The Experimental Analogue: An Approach to Research in Psychotherapy
An experimental analogue of psychotherapy may be defined as a controlled laboratory situation involving two or more people, in which the behavior of one person (E) is designed along some relevant dimension(s) to similate that of a psychotherapist, while in one or more ways the other person(s) is experiencing a feeling of stress or discomfort, or a "symptom," which in some way approximates that brought by a patient to an actual psychotherapeutic situation. Primarily through the medium of verbal interchange, E seeks to relieve S's "presenting difficulty." Although there is leeway in the manner in which an analogue may be set up, a simple example can be described as follows. The study might begin with the experimental induction of stress (or the utilization of a realistic stress situation) in a group of Ss. Presumably, comparison of the stress group with non-stress controls in terms of a criterion of performance or behavior would indicate some impairment for the former. The stress group might then be sub-divided into a group in therapy which would be exposed to a verbal interchange situation involving a professionally qualified person utilizing (one or more) recognized psychotherapeutic procedures, and a control group which merely rested for a comparable period of time, or, more rigorously, one which discussed therapeutically inert topics, also with a competent, trained professional person who, however, did not seek to function, in any sense, as a therapist. Following these several conditions, each group would be subjected to re-examination on the same or an equivalent form of the criterion behavior or performance measure. Reduction in the impairment of performance of the group in therapy in comparison to the control group would indicate that the method being studied has "worked." Many variations on this basic theme are possible! Illustratively, we might wish to explore the effects of a variety of "patimt" variables, both descriptive (e.g., age, sex, socio-economic status, IQ, etc.) and personality-related (e.g., anxiety, hostility, self concept, rigidity) on therapeutic process and outcome. Similarly, general status and personality variables in the therapz~t could be studied. At a slightly more complex level, it might be profitable to examine the effects on process and outcome of differing client-therapist combinations (e.g., "liberal" and "conservative" therapists paired with "liberal" and "conservative" patients, or, Ss of high or low anti-Semitism, assigned to a therapist who for half the Ss in each group is identified as Mr. Goldberg and for the other half as Mr. Smith). Apart from the theoretical implications of this type of study, it brings us an important step closer to the domain of practicality with