Interpersonal problems and the psychotherapy context: The construct validity of the IIP

psychodynamic psychotherapy. The interpersonal circumplex was used to categorize patients re-porting interpersonal distress into 1 of 4 problem quadrants: Friendly Dominant, Hostile Dominant, Hostile Submissive, and Friendly Submissive. At several points in treatment, therapists assessed their patients ' personality disturbances, global functioning, and assets and liabilities for therapy. Patients described their in-session experiences using the Therapy Session Report (D. E. Orlinsky & K. I. Howard, 1975). The 4 problem types each had a coherent and distinctive set of correlates. Patients ' interpersonal problems were articulated in therapists ' perceptions and evaluations, and in the kinds of interpersonal and intrapsychic themes (wants, hopes, feelings, behaviors, etc.) that characterized patients ' retrospective accounts of the therapy sessions. The results add to knowledge about the IIP, interpersonal problems, and the psychotherapy context. Interpersonal problems are the characteristic difficulties that an individual experiences in relating to others and are sources of subjective distress (cf. Homey, 1950; Horowitz, 1994; Leary, 1957), Clearly, interpersonal problems are a major reason that people seek psychotherapy (Horowitz, Rosenberg, & Bartholo