This may be a time of transition for psychology. Our path as a field has led to some great advances, but as it has grown, it appears to have come undone at the seams.
The need for a standard metric.
As clinicians, we struggle to gain reimbursement and prove our effectiveness in meaningful terms to our clients. As researchers and academics, we are now at a point of crisis such that the NIH has begun a funding initiative demanding coherent metrics from our field.
If we are to remain a credible and effective science, we must do it not by arguing for small islands of theoretical turf but by deep integration and coherence in our methods. From there, we can build a solid base on which to help humanity tackle its largest issues.
Measuring dynamic relationships between behavior and context is the place to begin.
Starting with a more basic level of observations in measurement allows us to realign on solid ground. Our field departed from this with traditional CBT, which led to a great deal of gains. And we must be clear about that – it would be easy to ‘poo poo’ this progress now; however, we need to be careful not to invalidate our own foundation and history.
Let RFT stand larger than ACT.
We moved to measuring constructs like “psychological flexibility,” “self-confidence, ” “anxiety sensitivity” because we did not have a way to measure and understand the complexity of behaviors humans constantly. Look around now: where is your iPhone? Where is your Fitbit? Where is your Alexa? Is your browser open? Guess what. Consumer goods are currently measuring intensive flows of your behavioral data right now. Sadly, psychology and behavior analysis haven’t caught up to the fact that we no longer need to rely on the most rudimentary of measurements.
Angela Coreil, PhD
Consultant and Educator
Angela J. Coreil, PhD works with individuals and organizations to promote better connected, purposeful, and effective living through behavior analytic principles. She has over a decade of clinical experience treating human suffering and promoting human excellence using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other behavioral therapies. She now focuses on the promotion and translation of Clinical Behavior Analysis as a way to improve our science.