| Although psychotherapists routinely make decisions about how to match treatment to a particular client, these decisions are seldom guided by empirical knowledge. There is a need to understand the interaction of client and treatment variables in order to maximize therapeutic outcomes. Unfortunately, to date the majority of studies explore these interactions in an atheoretical and post hoc manner. To address this issue Beulter and Clarkin have developed an empirically based model of systematic treatment selection. Employing this model, the current study explored the relationship of two client characteristics, psychological reactance and coping style, to two types of group therapists, group cognitive-behavioral therapy and mutual support group therapy. Not predicted by Beutler and Clarkin's model, interactions of client characteristics and treatment type were overshadowed by interactions of therapist training level with both reactance and coping style. These results should be interpreted with caution, however, due to the questionable validity of some of the measures employed. Although examination of higher order interactions poses both pragmatic and conceptual challenges for future investigators, the results of this research suggest that attention must be given to such interaction effects if research is to contribute to a model of systematic treatment selection. |
