Process Variables and the Prediction of Outcome in Behaviour Therapy

Questions of relevance to psychological treatment, empirical guide to prognosis with any given treatment, and a method of identifying which stage or process in treatment is associated with therapeutic change are examined.

Abstract

Variables measured before or during psychological treatment may be used in several related ways: as an empirical guide to prognosis with any given treatment, as a means of studying possible treatment mechanisms, or as a method of identifying which stage or process in treatment is associated with therapeutic change. Using data from the same patients already described in a recently published study (Gelder et al. , 1973), questions of relevance to each of these areas will be examined in turn.