Evaluating Psychotherapies

Question 1

Specificity Question

Answer 1

the ultimate question of psychotherapy research: Which types of therapy, administered by which kinds of therapists to which kinds of clients having which kinds of problems produce which kinds of effects?

Question 2

What would a behaviouralist say is the best measurement of change?
A psychodynamic therapist?
A Humanistic therapist?

Answer 2

Behaviouralist: Observation of behaviour
Psychodynamic: How client feels and how much insight in child roots of problems
Humanistic: self concept change

Question 3

What types of measures are used to assess the outcome of therapy?

Answer 3

• therapist’s ratings
• Client’s self reports
• Ratings of client by acquaintances
• Client’s self monitoring of behaviour
• Behavioural observations

Question 4

Spontaneous remission

Answer 4

improvements in symptoms in the absence of any therapy
•Opposed Freud’s view that people needed therapy to get better
•Eysenck found rate of spontaneous remission and therapy growth was the same.
•Not actually true

Question 5

Randomized Clinical Trials (RCTs)

Answer 5

a research design that involves the random assignment of clients having specific problems to an experimental (therapy) group or to a control condition so as to draw sound causal conclusions about the therapy’s efficacy

Question 6

Placebo Control Group

Answer 6

a control group that receives an intervention that is assumed to have no therapeutic value

Question 7

Placebo Control Group

Answer 7

a control group that receives an intervention that is assumed to have no therapeutic value

Question 8

How do therapists standardize their testing methods?

Answer 8

There is a manual with procedures that they must follow exactly
•Monitored by having other’s observe sessions or taping them

Question 9

Who would object to the standardization of treatment?

Answer 9

Psychodynamics and humanistic therapists

They believe that every therapy case they have is unique in its course, client characteristics and procedures used

Question 10

Are antidepressant drugs or psychodynamics therapy better for the treatment of depression? How was this conclusion made?

Answer 10

Psychodynamic therapies
•Shown through follow up studies
•Fewer relapses

Question 11

What are the 5 phases of the randomized clinical trial?

Answer 11

1) Preparation phase
2) Participant Screening Phase
3) Treatment Phase
4) Outcome Assessment Phase
5) Follow up Phase

Question 12

What is characteristic of the preparation phase?

Answer 12

• Define disorder to be treated
• Train diagnosticians to do structured interview
• Develop treatment manual to standardize treatment
• Train therapists to administer treatments
• Select measures used to assess outcomes

Question 13

What is characteristic of the participant screening phase?

Answer 13

•Choose participants diagnosed as meeting criteria (Assess reliability to diagnoses)
•Administer outcome measures
Results in random assignment to conditions

Question 14

What is characteristic of the treatment phase?

Answer 14

Treatment condition(s)
–administered by trained therapists (at least 3)
(obtain rating of therapists adherence and competence)

Control Conditions
–If another therapy, equal number of sessions

Question 15

What is characteristic of the Outcome Assessment Phase?

Answer 15

•Readminister outcome measures
•Assess client’s attitudes toward treatment, quality of relationship
(Statistical analyses of treatment/control group differences )

Question 16

What is characteristic of the Follow-up Phase

Answer 16

•Readminister outcome measures
•Collect Relapse Data
(Statistical analyses of treatment/control group differences)

Question 17

Meta-Analysis

Answer 17

a statistical procedure for combining the results of different studies that examine the same topic

Question 18

Effect Size Statistic

Answer 18

common measure of treatment effectiveness. Tells researchers what percentage of clients who have received therapy had a more favourable outcome than that of the average control client.

Question 19

Dodo bird effect

Answer 19

the finding of similar efficacy for widely differing therapies
•Therapy tends to be better by around 65% from those who have not had therapy

Question 20

Clinical Significance

Answer 20

a definition of therapeutic success in which, at the end of therapy, an individual getting treatment for a particular disorder falls within the range of people not experiencing that particular disorder rather than simply experiencing the disorder less often

Question 21

What did CR survey tell us?

Answer 21

That 89% of people who received therapy for mental health were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied

Question 22

What 3 factors influence therapy outcomes?

Answer 22

Therapist Variables (empathy, genuineness, experience)

Client Variables (nature of problem, client motivation)

Techniques (timing of interpretations, specific techniques)

Question 23

What are 3 important factors of client variables?

Answer 23

• Openness to therapy
• Self relatedness
• Nature of the problem

Question 24

Openness

Answer 24

a willingness to invest oneself in the process of therapy that predicts favourable therapeutic outcomes

Question 25

Self Relatedness

Answer 25

the ability to be flexible to change, to listen carefully to the therapist, and to use constructively what is learned in therapy

Question 26

Dose Response Effect

Answer 26

the relation between the amount of treatment received and the quality of the outcome
•Typically the number of sessions is below 5 due to insurance

Question 27

Common Factors

Answer 27

therapeutic elements that are possessed by virtually any type of therapy and which may contribute to the similar positive effects shown by many different treatment approaches

Question 28

What are 5 examples of common factors?

Answer 28

• Faith in the therapist and a belief on the part of clients that they received help
• A plausible explanation for their problems and an alternative way of looking at themselves and their problems
• A protective setting in which clients can experience and express their deepest feelings within a supportive relationship
• An opportunity to practice new behaviours
• Increased optimism and self-efficacy

Question 29

What are 3 important factors of client variables?

Answer 29

• Openness to therapy
• Self relatedness
• Nature of the problem

Question 30

What are the three therapist values suggested by Rogers?

Answer 30

1) Empathy
2) Unconditional positive regard
3) Genuineness