Research findings from the field of psychology in the practice of psychotherapy

Jadwiga Małgorzata Rakowska

doi:10.18290/rpsych.2015.18.3-1en

Jadwiga Małgorzata Rakowska Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rpsych.2015.18.3-1en

Keywords: the practice of psychotherapy; research findings on psychotherapy; research findings in the field of psychology

Abstract

The common objective of the articles included in this issue of Roczniki Psychologiczne is to explain some psychological mechanisms of psychotherapy by drawing on research findings from different areas of psychology. The need for such analyses is justified by the status of research on psychotherapy, which shows that psychotherapy works, but it is not known how or why it does. Such analyses are carried out in accordance with the paradigm of evidence-based clinical practice, suggesting that a potential source of answers to questions or resolution of controversies arising in the practice of psychotherapy can be all the available research findings. The articles in this issue of Roczniki illustrate the practical execution of this suggestion by using research findings from the field of psychology in search of answers to the questions arising in the practice of psychotherapy. Four of the papers concern the determinants of the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions and explain issues such as: (1) in whom and how to modify coping with stress in order to prevent the recurrence of mental disorder symptoms; (2) how to deal with negative emotions in patients; (3) under what circumstances patients have a chance to change their behavior under the influence of insight into the transference phenomenon; (4) what the effects are of psychotherapists perceiving patients in terms of stereotypical assumptions, and whether and how psychotherapists can control such perception. The fifth article refers to changes in mental functioning in patients treated with psychotherapy and answers the question of what the transformation of self-image is associated with in changing the behavior of patients under the influence of psychotherapy.

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