Specifying the Treatment Process: The Basis for Effectiveness Research

With a focus on the implications for effectiveness research, This paper presents a conceptualization of the treatment process, some distinctions among types of outcomes, and a framework in which the effectiveness of specific interventive approaches may be evaluated. Variables characterizing the treatment situation are delineated in terms of (a) their defining referents, (b) the specificity and rigor of their definition, and (c) the complexity of their formulation. Three general types of outcomes are also distinguished: ultimate, intermediate, and instrumental. In order to meet the proposed requisites of practice knowledge, a number of areas for future research are outlined, emphasizing the identification of specific interventive variables and the investigation of causal hypotheses linking those interventions to specific types of outcomes.