Using SASB-based Questionnaire Methods for Personality Assessment, Case Formulation, and Outcome Monitoring
originally presented on September 8th, 2025
This beginner-friendly workshop gives an overview of how therapists can use two helpful questionnaires: the Intrex (Benjamin, 2000), and the Relational Cognitions and Affects Questionnaire (RCA-Q: Critchfield & Benjamin, 2016). These tools help therapists understand how people think, feel, and act in relationships—with others and with themselves.
Both questionnaires are based on Lorna Smith Benjamin’s Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model (SASB: Benjamin, 1974; 1996) including its parallel models for tracking thoughts and feelings about relationships. SASB is a descriptive measure of interpersonal behavior used to track patterns described within and across relationships. It is organized around the three distinctions of Focus, Affiliation, and Interdependence, and can be very helpful to refine and focus work with clients who experience interpersonal problems (including their relationship to themselves) as well as the variety of affective, cognitive, and behavioral disturbances that flow from and contribute to those problems. The workshop will introduce the model, measures, and approach to scoring and interpretation. Real-life examples will be used to illustrate use of the two measures, and there will be time for Q&A.
Workshop fee for professionals: $180
Includes Intrex and RCA-Q questionnaires and related materials for administration and scoring
Psychology graduate student rate: $75
Includes Intrex and RCA-Q questionnaires and related materials for administration and scoring (requires signature by supervisor attesting to supervised use)
Length of Workshop: 3hrs
CEs: There are no CEs offered for archived trainings
LO’s:
Participants will be able to:
Describe the SASB model in terms of its three underlying dimensions of Focus, Affiliation, and Interdependence
Prepare and administer the Intrex and RCA-Q questionnaires
Navigate the output from the Intrex Questionnaire’s updated scoring framework
Interpret interpersonal patterns at a level that can enhance and inform psychotherapy interventions
References:
Essential source:
Critchfield, K. L., & Benjamin, L. S. (2024). Structural analysis of social behavior (SASB): A primer for clinical use. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000403-000
Peer-reviewed, evidence-based sources:
Critchfield, K. L., Benjamin, L. S., & Levenick, K. (2015). Reliability, sensitivity, and specificity of case formulations for comorbid profiles in Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy: addressing mechanisms of psychopathology. Journal of Personality Disorders, 29(4), 547-573. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2015.29.4.547
Critchfield, K. L., Gornish, A., Epstein, L., Mackaronis, J. E., & Benjamin, L. S. (2025). The "gift of love" as a candidate mechanism of psychopathology and change in interpersonal reconstructive therapy for patients with high-acuity clinical needs. Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 10.1037/pst0000556. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000556
Woehrle, P. L., Critchfield, K. L., Anolik, S., Bobal, C., Pempek, T. A., & Skowron, E. A. (2022). Multigenerational patterns of parenting‐at‐risk: A test of interpersonal specificity using copy process theory. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23412
About the Presenter
Ken Critchfield, Ph.D. is a tenured Associate Professor and Program Director of the Clinical Psychology Program of the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University in New York City. Dr. Critchfield’s research, teaching and clinical work all emphasize interpersonal and attachment-based principles of change implemented in Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT: Benjamin, 2003; 2018). IRT is an integrative, psychosocial treatment that uses an attachment-based case formulation to tailor treatment for patients having severe and chronic problems characterized comorbid depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and/or chronic suicidality, often accompanied by personality disorder. Dr. Critchfield earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Utah, with an internship at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and post-doctoral training at Weill-Cornell Medical College. He was co-director of the IRT clinic at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute and directed the Combined-Integrated Clinical and School Psychology program at James Madison University. Dr. Critchfield is a Fellow of APA’s Society for Advancement of Psychotherapy (Div. 29). He has held leadership roles with the Society for Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and has long been a member of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). He maintains a psychotherapy practice and is Director of the Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy Institute, which provides resources and training in use of Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) and IRT.