Counselling
    Research

... research resources for counselling students

Web Destinations

Key Sites for Practitioners

The sites included here fall under research in the broadest sense of the word. Since there are few sites that focus on mental health research, we have included those that are good starting points for information.

At Health
At Health Mental Health is a site intended to connect mental health resources. The general resources section includes information about treatment centers, books on mental health, guest articles, and a directory of professionals. The professional resources section includes a site to list individual practices on the Internet, as well as medical information and many other topics.
http://athealth.com

Commercial Online Data Collection Company
This is not an endorsement for this company, but it demonstrates the movement of research data collection to the Internet.
http://www.PsychData.net

CYFERNet (Children Youth and Family Education and Research Network) Gopher
CYFERNet was created to be a practical research-based information site focusing on children, youth, and families. Successful programs are described, research reports are presented, funding resources are given, and evaluation tools are discussed. Project areas include childcare, health, family resiliency, and literacy in science and technology.
http://www.cyfernet.org

Electronic Journals and Periodicals
Electronic Journals and Periodicals hopes to maintain a relatively complete index of psychologically related electronic journals, conference proceedings, and other periodicals in this document.
http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/journal.html

Electronic Statistics Textbook
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

Mental Health Net—How to Do Searches Online
Mental Health Net provides a guide to mental health, psychology, and psychiatry. The site delivers information on disorders, treatments, and professional resources. There is also a reading room and a monthly Focus on Kids column. Although this is only one page, it has links to research sites and gives some excellent tips for beginners and students.
http://mentalhelp.net

Mental Research Institute
The Mental Research Institute, located in Palo Alto, California, presents an innovative model for brief therapy. The MRI Clinical Bulletin is online, as are clinical services, research projects, and MRI publications. The training pages include brief therapy and narrative therapy among the programs and workshop offered.
http://www.mri.org

Moderated Research Newsgroup
http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=djq&as_q=&as_ugroup=sci.psychology.research

NIH Grant Info Server
The NIH Office of Extramural Research-Grants is an educational site for researchers looking for research training programs and funding opportunities. General questions and questions of grant policy and award data may be e-mailed.
http://www.nih.gov

Online Dictionary of Mental Health
The Online Dictionary of Mental Health is a resource site covering the various mental health disciplines. However, instead of supplying definitions, there are links to descriptive sites.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/psychotherapy

Policy Information Exchange (PIE)
This is a comprehensive site created by the Missouri Institute of Mental Health (MIMH) and the Policy Information Exchange (PIE). The site focuses on the PIE databases, links, and access to the MIMH library, which is a nationally acclaimed source of mental health information.
http://mimh200.mimh.edu/mimhweb/pie/

The Qualitative Report: Online Journal of Qualitative Research
Sponsored by Nova Southeastern University, this online journal includes some research on psychotherapy. In addition, it is a resource for several qualitative research links.
http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/index.html

Statistics on the Web
This is a compilation of links to a variety of statistical sites on the Web.
http://www.execpc.com/~helberg/statistics.html

StatLib from Carnegie Mellon University
StatLib is a system for distributing statistical software, datasets, and information by electronic mail, FTP, and WWW.
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu

Tutorial on Research Design
Sponsored by Athabasca University, this site takes the visitor through important topics in research design.
http://server.bmod.athabascau.ca/html/aupr/tools.shtml

University of Auckland Statistics Department
This university site in New Zealand has links to other international sites, companies, and the like.
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/links.php

Key Sites for Client Information

Library Research in Psychology
This pamphlet from the American Psychological Association was designed to help students and nonpsychologists find information on relevant psychological topics.
http://www.apa.org/science/lib.html

Professional Development

Professional Organizations

American Educational Research Association
AERA publishes a journal and provides workshops and conferences on educational research. The focus of the organization is on research, including the study of higher education. Researchers come from a variety of disciplines, including counseling.

AERA 1230 17th St., NW Washington, DC 20036-3078
http://www.aera.net

American Psychological Society
The APS is a breakaway group from the American Psychological Association and is composed of those interested in a scientific psychology. Members are generally researchers and not clinicians.

The American Psychological Society
1010 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005-4907
Telephone: (202) 783-2077
Fax: (202) 783-2083
http://www.psychologicalscience.org

Codes of Ethics

American Counseling Association
Ethical standards for counselors include research guidelines (Section G). The standards are published in full at the ACA website.
http://www.counseling.org/content/navigationmenu/resources/ethics/ aca_code_of_ethics.htm

American Psychological Association Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct
APA's ethical code focuses on ethical conduct of researchers to a greater degree than do its counterparts in other mental health professions. The most recent edition was accepted on January 1, 2003.
http://www.apa.org/ethics/homepage.html

Annotated Bibliography

Literature on research methods in counseling generally falls into two categories. Foundational works are ordinarily textbooks. The key current works are landmark studies that have either had an impact on the entire profession or are significant because of methodology.

Foundational Works

Bergin, A. E., & Garfield, S. L. (2003). Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (5th ed.). New York: Wiley.
As is true of the earlier editions, Bergin and Garfield's work spans over 800 pages and is an encyclopedia of clinical research. The newest edition traces the history of research and includes a summary of research on the effectiveness of counseling psychotherapy. It has an analysis of therapist variables in treatments and addresses the research on the various major approaches to counseling and psychotherapy.

Elkin, I., Parloff, M. B., Hadley, S. W., & Autry, J. H. (1985). NIMH treatment of depression collaborative research program: Background and research plan. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 305-316.
The 10-year research program compared cognitive therapy, "interpersonal therapy," and chemotherapy for depression. In a nutshell, the eventual results of the study suggested that psychotherapy was equally effective as drugs in treating clinical depression, although no treatment was judged to be superior to others. The study was completed before the introduction of serotonin reuptake inhibiting drugs such as Prozac.

Everitt, B. S. (1998). The Cambridge dictionary of statistics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
This is a dictionary of statistical terminology used in research. It is a valuable addition to the bookshelf if you need simple definitions.

Gelso, C. J. (1979). Research in counseling: Methodological and professional issues. The Counseling Psychologist, 8, 7-35.
In this and later articles, Gelso goes against the grain of psychology's scientist/practitioner model and suggests that it is no longer appropriate for those practicing counseling. Part of his backing for this viewpoint is that the average counseling psychologist does not publish after the doctoral dissertation. Gelso's ideas are that science can be a good discipline to help us think more clearly, but it cannot really capture the subtleties of practice. Only experience can do that.

Gottschalk, L. A., & Auerbach, A. H. (Eds.). (1966). Methods of research in psychotherapy. New York: Wiley.
An early primer on methods of clinical research, this is an edited book containing chapters on analysis of recordings and reviews of behavioral, psychoanalytic, and client-centered methods of outcome research.

Paul, G. L. (1967). Strategy of outcome research in psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 31, 109-118. In 1967, Paul was still reacting to Eysenck's 1952 assertion that waiting-list clients improve at the same rate as those who seek treatment. He identified "lethal errors" in previous research and suggested ways to correct them. He also clarified the domains and major variables to be studied in psychotherapy research and suggested that we focus on outcome research.

Key Current Works

Hoyle, R. H. (Ed.). (1995). Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
This is an edited book with chapters by some of the main researchers who use structural equation modeling in research.

Leong, F. T. L., & Austin, J. T. (Eds.). (1996). The psychology research handbook: A guide for graduate assistants and research assistants. London: Sage.
The edited work contains 29 chapters under six sections: Research Planning, Design, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Research Writing, and Special Topics. Because it is designed for beginning researchers, the chapters are basic but provide an excellent resource for this purpose.

Smith, M. L., Glass, G. V., & Miller, T. I. (1996). The benefits of psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Building on their meta-analytic studies of psychotherapy outcome, the authors present their findings that psychotherapy is more effective than placebo for more than 75% of subjects in the selected studies. The study is frequently cited as endorsement for the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

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