A Critique of the Wells and Dezen Review of the Results of Nonbehavioral Family Therapy

Although the Wells and Dezen review made many valuable points about family therapy outcome research, their handling of the various included studies appeared uneven. To test this impression, a content analysis was performed on the “favorableness” or “positiveness” of the statements made by Wells and Dezen about the studies they reviewed. The degree of positiveness was compared across studies with the Design Quality and with the level of sophistication of these studies. All of the statistical correlations were negative — half of them significantly so — a result completely opposite to what would be expected. We conclude that Wells and Dezen tended to give undue praise to many uncontrolled studies and inordinate criticism to more sophisticated and better‐designed research. In addition, other inconsistencies in the evaluation of studies were noted. Further, specific studies were presented in a distorted and inaccurate manner, and without proper attention to statistical principles. In sum, it appears that Wells and Dezen (a) have not been sufficiently careful in their analysis of the reviewed research, and (b) have, through their evaluative remarks, provided a biased review which obscures many important comparisons within this field.