An Approach to Psychotherapy Change Process Research: Introduction to the Special Section

This special section has a dual focus. One is on psychotherapy change research. The other is to explicate an approach to develop a program of research that builds on 2 aspects of scientific discovery: decomposition of observed phenomena and localization of specific elements that may combine to produce a complex whole. These aspects are considered within an ordered framework of 8 steps in the development and testing of a model, moving from discovery to model construction, validation, and prediction of complex outcomes. Studies on psychotherapy change processes were selected, after a masked review, to represent different levels in developing a program of research. Although it is argued that the early steps of decomposition and localization are important when developing a program of research, current editorial practices in first-tier journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, typically consider this type of study to be too preliminary for a scientific archival journal. Should this practice be revisited?