language used in psychotherapeutic settings, both by therapists and clients. The **SICOLENTE** instrument was applied to two different samples: *The Three Approaches to Psychotherapy* film and a naturalistic sample. 7710 utterances from 31 sessions (three from the demonstration film and 28 from a naturalistic setting) were coded. Two studies were conducted: in the first study, inter and intra coder reliability (dimension and category levels) and Generalizability theory analyzes were assessed, whilst in the second study, construct validity was tested with several hypotheses. The final instrument resulted in 20 categories with three dimensions: **Conversational Act** (7 categories), **Therapeutic topic** (6 categories) and **Content** (7 categories). The three dimensions showed excellent inter and intra coder reliability and the generalizability coefficients were excellent. Out of the 24 validity hypothesis proposed,19 were accepted. The finding suggests that the SICOLENTE is a reliable and valid instrument that can be applied to investigate the performance of various theoretical models. Its three dimensional structure gives it the flexibility to be able to carry out macroscopic or microscopic language research. ---------- ## Using the SICOLENTE instrument #### Categories and coding procedure A manual of definition and coding procedure is available in this repository: [English manual][1] and [Spanish manual][2] > Soon we will publish the **template** that we use to code with the LINCE software. The software can be found here: http://lom.observesport.com/ Go to "descargas" (download) or use this direct link: http://lom.observesport.com/Lince_1.4.exe #### Reliability procedure > Soon we will publish in this repository a guide on the procedures that > we usually perform to ensure the reliability of the studies in which > we use the SICOLENTE. [1]: https://osf.io/5734n/ [2]: https://osf.io/35g8z/