Treatment integrity refers to implementing interventions as intended. Treatment integrity is critically important for experimental validity and for drawing valid inferences regarding the relationship between treatment and outcome. Yet, it is rarely adequately addressed in psychotherapy research. The authors examined barriers to treatment integrity…

Discusses methodological problems involving use of MMPI by reviewing past literature. MMPI is so easily used that it is sometimes misapplied or data obtained from it are incorrectly analyzed by researchers unfamiliar with its limitations or peculiarities. Suggestions for improving research design are made. (Author/BEF)

Discussed problems and deficiencies in past research on clinical diagnosis, pertaining to sampling problems with regard to clinical subjects studied, adequacy of control groups, base rates, clinical versus statistical significance, lack of cross-validation, and problems due to reliance on inadequate schemes of classification. Future research is…

Single-case designs make available areas not easily studied in group research and make demands on an investigator that are not easily met in clinical situations. Single-case designs appear relatively straightforward, which may foster problems. Best guide for interpretation is recognition of logic of designs and common methodological problems.…

Discussed methodological errors in child and marital treatment research. Made suggestions to avoid such errors. Areas covered are selection of subjects and therapists, scope and source of dependent measures, treatment specification and experimental design. Errors include unsubstantiated diagnoses; client labels; restricted outcome criteria; and…