PMID- 10402699
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19990803
LR  - 20191210
IS  - 0005-7967 (Print)
IS  - 0005-7967 (Linking)
VI  - 37 Suppl 1
DP  - 1999 Jul
TI  - Armies of idiots and idiosyncrasies: on reductions in experimental 
      psychopathology.
PG  - S135-45
AB  - Research requires reduction of complex phenomena to more basic ones. The degree 
      of reduction seen in Behaviour Research and Therapy (BRAT) papers in general, and 
      of Rachman's work in particular, meets with two types of criticism. First, it is 
      argued that reduction is taken too far. This objection is typically heard from 
      critics challenging the generalisability of outcome trials. Ignoring 
      between-patient differences in protocollisation of treatments in outcome studies 
      is held to provide an underestimation of what individualised therapy has to 
      offer. Alternatively, the strictness of inclusion/exclusion criteria in trials is 
      held to give an overestimation of treatment effects in ordinary clinical 
      practice. Scholars studying information processing or biological 
      psychology/psychiatry argue that reduction has not been taken far enough. 
      Convictions, beliefs, schemas, etc. are held not to explain behaviour or emotion. 
      They should be reduced to perculiarities in information processing or, according 
      to others, to neurophysiological processes. The objection that the reduction 
      inherent in clinical trials hampers generalisation is obviously an empirical 
      issue. It is argued that the objection that reduction has not been taken far 
      enough is also an empirical issue. Given the present state of knowledge in 
      psychopathology, and believing that degrees of reduction is an empirical rather 
      than a philosophical issue, the conclusion is that both objections are 
      empirically invalid and that the degree of reduction in Rachman's work has proved 
      balanced and productive.
FAU - Van den Hout, M
AU  - Van den Hout M
AD  - Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht 
      University, Netherlands.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - England
TA  - Behav Res Ther
JT  - Behaviour research and therapy
JID - 0372477
SB  - IM
MH  - Clinical Trials as Topic/*standards
MH  - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/*methods
MH  - Female
MH  - Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
MH  - Humans
MH  - Individuality
MH  - Male
MH  - Models, Theoretical
MH  - Outcome Assessment, Health Care
MH  - Psychopathology/*methods
EDAT- 1999/07/14 00:00
MHDA- 1999/07/14 00:01
CRDT- 1999/07/14 00:00
PHST- 1999/07/14 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1999/07/14 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1999/07/14 00:00 [entrez]
AID - S0005-7967(99)00053-4 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0005-7967(99)00053-4 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Behav Res Ther. 1999 Jul;37 Suppl 1:S135-45. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7967(99)00053-4.