The third way: Single-case research, training, and practice in clinical psychology

Abstract

For 50 years, clinical psychology training has been guided by the scientist-practitioner ideal. Oft-noted difficulties realising this ideal lie in part with the espousal by clinical psychology of a particular model of scientific practice, based on factorial, group designs and null-hypothesis statistical testing. Single-case research is an effective alternative to statistical, qualitative, and case-study approaches, especially in its capacity to deliver scientific analyses at the level of the individual case. The merits of single-case designs for clinical practice are outlined, and some issues in incorporating these designs in clinical training are discussed.