El modelo tecnológico en psicología

El modelo tecnologico en psicologia

The technology model is one of the most powerful designs that can be used
to evaluate psychotherapeutic treatments in randomized clinical trials. This
modelattempts to specify the treatment variable-psychotherapy-in a
manner analogous to specification of a drug’s formulation in pharmacological
trials, that is, definition of treatment techniques inmanuals as well
as precise specification of treatment dose, delivery of treatments, nature of
the subject sample, and therapists’ experience and training. Through this
specification, a technology modelfor psychotherapy research seeks to
control extraneous variability in clinical trials in order to address
differentiated questions concerning the conditions under which specified
types of subjectswill respond to particular types of treatments (Williams
and Spitzer 1984).

The complex challenges in conceptualization and application of this model
revolve around the central problem ofinternal vs. external validity. Internal
validity, which requires precision and control in study design and execution
of treatments so that alternative explanation of results may be ruled out,
must bebalanced against the representativeness of treatments evaluated and
the genemlizability of results. In a technology model of psychotherapy
research, particular difficulty lies in the polarity betweenvariables that must
be controlled to reduce variation in psychotherapy in order to provide a
valid technological evaluation of psychotherapeutic treatments and those
variables that cannot or shouldnot be controlled because of the inherent
variability of psychotherapy (Docherty 1984; Waskow 1984).
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The technological model of psychotherapy research reached one of its
highest levels ofdevelopment to date in the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Project
(TDCRP) (Elkin et al. 1985; Elkin et al. 1988a; Elkin et al. 1988b). Here,...