The CAVE Home Page

Note: This page is also continually under construction!!

Last Modified: 05 December 1996

The CAVE Home Page

The Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanation (CAVE) technique is a procedure for extracting statements about life events and attributions from an individual's verbatim passage. Then, the extracted material is rated along th e explanatory style dimensions of internality, stability, and globality.

This unobtrusive procedure allows for extractions to be made from any written or spoken work including journal entries, verbatim therapy notes, campaign speeches, and newspaper quotes.

Peterson and Seligman have demonstrated the efficacy of the CAVE technique in a variety of populations such as:

  • psychiatric patients

  • sub-clinical depressives

  • non-psychiatric cancer patients

  • 20th Century presidential candidates

  • NBA athletes/coaches

    The CAVE technique allows researchers and clinicians to obtain a measure of explanatory style when subjects cannot or will not complete a self-report measure such as the Attributional Style Questionnaire

    The CAVE Technique allows researchers to conduct retrospective and/or secondary analyses of any verbatim passage

    In essence, the CAVE Technique makes it possible for researchers to conduct lifespan research in less than a lifetime!

    A growing body of studies demonstrates both the validity of the CAVE technique and extends Learned Helplessness into areas far beyond depression.

    CONDUCTING CAVE RESEARCH

    A number of resources are available to researchers, clinicians, and psychohistorians interested in learning to use the CAVE technique:

  • Martin Seligman has a training manual and many relevent readings available for a nominal charge (to cover xeroxing and postage). Please send inquiries about this manual that are generated through this website to David Fresco.

    • Part of this manual has been adapted to a separate webpage with instructions on how to CAVE Code.

  • David Fresco has developed several Macintosh platform programs that assist in all facets of the CAVE-ing process including extracting and coding. These programs are free to anyone capable of receiving them over the internet or will be sent at a small fee to cover costs of diskettes and postage. Sorry, at the present time there are no IBM pl atform versions of these programs.

  • David Fresco will also make CAVE extractions available to reseachers who wish to: 1) train their assistants in the CAVE technique or; 2) use the extractions for purposes of in ter-rater reliability. Researchers from other labs can use these CAVE extractions in comparing reliabilty among their CAVE Coders and against our CAVE Coders.

    • Net Digits has determined that people have visited this page since 20 June 1996.