Books / Clinical practice & common factors
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick’s third edition presents motivational interviewing as a collaborative approach to conversations about change. This entry describes the edition catalogued with a 2013 copyright date.
Book details
Author of listed edition: William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick
Edition: Third edition (© 2013); first edition 1991; fourth edition 2023
Publisher: Guilford Press
Edition year: 2013
First published: 1991
Original title: Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People to Change Addictive Behavior
Language and origin: English (United States / United Kingdom)
ISBN: 9781609182274
Form and genre: Treatment Manual & Clinical Guide
Level: Introductory
Historical era: 1980–2009 · Evidence-Based, Trauma & Integrative Era
Covers: The spirit of motivational interviewing in the third edition: partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation; Four processes: engaging, focusing, evoking and planning; Core communication skills: open questions, affirmations, reflections and summaries; Ambivalence, change talk, sustain talk and discord; Research and evaluation of motivational interviewing
APA 7th reference: Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
What it is
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change is a clinical and educational guide by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. The National Library of Medicine catalogue records the third edition with a 2013 copyright date. The authors published a first edition in 1991 and a fourth edition in 2023.
What it covers
The third edition presents partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation as elements of the spirit of motivational interviewing. It describes four processes: engaging, focusing, evoking and planning. These processes can overlap as a conversation develops. The contents also include open questions, affirmations, reflections and summaries, and discussion of change talk, sustain talk and discord.
The authors later revised their description of the spirit in the fourth edition, replacing evocation with empowerment while retaining evoking as a task. The distinction is specific to the edition being discussed.
Research and practice
Amrhein and colleagues (2003) coded interviews with 84 people with drug-use problems and examined links between client language and later abstinence. The abstract reports associations involving commitment language and proposes a possible pathway. It does not establish that a particular utterance caused an outcome or predict what will happen for an individual.
Limits of this entry
The complete third edition and the 2003 study were not reviewed. This entry uses a library catalogue, the authors’ later account of the approach and the study abstract. The research finding concerns the participants and outcomes studied; it is not an individual treatment recommendation.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Client Commitment Language During Motivational Interviewing Predicts Drug Use Outcomes (Paul C. Amrhein, William R. Miller, Carolina E. Yahne, Michael Palmer, and Laura Fulcher, 2003)
Reference: Amrhein, P. C., Miller, W. R., Yahne, C. E., Palmer, M., & Fulcher, L. (2003). Client commitment language during motivational interviewing predicts drug use outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(5), 862–878.
A 2003 study coded interviews with 84 people with drug-use problems and examined client language alongside later self-reported abstinence. The authors proposed commitment language as a possible pathway; the study does not prove that it caused abstinence.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: The third edition presents engaging, focusing, evoking and planning as four processes of motivational interviewing. (Miller’s 2023 historical review describes the third edition’s four processes; the complete third edition was not read.) [Source 1: Miller, W. R. (2023). The evolution of motivational interviewing. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 51(6), 616–632.]
Claim 2: The 2003 study examined commitment language and subsequent drug-use outcomes in interviews with 84 participants. (The abstract reports associations and proposes a possible pathway. It does not establish causation or an individual outcome.) [Source 3: Amrhein, P. C., Miller, W. R., Yahne, C. E., Palmer, M., & Fulcher, L. (2003). Client commitment language during motivational interviewing predicts drug use outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(5), 862–878.]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Miller’s retrospective describes the spirit and four processes in the third edition; the complete third edition was not read.
Supports: Third-edition authors, 2013 copyright, hardcover ISBN 9781609182274 and table of contents.
Supports: Abstract describes 84 interviews and associations between commitment language and later abstinence. The full article was not reviewed; association does not establish causation.
Supports: Authors explain the fourth edition’s change from evocation to empowerment in the spirit of motivational interviewing.
Supports: Publisher-distributed listing records the third edition, its contents, authors and hardcover ISBN.