Journal: Psychopathology
Submission Deadline: September 30, 2024
Despite the improvement of psychotherapy methods over the last decades, there remains considerable opportunity to improve treatment outcomes. A limited understanding of the psychological and biological mechanisms of action through which change in psychotherapy occurs impedes the personalization of psychotherapy. A mechanism-based approach moves beyond specific disorders and focuses on the functional mechanisms needed to alleviate symptoms and enhance mental well-being.
A greater understanding of the mechanisms of change would contribute to advancing more effective and efficient treatment. Further, understanding the psychological and biological mechanisms could contribute to developing a coherent set of evidence-based core processes; these may be theory-based or modelled at an idiographic level and then extended to nomothetic generalizations using machine learning analyses. These models are essential since hypothesis-testing longitudinal designs are critical to understanding the mechanisms of change.
An advantage of a mechanism-based approach to psychotherapy is that it is not limited to a single theory or a single school of psychotherapy. It provides a more sophisticated understanding of change, which can lead to more effective interventions that incorporate various pertinent information such as a patient´s social learning history, relationship patterns, current symptoms and everyday functioning.
Subtopics:
Each original research article will present previously unpublished data
- on one (or several) specific changing variable(s) either of a psychological or biological nature, either related to the patient or the therapeutic relationship
- idiographic work increasing the understanding of change processes through data based on session protocols or a moment-by-moment basis in everyday life
- that enables predictive modelling of psychotherapy response and course and, thus, individualized treatment
- dedicated to personalization of psychotherapy
- that minimizes the gap between research and practice
or a systematic or narrative review of data
- dedicated to elucidating the central components, the mediators and moderators of change
- based on integrative approaches to overcome the traditional boundaries of psychotherapy schools
- that aim at individualized approaches to psychotherapy
Please select the option “Call for Papers: A mechanistic approach to psychotherapy” when submitting your manuscript and mention this Call for Papers in your cover letter.
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