Objectivity in psychotherapy research: Do the numbers speak for themselves?

Abstract

Psychotherapy research is characterized by a quest for evidence-based treatment. Systematic numerical comparison by means of randomized controlled trials is held as objective methodology resulting in evidence on efficacy of psychological treatments. In this pursuit, numbers are taken as speaking for themselves. However, I argue that the assumed procedural objectivity does not yield objectivity of evidence resulting from the method of choice. This discussion I base on the analysis of a clinical case example from our own mixed method psychotherapy research, in which the numbers could speak for themselves, yet the conclusion does not at all