The purpose of this survey is to identify the major theoretical orientations, including a ranking of the most influential psychotherapists, in a national sample of clinical psychologists. A questionnaire, based on an American study by D. Smith (1982), was employed and a usable sample of 263 Canadian health service providers in psychology was obtained.The results indicated that one in three identified eclecticism as their primary theoretical orientation. A close second place was the cognitive behavioural orientation, and the latter was strongly preferred to the third ranked psychoanalytically oriented theories. The most influential psychotherapists were Albert Ellis, Carl Rogers, and Aaron Beck. These results are broadly consistent with other surveys of clinical psychologists.

The study of emics and etics suggests the following conclusions for QOL researchers. Subjective and objective appraisals are different kinds of data, both of which can be collected from subjects. Both are valuable, but it may be necessary to override subjective data to develop a predictive model. Objective circumstances do not reliably predict subjective evaluations of those circumstances or vice versa, particularly in evaluating change over time. The combination of subjective and objective measures, however, can lead more directly to service improvements that are sensitive to consumers' needs.

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