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Signal and Noise in Psychotherapy

The Role and Control of Non-specific Factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Haim Omer
Haim Omer*
Affiliation:
Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Program in Counseling and Consulting Psychology, Nichols House, Appian Way, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Four major categories of nonspecific or common factors are systematically analysed: relationship, expectancy, reorganising, and impact factors. The placebo control method should be discarded in psychotherapy research for two reasons: (a) sham treatment controls are unworkable because common factors in treatment are manifest only when real treatment is administered; and (b) the very events which were once thought of as ‘nonspecific’ noise are now recognised as active therapeutic factors common to many schools.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 155 , Issue 2 , August 1989 , pp. 239 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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