Process Variables and the Prediction of Outcome in Behaviour Therapy

Variables measured before or during psychological treatment may be used in several related ways: as an empirical guide to prognosis with any given treatment, as a means of studying possible treatment mechanisms, or as a method of identifying which stage or process in treatment is associated with therapeutic change. Using data from the same patients already described in a recently published study (Gelder et al., 1973), questions of relevance to each of these areas will be examined in turn.