Abuse and disabuse of the drug metaphor in psychotherapy research: hold on to the baby as you throw out the bath.
Stiles and Shapiro (1994) argue that trivial correlations between process variables and treatment outcome point to inherent methodological limitations of correlational designs in process-outcome research. In coming to such a far-reaching (erroneous) conclusion, Stiles and Shapiro are throwing out the baby with the bath. Correlational designs are perfectly appropriate for testing process-outcome correlations if process measures are adequately conceptualized. Examples of case-specific measures of therapist responsiveness are reviewed to illustrate the power of correlational designs.
Silberschatz
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Department of Psychiatry, Mount Zion Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco.
D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012106:Research