What are psychotherapy and psychotherapy research?

Psychotherapy is “the informed and intentional application of clinical methods and interpersonal stances derived from established psychological principles for the purpose of assisting people to modify their behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and/or other personal characteristics in directions that the participants deem desirable.” (Campbell et al., 2013).

It should not come as a surprise, given the history of the discipline, that there are several forms of psychotherapy, with many of their concepts and methods emerging directly or indirectly from many of the schools we addressed earlier in this course. The table below presents a summary of some of the main types.

Approach	Goal	Methods
Psychodynamic Therapy	Helps clients become aware of unconscious conflicts, motivations, and defense mechanisms	Psychoanalysis with free association and dream analysis
Behavior Therapy	Helps clients replace harmful behaviors with beneficial ones	Behavior modification, including rewards and punishments, token economies, social skills training
Humanistic Therapy	Helps clients fulfill their potential for personal growth	Client-centered therapy with active listening and unconditional positive regard
Cognitive Therapy	Helps clients eliminate harmful thought patterns and replace them with positive ones	Cognitive therapy that includes activity monitoring and cognitive restructuring through rational analysis
Integrative or Holistic Therapy	Helps clients achieve their goals	A blend of different methods and approaches that fit the client’s needs

These different forms of psychotherapy represent a major application of principles and methods derived from psychological science to help individuals modify their cognitions and behavior. But what makes psychotherapy an example of evidence-based practice in psychology?

In this chapter, you will learn about psychotherapy research, the scientific study of the outcomes and processes involved in psychotherapy. You will also learn how psychology as a discipline has strived to make psychotherapy an evidence-based practice that does not solely rely on the intuition of clinicians but refers to scientific results - such as controlled studies - to validate and investigate the efficacy and mechanisms underlying psychotherapeutic techniques.

Psychotherapy room at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel. Psychotherapy is one of the major applications of psychological theory. Psychotherapy research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapy and understand the underlying mechanisms - a central part of making psychotherapy an evidence-based practice in psychology. (Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel)

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References

Campbell, L. F., Norcross, J. C., Vasquez, M. J. T., & Kaslow, N. J. (2013). Recognition of psychotherapy effectiveness: The APA resolution. Psychotherapy, 50(1), 98–101. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0031817

Please note that certain links to journal articles are only available within the eduroam network if they concern publications for which the university has a campus license. If you are a member of the University of Basel and want to access university resources from home, you will need to install a VPN client.

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