The agency where I will distribute my questionnaire is Vantage Point (NCADD-GDA) in
Detroit, MI. This facility serves, on average, about 100+ clients a month and in a wide range of
ways. Most of the clients are between 18 years and older, and live in various areas in/around
Detroit. About 90% of these clients are African Americans, while the rest are a mix between
White/Caucasian, Hispanic, and other racial/ethnic groups.
Vantage Point is a treatment facility which targets families, adults, and children with education,
intervention/prevention, and treatment options regarding addiction. All of the clients have to go
through an initial screening process to even begin to receive services, and afterwards the options
are open for which manner of treatment would be best suited. The decision is made between the
client and his/her own therapist (one which the respective client will have frequent meetings
throughout the process). The main forms of education/prevention/treatment revolve around
treatment groups (ones that focus on alcohol/drugs, and others are in specifics like families and
teen and so forth), which usually have a size of 10-12 people; the two main groups are Intensive
Out-Patient and Out-Patient.
I facilitate an Out-Patient group; this group focuses on education/maintenance of sobriety from
all forms of mind/mood altering chemicals. The group usually has about ten people, and we meet
frequently two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). In this group we practice a strict code of
abstinence and are regularly breathalyzing and drug screening our clients on a randomly selected
basis. Many of the clients who are in my group have only about two months left in the program,
so many of our topics are about sharing strategies to keep and maintain on this positive path.
The questionnaire is designed to measure client’s motivation for therapy. It will be used in this
capacity to show if any of the clients have the motivation to keep on with their selected therapists
after finishing group, on an exclusive and continuous schedule.
CLIENT MOTIVATION FOR THERAPY SCALE (CMOTS)
The scale selected to measure client motivation is called the Client Motivation for Therapy
Scale (CMOTS), which was developed by Luc Pelletier, Kim Tuson and Nagwa Haddad from
the University of Ottawa. The published peer-reviewed journal article which explains in great
detail the development, instrument, and implementation is attached to this paper.
The Client Motivation for Therapy Scale (CMOTS) is a 24-item instrument designed to
measure client motivation for therapy. The creators of this scale use the Self Determination
Theory as well as the Cognitive Evaluation Theory (1985) for the backbone of this instrument.
The instrument, itself, relies on the six different types of motivation proposed by Deci and Ryan
and uses that to correlate with the six subscales composed in this instrument. It is through the
gauging of where a client’s motivation is coming from (internally or for other various reasons) as
to whether that has more of an impact on the use of psychotherapy and mental health.
The CMOTS contains six subscales: intrinsic motivation, integrated regulation, identified
regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. The total is easily scored
by summing the individual items for each subscale. Out of the totals, and average is given and
the higher the average, the more motivation in that area and so forth.
The CMOTS was developed and tested with 138 clients; in the initial trial 375 questionnaires
were given to therapists, but only 144 packages were returned. Out of the 144, 6 were incomplete
or did not meet the inclusion criteria. Pelletier, Tuson, and Haddad (1997) stated that “Of the
remaining 138 questionnaires, 83 were women whose age averaged 24.8 years and 55 were men
whose age averaged 28.3 years”. Also noted was the education level and other socio-economic
factors (which fit for 90% of the participants) had, which was noted by Pelletier, Tuson, and
Haddad (1997) to be “…more than 12 years of education, 83% had an annual income higher than
$20,000, 87% were employed, and 68% were married or living with a significant other”
According to Pelletier, Tuson, and Haddad (1997), the “Results suggest that the CMOTS
possesses a satisfactory structure corresponding to the different types of motivation postulated
and adequate internal consistency (alpha values were between .70 and .92).” Also, its noted that
“Correlations among the motivation subscales form a simplex pattern that, in general, provides
support for the continuum of self-determination” (Pelletier, Tuson, and Haddad, 1997).
There were a lot of factors from this measurement and sample pool that were not addressed,
which reign true with my population: The matter of outside forces playing a part (job, economic
stability, children) also, there is no mention of the race of any participants. The exclusion of
people who were on medication I feel is very huge, along with education and spousal support
and the factors of therapist interventions. My population would not be getting this instrument
until the end of treatment; maybe that has an effect on how they view therapy. All of these
factors will be addressed in my study. Also, in order to get maximum returns for each
questionnaire, they will be administered to each client on the last week of their visit with a
therapist (in the therapists’ office).
VANTAGE POINT CLIENT MOTIVATION FOR THERAPY SCALE
Instructions: The purpose of this questionnaire is to examine client’s motivations for therapy,
and through that, determine if therapy would be beneficial to continue on after completion of the
program. All the information contained is confidential, and only your therapist will have the
results. Please fill out the form completely.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1. Name:______________________________________________________
2. Current Age:____
3. Highest Level of Education:_____________________________________
4. Ethnicity/Race (circle):
1) Black/African American
2) White/Caucasian
3) Hispanic/Latino American
4) Asian American
5) Other, please specify____________________
5. Are you on medication? If so, please list:_______________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
6. Are you employed?
1) yes
2) no
7. Are you married?
1) yes
2) no
MEASUREMENT IN SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT
10/12/2013
SW 4810 SEC 002
Hussian Fry
Reference List
Corcoran, K. & Fischer, J. (2013). Client Motivation for Therapy Scale (CMOTS)
Measures for Clinical Practice and Research, Volume 2: Adults, 168-171
Deci, E. & Ryan, R. (1985) Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human
Behavior. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester
Pelletier, L., Tuson, K., & Haddad, N. (1997) Client Motivation for Therapy Scale: A
Measure of Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Amotivation for Therapy.
Journal Of Personality Assessment, 68, 414-435.