RESEARCH CLASSIC - SOME MYTHS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY-RESEARCH AND THE SEARCH FOR A PARADIGM - REVISITED

The article considered and refuted three myths prevalent within the ps ychotherapy literature of the time: the patient and therapist uniformi ty assumptions; the assumption of spontaneous remission of psychoneuro tic disorders (as promulgated by Eysenck, 1952); and the belief that t heoretical formulations of the time provided adequate paradigms for gu iding psychotherapy research. The author proposed a new research parad igm (advocating increased use of ANOVA factorial designs) that require s specification of patient change variables (dependent variables), and of relevant patient, therapist, and intervention dimensions (independ ent variables), so that the field can begin to assess the central theo retical and research question: Which therapist behaviors are more effe ctive with which type of patients?