614 CHAPTER 15
There are numerous problems with studying the effectiveness of psychotherapy.
Controlled studies can be done using an experimental group of people who receive a
particular psychotherapy and a comparison group of people who are put on a waiting
list, but this is less than ideal. The comparison group is not getting the attention from
the therapist, for one thing, and so there would be no placebo-effect expectations about
getting better because of therapy (Shapiro & Shapiro, 1997). Also, not all therapies take
the same amount of time to be effective. For example, psychoanalysis, even in its short
form, takes longer than a behavioral therapy. In a short-term study, behavioral therapy
would obviously look more effective. Action therapies such as behavior therapy measure
the success of the therapy differently than do insight therapies; in a behavioral ther-
apy the reduction of the undesired behavior is easy to objectively measure, but gaining
insights and feelings of control, self-worth, self-esteem, and so on are not as easily eval-
uated (Shadish et al., 2002).
Let’s assume your research hypothesis is something like, “Treatment A will be more
effective than Treatment B for Disorder X, and both Treatment A and B will be more effec-
tive than no treatment for Disorder X.” How would you evaluate these treatments? What
kind of research methods would you use to be able to speak to cause-and-effect relation-
ships? How are you going to operationalize the treatments and their effects? What data will
you need to confirm your hypothesis?
For example, let’s assume Treatment A consists of ten 50-minute sessions of one-
on-one cognitive-behavioral therapy with a psychologist. Treatment B consists of ten
Internet-based, self-study modules based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, each requiring
approximately 45 minutes to complete. Although progression through the sessions will
be monitored by a psychologist, there will not be any direct interaction with a psychology
professional.
Based on the information presented, what data do you need and how will you col-
lect it? You will likely want to make sure you have individuals that have similar symptoms
of Disorder X, and if possible, do not have any other disorders. What do you need to
keep in mind as you populate your treatment groups and a comparison group? Pref-
erably, these groups need to be close to identical in terms of demographics, including
age, level of education, socioeconomic status, gender, and so on. Will you randomly
assign individuals to each of the three groups? Where will you get your participants?
How many individuals do you need in each group? Ideally, you would have 30 or more
people in each group. Groups should contain approximately the same amount of people.
to Learning Objectives A.1, A.5.
Assume you find that either Treatment A or Treatment B has a positive effect on the
symptoms of Disorder X. Following the study, how do you accommodate the individuals
that were in the comparison group? One way is to offer treatment to the people in the
comparison group at the conclusion of the original study. What if the hypothesis is con-
firmed and Treatment A is more effective than Treatment B? Which treatment do you offer
to the comparison group, or do you give them a choice? In this case, you may want to
offer both and allow them to choose, explaining the benefits of each and letting the individ-
ual decided which they prefer.
Regardless of the outcomes of the study, how might you share the results with other
psychology professionals? How might you share the information with the public? With stu-
dents taking an introduction to general psychology class? Would the manner in which you
share the information differ based on the hypothesis being confirmed versus some other
finding or combination of findings?
