Differences in Motivation and Adherence to a Prescribed Assignment After Face-to-face and Online Psychoeducation: an Experimental Study

The aims of this study are to investigate (1) participants' different forms of motivations to complete a typical psychotherapy assignment, (2) participants' subsequent adherence to the prescribed assignment and the associations between motivations and adherence and (3) any differences regarding motivations, adherence and their associations between the face-to-face and online conditions.

The hypotheses are that participants in the face-to-face condition will report higher motivation as well as higher adherence to the assignments compared to participants in the online condition, that adherence to the assignment will be positively associated with both autonomous motivation and externally regulated motivation and that adherence to the assignment will be more weakly associated with autonomous motivation in the face-to-face compared to the online condition.

To investigate the association between motivation and adherence to assignments in face-to-face and online settings, this study have a longitudinal randomized design with two conditions. The two conditions are face-to-face psychoeducation with a therapist and online psychoeducation with therapist support. A psychotherapy analogue model with a one-session intervention for a non-clinical population is used. Data is collected at baseline and at seven to nine days follow-up.