TREATMENT DECISIONS - TYPES, MODELS AND SCHOOLS

Psychotherapy can be seen as a complex decision process. First, we cla rify some distinctions that have to be made in order to adequately des cribe and evaluate the state of affairs. Then we illustrate decisions made by clients, semi-professionals, and professionals, and mention de scriptive and prescriptive studies in treatment-related decision-makin g. Next, we focus on questions confronting therapists before and durin g psychotherapy, i.e., the selection, design, and implementation of an efficient therapy offer. These questions motivate the definition of d ifferent pragmatic indication models - the selective, inventive and ad aptive models. In the next to last section we describe and comment on assessment strategies and decision rules in the context of therapeutic schools (psychoanalysis, client-centered psychotherapy, cognitive-beh avioral psychotherapy). In the last section we outline contributions t owards general models of decision making in psychological treatments a nd formulate some conclusions For Further research in clinical decisio n-making.