Carey, T.A., Huddy, V. orcid.org/0000-0002-0567-8166 and Griffiths, R. (2019) To mix or not to mix? A meta-method approach to rethinking evaluation practices for improved effectiveness and efficiency of psychological therapies illustrated with the application of perceptual control theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. 1445. ISSN 1664-1078
Abstract
Progress in the development of more effective and efficient psychological therapies could be accelerated with innovative and nuanced approaches to research methodology. Therapy development has been dominated by a mono-methodology attitude with randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarded as a “gold standard” despite the concept of a single methodology being ascribed gold standard status having been called into question. Rather than one particular methodology being considered superior to all others, the gold standard approach should be matching appropriate methodologies to important research questions.
The way in which that matching should occur, however, is far from clear. Moving from a mono-methodological approach to mixed-method designs has not been straightforward. The ways in which methods should be mixed, to arrive at robust and persuasive answers to genuine research questions, is not entirely clear. In this paper, we argue that attention
to the meta-methods underpinning all research designs will improve research precision and provide greater clarity about the contribution of any particular program of research to scientific progress in that field. From a meta-method perspective, the matter of what changed can be delineated from why or how these changes occurred. Different methods
and different types of mixing can be justified for each meta question. A meta-method approach should make explicit the assumptions that guide the development of research designs and also promote the articulation of putative mechanisms that might be relevant. By paying greater attention to assumptions such as how causality occurs, and important
mechanisms of change, the mixing of methodologies that are still not mainstream in this area such as routine outcome monitoring and evaluation and functional model building, can occur. By adopting methodologies that focus on learning about a program’s strengths
and weaknesses rather than presiding over judgments of whether or not the program is deemed to be effective, we will move much closer to a position of being able to understand what programs under which conditions people find most helpful for their purposes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | randomized controlled trial; perceptual control theory; effectiveness; efficiency; internal validity; test for the controlled variable |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jul 2019 11:38 |
Last Modified: | 10 Jul 2019 09:08 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media S.A. |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01445 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148015 |