Single Case Experimental Design and Empirical Clinical Practice

Research in clinical psychology is done very infrequently by the practicing clinician. A major reason for this seems to be inadequate or cumbersome research tools that are incompatible with clinical realities and assumptions. Time series experimentation is explored as a possible research tool available to clinical practice. Standards of good clinical decision making seem to parallel closely the logic of time series methodology. It is argued that most of the reasons for the underutilization of this methodology in clinical practice have to do with misunderstanding and biases on the parts of clinicians and methodologists alike. Time series experimentation is broken down into several logical core elements and organized into an overall system according to the nature of the predictions against which comparisons are made. The natural use of these logical steps in clinical practice is examined in terms of its practical, scientific, and ethical dimensions.