Contextual Approaches to Clinical Interventions and Assessment: An Introduction to Part III

This chapter provides an overview of the key issues, challenges, and concerns involving contextual approaches to psychotherapy and clinical assessment. Applied behavior analysis with its emphasis on operant principles, along with psychotherapeutic approaches, such as systematic desensitization, based on respondent principles dominated the first generation of behavior therapy. The chapter focuses on some of the challenges in evaluating in-session therapist and client behavioral interactions that still need to be resolved for matters of this sort to be addressed empirically. It discusses the promise that a contextualistic perspective toward clinical assessment may offer in bridging this science practice gap within a wide array of psychotherapeutic approaches that include, but are not limited to contextual behavioral science (CBS). The development of psychometrically sound process measures is necessary, but not sufficient, for practitioners to have the means of guiding and making adjustments to the services they offer.