Case studies within a mixed methods paradigm: Toward a resolution of the alienation between researcher and practitioner in psychotherapy research.

Abstract

This article addresses the long-standing divide between researchers and practitioners in the field of psychotherapy, regarding what really works in treatment and the extent to which interventions should be governed by outcomes generated in a "laboratory atmosphere." This alienation has its roots in a positivist paradigm, which is epistemologically incomplete because it fails to provide for context-based practical knowledge. In other fields of evaluation research, it has been superseded by a mixed methods paradigm, which embraces pragmatism and multiplicity. On the basis of this paradigm, we propose and illustrate new scientific standards for research on the evaluation of psychotherapeutic treatments. These include the requirement that projects should comprise several parallel studies that involve randomized controlled trials, qualitative examinations of the implementation of treatment programs, and systematic case studies. The uniqueness of this article is that it contributes a guideline for involving a set of complementary publications, including a review that offers an overall synthesis of the findings from different methodological approaches.

Theory Development via Single Cases: A Case Study of the Therapeutic Relationship in Psychodynamic Therapy

“…This is similar to a recommendation made by Dattilio, Edwards, and Fishman (2010) in their article, "Case studies within a mixed methods paradigm: Towards a resolution of the alienation between researcher and practitioner in psychotherapy research." The recommendation is that a small set of single case studies should become a mandatory part of the scientific reporting of studies that evaluated psychological treatment outcomes via RCTs.…”

TA Treatment of Depression: A Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design Study - ‘Tom’

“…In summary, this present case uses Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) (Elliott, 2001(Elliott, , 2002, enhanced as described for the 2 nd case, to 'evaluate the efficacy of psychotherapy on a case by case basis by asking: addition to RCT evidence also incorporates a range of other research methods including practice-based, qualitative and systematic case study research (Barkham et al 2010;Dattilio et al, 2010;McLeod & Elliott, 2011).…”

Extending Systematic Case Study Method: Generating and Testing Hypotheses About Therapeutic Factors Through Comparisons of Successful and Unsuccessful Cases

“…Although group-based outcome research provides guidelines for the choice of treatment and although treatment manuals are widely and easily available, neither group-based outcome research nor treatment manuals tell us how each therapy unfolds for a particular client in concrete detail. On the other hand, case studies provide us with more specific information as to what a successful implementation of a given treatment looks like by describing the background information of the client and the therapist as well as the process of therapy, thus providing a context into the given treatment (Dattilio, Edwards, & Fishman, 2010). Case comparison, in addition, illuminates what factors are related to successful treatment as sharply contrasted against unsuccessful cases with a similar client-therapist pair.…”