On the Use of Symbolic Labels in Psychotherapy Outcome Research: A Comment on Wills, Faitler, and Snyder
Document Type
Response or Comment
Publication Date
1988
Keywords
Behavior Therapy, Marriage Counseling, Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.56.6.932
Abstract
Wills, Faitler, and Snyder (1987) identified distinctive therapist behaviors, trained therapists to implement these techniques, and demonstrated that trained raters could reliably categorize different behaviors. The criteria used to operationalize certain behaviors as behavioral marital therapy and others as insight-oriented marital therapy were arbitrary and are not consistent with either theoretical conceptualizations or the applied utilization of these therapeutic approaches. Future comparative psychotherapy research should avoid such labels and focus on empirical validation of the most effective therapy behaviors.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, v. 56, issue 6, p. 932-933
Scholar Commons Citation
Collins, Frank L. and Thompson, Joel K., "On the Use of Symbolic Labels in Psychotherapy Outcome Research: A Comment on Wills, Faitler, and Snyder" (1988). Psychology Faculty Publications. 2101.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/2101
