The Role of Mentors in the Development of Expertise: Bruce Wampold wins the Beckman Award Honoring Inspirational Professors

January 12, 2012 By scottdm Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 7th, 2012, 7:00 pm EST
The Carter Presidential Libary
Atlanta, Georgia

In 2008, the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Trust Award was created to honor inspirational professors, academic faculty members who have inspired their students to “create an organization, concept, procedure, or movement which has demonsrably conferred a benefit on the community.”

This last week, I had the honor of joining my former professor and long time mentor, Bruce Wampold, Ph.D., at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia as he received the 2011 Beckman Award. I met Bruce in 1984, my first year in graduate school. As you might guess, he was the statistics instructor. Turns out, it was his first academic post! I learned so much in that class as well as the “Applied Regression/Correlation Analysis” course he taught the following year. Who knew we’d be working, writing papers, and pulishing together 27 years later!

On this blog, and in mutliple articles, I’ve written about the important role that mentors play in the development of expertise. On this score, the impact Bruce has had and continues to have on my career is immeasurable. I can’t think of a more deserving person. Former A.P.A. president Carol Goodheart, Ph.D. delivered the award, captured in the video below:

Are all treatments approaches equally effective?

January 9, 2010 By scottdm Leave a Comment

Bruce Wampold, Ph.D.

Late yesterday, I blogged about a soon-to-be published article in Clinical Psychology Review in which the authors argue that the finding by Benish, Imel, & Wamppold (2008) of equivalence in outcomes among treatments for PTSD was due to, “bias, over-generalization, lack of transparency, and poor judgement.” Which interpretation of the evidence is correct? Are there “specific approaches for specific disorders” that are demonstrably more effective than others? Or does the available evidence show all approaches intended to be therapeutic to be equally effective?

History makes clear that science produces results in advance of understanding. Until the response to Ehlers, Bisson, Clark, Creamer, Pilling, Richards, Schnurr, Turner, and Yule becomes available, I wanted to remind people of three prior blog posts that review the evidence regarding differential efficacy of competing therapeutic approaches. The first (and I think most illuminating)–“The Debate of the Century“–appeared back in August. The post featured a link to a debate between Bruce Wampold and enthusiastic proponent of “empirically supported treatments,” Steve Hollon. Listen and then see if you agree with the large group of scientists and practitioners in attendance who thought–by a margin of 15:1–that Bruce carried the day.

The second post–Whoa Nellie!– commented on a 25 Million US$ research grant awarded by the US Department of Defense to study treatments for PTSD. Why does this make me think of “deep throat’s” admonition to, “follow the money!” Here you can read the study that is causing the uproar within the “specific treatments for specific disorders” gang.

Third, and finally, if you haven’t already read the post “Common versus Specific Factors and the Future of Psychotherapy,” I believe you’ll find the thorough review of the research done in response to an article by Siev and Chambless critical of the “dodo verdict” helpful.

The Debate of the Century

August 27, 2009 By scottdm

What causes change in psychotherapy? Specific treatments applied to specific disorders? Those in the “evidence-based” say so and have had a huge influence on behavioral healthcare policy and reimbursement. Over the last 10 years, my colleagues and I have written extensively and traveled the world offering a different perspective: by and large, the effectiveness of care is due to a shared group of factors common to all treatment approaches.

In place of “evidence-based” practice, we’ve argued for “practice-based”evidence. Said another way, what really matters in the debate is whether clients benefit–not the particular treatment approach. Here on my website, clinicians can download absolutely free measures that can be used to monitor and improve outcome and retention (click Performance Metrics).

Anyway, the message is finally getting through. Recently, uber-statistician and all around good guy Bruce Wampold, Ph.D. debated prominent EBP proponent Steve Hollon. Following the exchange, a vote was taken. Bruce won handily: more than 15:1.

Scroll down to “Closing Debate” (Thursday)