Psychotherapy research ethics: Continuing the debate on controlled clinical trials.

Comments that the S. Imber et al (see record 1986-17822-001) legalistic approach to ethics may not promote the need to attend to the broader ethical issues confronting social scientists. The crux of the concern with the ethics of clinical trials as a method for studying psychotherapy is the medical model of problem definition and intervention that forms its basis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A "humanistic alternative" to "Political ethics."

Challenges E. Gologor's (1978) contention that research concerning positive characteristics of people might be disruptive, as it could be discovered that people possess considerable potential for evil. A paradigm is presented that allows an objective evaluation of the effects of deception-disclosure on a given psychological phenomenon or procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The case of Helen R: A therapeutic failure?" A rejoinder to Hans Strupp's reply.

Responds to H. H. Strupp's (see record 1993-06521-001) reply to M. Snyder's (see record 1993-06522-001) comment on H. H. Strupp's (see record 1991-16137-001) article on the alleged failure of time-limited dynamic psychotherapy with a particular patient. When empathy is viewed as entering the other person's lifeworld, rather than simply experiencing his or her immediate psychological state, the risk of being programmed by a client to deliver a complimentary response that is self-limiting is greatly alleviated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Psychotherapy outcome research": Reply.

Replies to M. J. Lambert's (1979) criticism of H. J. Eysenck's (1978) critique of a study of psychotherapy outcome by M. L. Smith et al (see record 1978-10341-001), defending Eysenck's estimate of spontaneous remission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Is the nature-nurture debate on the verge of extinction?": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by D. A. Bors (Canadian Psychology, 1994[Jul], Vol 35(2), 231–243). Several mistakes appeared in 1 section of the article. Corrected pages 234 and 235 are reprinted in this issue. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1995-08940-001.) Presents 4 arguments in opposition to the position that the nature-nurture debate is no longer as contentious as it once was. First, the nature-nurture controversy, conceived of as an attempt to assign relative weightings of importance to genotype and environment in relation to psychological phenomena, is no closer to being settled today than it was at any point in the past. Second, though of considerable consequence for psychological theory and practice, the mapping of the human genome will not assist in the settlement of the nature-nurture debate. Third, heritability studies are of little value to psychologists and cannot help in the resolution of the debate. Fourth, the nature-nurture controversy is not a scientific issue. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-cultural counseling process research: A rejoinder.

Replies to the criticism of J. E. Helms (1986) of the present authors' (1986) study of the effects of Black students' racial identity on perceptions of White counselors. Helms's comments on the way racial identity is conceptualized, operationalized, and measured using a racial identity attitude scale are answered, and their implications for continued cross-cultural counseling process research are explored. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Judeo-Christian rejoinder to Bramel and Friend's Marxist critique of the capitalist "Hawthorne effect": Comment.

Comments on Bramel and Friend's (August 1981) critique of the classic "Hawthorne effect" studies from a Marxist point of view. Bramel and Friend attempt to answer the question, What keeps the myth going? (i.e., What keeps the myth of the "Hawthorne effect" alive in at least some textbooks?). Their answer, in which they follow Ehrenreich and Ehrenreich (1977), is that psychologists, as members of the "professional managerial class," are allied with management against labor to assure "the reproduction of capitalist culture" by propagating the myth of the laboring class as composed of persons who are "relatively ignorant, narrow, and unintelligent" (p. 877). They conclude, "why should [psychologists] bother to go back to examine the basic research documents if the authoritative interpretations appear so consonant with their cognitive world and material (economic, power) interests?" (p. 877). I would like to provide a Judeo-Christian answer to their Marxist question: Textbook authors in psychology are all too often guilty of one of the seven deadly sins--sloth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology's reality debate: A "levels of reality" approach.

For different reasons, some modern and postmodern psychologists are skeptical about the reality of psychological phenomena as irreducible, influential entities. Nonetheless, much psychological inquiry presumes precisely such a reality. The authors present a "levels of reality" approach to psychological reality that they believe can assuage some of the concerns of psychological skeptics. This approach treats psychological reality as inseparably embedded in sociocultural, biological, and physical levels of reality, without being reducible to any of these other levels. The authors develop their "levels of reality" approach in relation to four different doctrines of realism, and elaborate its implications for understanding psychological phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy for the treatment of depression: A comprehensive review of controlled outcome research.

Previous quantitative reviews of research on the efficacy of psychotherapy for depression have included only a subset of the available research or limited their focus to a single outcome measure. The present review offers a more comprehensive quantitative integration of this literature. Using studies that compared psychotherapy with either no treatment or another form of treatment, this article assesses (1) the overall effectiveness of psychotherapy for depressed clients, (2) its effectiveness relative to pharmacotherapy, and (3) the clinical significance of treatment outcomes. Findings from the review confirm that depressed clients benefit substantially from psychotherapy, and these gains appear comparable to those observed with pharmacotherapy. Initial analysis suggested some differences in the efficacy of various types of treatment; however, once the influence of investigator allegiance was removed, there remained no evidence for the relative superiority of any 1 approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Inaccurate implications of philosophy of science and rational-emotive therapy": A rejoinder.

Replies to R. DiGiuseppe's (see record 1988-30290-001) comments on the present author's objections (see record 1988-30350-001) to DiGiuseppe's conceptualization of rational-emotive theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dialogical Encounters: Contemporary Perspectives on "Chairwork" in Psychotherapy.

This article looks at the use of "chairwork" (2-chair and "empty" chair) dialogues through the lens of 5 psychotherapies: Gestalt, process-experiential therapy, redecision therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and schema therapy. Many clinical examples are provided, and they are organized into 4 overlapping groups: (a) internal in focus; (b) external in focus; (c) conflictual, that is, whether they involve the replaying of difficult or traumatic scenes from the past; or (d) corrective, which means that the emphasis is on replacing maladaptive cognitions or schemas with ones that are healthier. A potential foundation for Gestalt and cognitive-behavioral integration is proposed on the basis of the idea that gestalts are schemas (I. G. Fodor, 1996) and that chairwork is actually a form of cognitive restructuring (D. J. A. Edwards, 1989). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond clinical trials: Generalizing from research to practice.

Suggests that clinical trials, or evaluations of psychotherapy techniques in clinical settings with patient populations, play a pivotal role in treatment research. Well-controlled psychotherapy trials provide a test of what treatment can do under conditions in which procedures such as therapist training and monitoring and the integrity of treatment are optimal. Methods designed to reduce the hiatus in how treatments are implemented, monitored, and evaluated in clinical research and practice include developing standardized assessment and treatment packages that can be implemented by practitioners, altering the manner in which clinical training is implemented and evaluated, training clinicians in strategies to evaluate their own clinical work, and conducting clinical replication case studies as a way to evaluate treatment applications in clinical practice. These alternatives combine standardization, training, evaluation, and clinical practice to help increase the generality of research findings to clinical work and to help merge research and clinical priorities. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy research: A special issue.

Discusses the impact that the interests of an increased variety of users of psychotherapy research (PTR) have had on the design, conduct, economic support, and presentation of findings of PTR. Since the 1950s and 1960s, PTR has most typically focused on the process and outcome of psychotherapy, with a greater emphasis on outcome than process research. The boundaries of PTR today seem broader when compared to current impressions of the earlier boundaries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aptitude-treatment interaction research in the clinical setting: A review of attempts to dispel the "patient uniformity" myth.

Aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) research is directed toward identifying client variables that predict differential treatment responsiveness. As such, insights derived from this research are of potential importance for clinicians faced with the dilemma of selecting the most effective treatment for their clients. Unfortunately, most of the ATI research to date has been characterized by the use of an inappropriate methodology. Therefore, some general methodological issues with regard to ATI research are outlined. The literature encompassing cognitive and/or behavioral treatments for anxiety, depression, pain, obesity, and tobacco dependence is then reviewed. This examination reveals little consistency in the emergence of individual differences relevant to treatment responsiveness. There are some indications that it may be possible to distinguish two (broadly defined) groups of individuals: those with active and those with less active coping styles. The former group appears to fare better in treatments that emphasize self-control rather than therapist control. In addition, the distinction between visually and verbally based coping strategies has been shown in some cases to predict response to visually or verbally based therapies. Overall, however, attempts to identify treatment-relevant client attributes have been disappointing, and suggestions for improving ATI research are forwarded. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A strategy to use soft data effectively in randomized controlled clinical trials.

Soft data are defined as measures having substantial intrasubject variability due to errors of measurement or to the inconsistency of subjects' responses. Such data are often important measures of response in randomized clinical trials. In this context, we show that using an intensive design and the slope of response on time as the outcome measure (a) maximizes sample retention and (b) decreases within-group variability, thus (c) maximizing the power of test procedures without requiring increased sample sizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desensitization: A rejoinder to Morgan.

Considers that specific points raised by W. G. Morgan (see PA, Vol. 50:Issue 6) are debatable on empirical and logical grounds. It is suggested, however, that Morgan's distinction between necessary and useful operations provides a meaningful framework for the advancement of desensitization theory, practice, and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narratives and Culture: "Thickening" the Self for Cultural Psychotherapy.

The dominant framework for understanding selfhood in contemporary psychology has been one that privileges a highly individualistic conception of self. This is reflected in both the language and approaches of psychotherapy where the influence of contextual factors (factors outside of the individual) are given marginal consideration in order to maintain some type of 'objectivity' or 'neutrality' in counseling. We argue that an understanding of selfhood which does not take into account the 'relational' nature of selfhood as well as the cultural or historical context of the client, will likely alienate clients who do not view their self through the individualized lenses of (North American) psychology. In order to deal with this problem, we adopt an approach to cultural (and cross-cultural) psychology that views the self as a relational narrative. Such a narrative does not imply an unrestricted freedom to construct our self, but understands the limits to selfhood implied in the web of meanings constitutive of our culture and the web of relations from which our self emerges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining the boundaries of "policy-relevant" research: A comment on Blight.

Questions J. G. Blight's (see record 1987-16803-001) advocacy of a crisis learning approach in seeking understanding of policymakers' behavior concerning nuclear war; it is suggested that the role of psychologists in the policy community needs definition and that the relevance of a psychological approach in this area could be established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of motivational interviewing: A meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials.

A meta-analysis was conducted on controlled clinical trials investigating adaptations of motivational interviewing (AMIs), a promising approach to treating problem behaviors. AMIs were equivalent to other active treatments and yielded moderate effects (from .25 to .57) compared with no treatment and/or placebo for problems involving alcohol, drugs, and diet and exercise. Results did not support the efficacy of AMIs for smoking or HIV-risk behaviors. AMIs showed clinical impact, with 51% improvement rates, a 56% reduction in client drinking, and moderate effect sizes on social impact measures (d=0.47). Potential moderators (comparative dose, AMI format, and problem area) were identified using both homogeneity analyses and exploratory multiple regression. Results are compared with other review results and suggestions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A public health perspective on "The ethics of asking and not asking about abuse."

Comments on the article by K. Becker-Blease and J. Freyd (see record 2006-03947-003), which provides a thought-provoking and important perspective regarding the ethics of researchers asking or not asking adults about abuse they experienced as children. Many of these authors' concerns with research on abuse during childhood apply equally to abuse and violence experienced at all life stages. Focusing on intimate partner violence (IPV), we wish to amplify upon and respond to their observations from the perspective of public health scientists involved in large-scale telephone survey research on violence (including family violence, IPV, sexual violence, and suicide). We strongly agree with Becker-Blease and Freyd that decisions not to ask about abuse play directly into the social forces that perpetuate IPV and other forms of violence as pervasive and pernicious social and public health problems. From a public health perspective, the question is not whether to ask but how to ask about participants' experiences with violence and abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)