PSYCH270

Main Content

Lesson 1: Abnormal Behavior

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Fact or Myth?

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the most effecitve form of psychotherapy.

Answer: MYTH!

A few early studies found that Cognitive-Behavioral Theory (CBT) was more effective than other forms of psychotherapy, but then Berman, Miller, and Massman (1985) found that this initial superiority went away when they controlled for researcher biases or “allegiance effects”. Those early studies were biased and methodologically flawed in that the researchers wanted CBT to look superior so they “stacked the deck” in favor of CBT when designing the studies.

Imagine a little league referee who has a child on one of the teams so they call more penalties on the opposing team (possibly without even being aware of it) – that’s another example of an allegiance effect.

Thus, the belief that CBT is the most effective form of psychotherapy is a myth. All four theories of psychotherapy mentioned above have a great deal of empirical support (Lambert, 2004; Wampold, 1997). What matters is how well and how appropriately you utilize a theory, rather than which theory you use – which leads to our next topic…

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PSYCH270

Main Content

Lesson 1: Abnormal Behavior

PSYCH270:

Lesson 1: Abnormal Behavior

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Fact or Myth?