Lee, Ya-Wen; (2018) Assessment of Mentalizing: the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ). Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Abstract

Mentalizing is the process by which individuals understand themselves and others in terms of mental states. This thesis aimed to revise the earlier version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) and examine the psychometric qualities of the revised RFQ and its clinical practicability. Study 1 explored construct and discriminant validity in a sample of clinical (n=102) and non-clinical participants (n=79). Study 2 aimed to replicate study 1 in a sample of 108 clinical patients and 72 non-clinical participants. Study 3 explored the clinical practicability of the RFQ to monitor RF changes in a shortterm treatment program in a sample of 136 major depressive disorder patients from a randomized controlled trial. The RFQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and theoretically expected correlations with measures of empathy, mindfulness and perspective-taking, measures of attachment and with psychopathology measures of borderline personality disorder, depression severity, eating disorder and alexithymia. The subscales demonstrated good discriminant validity to differentiate clinical from non-clinical participants. In study 3, the revised RFQ demonstrated changes in RF in the treatment group, indicating its clinical practicability. Overall, this thesis lends preliminary support for the RFQ as clinical useful RF measure. Further research is needed to replicate the findings.

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