A national survey of practicing psychologists' attitudes toward psychotherapy treatment manuals

Abstract

There has been considerable debate and little empirical data on the role of psychotherapy treatment manuals in clinical practice. Attitudes toward treatment manuals are a potentially important determinant of how likely practitioners are to use manual-based treatments in clinical practice. A total of 891 practicing psychologists nationwide were surveyed about their attitudes toward treatment manuals and their ideas about the content of manuals. Practitioners held widely varying attitudes toward treatment manuals, and ideas about what constitutes a manual were associated with attitudes in a predictable way. Recommendations are made for how to gather more useful information about practitioners' attitudes toward the many changes affecting current models of clinical practice.