Main description:

This book provides readers with essential information on the foundations of psychotherapy research, and on its applications to the study of both psychotherapy process and outcome. The aim is to stimulate a reflection on these issues in a way that will benefit researchers and clinicians, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, at different levels and from different perspectives. Accordingly, the book presents a balanced mix of chapters summarizing the state of the art in the field from different viewpoints and covering innovative topics and perspectives, reflecting some of the most established traditions and, at the same time, emerging approaches in the field in several countries. The contributors, who were invited from among the experts in our national and international professional networks, also represent a healthy mix of leading figures and young researchers. The first part of the book addresses a number of fundamental issues in psychotherapy research at a historical, philosophical, and theoretical level. The second part of the book is concerned with research on psychotherapy processes; in this regard, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are given equal consideration in order to reflect the growing relevance of the latter. The book's third and last part examines research on psychotherapy outcomes, primarily focusing on quantitative approaches. Offering a balanced mix of perspectives, approaches and topics, the book represents a valuable tool for anyone interested in psychotherapy research.

Contents:

Table of contents

Preface

1. Introduction

Section I. Foundations of psychotherapy research

2. The prehistory of psychotherapy and its implications for psychotherapy science: shamanism, folk medicine, philosophy, and religion

3. Historical paths in psychotherapy research

4. The philosophy of psychotherapy science: mainstream and alternative views

5. Psychotherapia academica universitatis: a philosophical argument for the academic discipline of psychotherapy

6. Interpretation as a cognitive instrument. Psychotherapy science as an attempt to pool paradigm-based systems of interpretation

7. Institutional parameters of psychotherapy education as a prerequisite for systematic psychotherapy research

8. Theory-building, enriching, and fact-gathering: alternative purposes of psychotherapy research

Section II. Psychotherapy process research

9. Introduction to psychotherapy process research

10. Outlines of a general theory of the psychotherapy process. The clinical exchange as communicational field: Implications for theory and methodology

11. The relationship: how it works

12. Data analysis in psychotherapy research

13. Quantitative approaches to treatment process, change process, and process-outcome research

14. Current issues on group psychotherapy research: an overview

15. The process of change in psychotherapy: common and unique factors

16. Therapeutic alliance and alliance ruptures and resolutions: Theoretical definitions, assessment issues and research findings

17. Positive emotions in psychotherapy: conceptual propositions and research challenges

18. Psychotherapeutic process from the psychotherapist's perspective

19. From a psychoanalytic narrative case study to quantitative single case research

20. Qualitative methods in psychotherapy process research

21. Applications of qualitative and mixed-methods counseling and psychotherapy research

22. Interpretation-driven guidelines for designing and evaluating grounded theory research: a constructivist-social justice approach

23. Consensual qualitative research (CQR) methods for conducting psychotherapy process research

24. Conversation analysis and psychotherapy process research

25. A pragmatic approach to the study of therapeutic interaction: towards an observational science of psychotherapy process

Section III. Psychotherapy outcome research

26. Quantitative psychotherapy outcome research: methodological issues

27. Qualitative methods in psychotherapy outcome research

28. Outcome research on disorder-specific treatments: the case of grief therapy

29. Outcome research: methods for improving outcome in routine care

30. Psychotherapy outcome research and neuroimaging