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The bias in psychotherapy research evaluation
Author(s) -
Cohen Lawrence H.,
Suchy Kathryn R.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197901)35:1<184::aid-jclp2270350129>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - psychotherapist , psychology , psychodynamics , psychodynamic psychotherapy , outcome (game theory) , clinical psychology , orientation (vector space) , population , neuroticism , behaviour therapy , social psychology , medicine , personality , geometry , mathematics , environmental health , mathematical economics
Using a 3 × 3 × 3 factorial design, clinical psychologist' ( N = 204) evaluations were obtained of the methodology of a bogus psychotherapy outcome experiment that varied on the outpatient population treated and the results. Three types of neurotic outpatients were treated in the bogus study, and the experiment's results indicated that psychoanalytically oriented therapy was more effective than behavior therapy, behavior therapy was more effective than psychoanalytically oriented therapy and behavior therapy were equally effective. The third independent variable was psychologists' theoretical orientation (psychodynamic, behavioral, or electic). A significant Orientation × Results interaction was obtained, and the results suggest that psychodynamic clinicians are biased against outcome research that demonstrates the superiority of behavior therapy.