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Eysenck's 1952 Psychotherapy Effectiveness Study

In a classic 1952 article, researcher Hans Eysenck challenged the assumed effectiveness of psychotherapy by evaluating the results of existing pretest-posttest designs. Although the original clinical studies showed patient improvement after receiving therapy, Eysenck compared these results to archival data from state hospitals and insurance companies for untreated patients. He found that both the treated and untreated groups recovered at similar rates. This highlighted that the improvements observed in the treated group were likely due to spontaneous remission rather than the psychotherapy itself, underscoring the absolute necessity of including a proper control group to accurately measure treatment efficacy.

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Updated 2026-05-04

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU