Développer des interventions de prévention et de promotion de la santé fondées sur les données probantes : la Démarche EValuation Action (DEVA)

While scientific knowledge informing how to prevent main public health problems builds up since decades, the gap between professional practice and scientific evidence remains important. Regarding disease prevention and health promotion, professionals – including psychologists – aim at enriching their practice by relying on scientific knowledge. However, barriers to knowledge transfer remain. Here we present the Evaluation-Action Approach (DEVA), which has been created to overcome such barriers and provide an operational tool to practitioners willing to use the best available data. This article describes this new project methodology, which is anchored in the evidence-based paradigm, and has been developed based on methodological tools in French, along with assessment practices from different academic disciplines. It has been pre-tested and improved in an academic context and then tested with practitioners (locally and nationally). The DEVA comprises three stages and twelve steps, four of which are evaluations. These evaluative steps aim at checking whether, at each stage, the best available data are used and that the (working and health) objectives are reached. The DEVA can contribute to the need of methodological innovation and the development of professional and practical skills. This project methodology provides an operating procedure to facilitate knowledge transfer and the development of evidence-based prevention and health promotion interventions.     

A Comparison of the Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for Dissemination and Implementation and the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention’s Research-to-Practice Model for Behavioral Interventions

Translating evidence-based HIV/STD prevention interventions and research findings into applicable HIV prevention practice has become an important challenge for the fields of community psychology and public health due to evidence-based interventions and evidence-based practice being given higher priority and endorsement by federal, state, and local health department funders. The Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for Dissemination and Implementation and the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) Research-to-Practice model both address this challenge. The DHAP model and the ISF are each presented with a brief history and an introduction of their features from synthesis of research findings through translation into intervention materials to implementation by prevention providers. This paper describes why the ISF and the DHAP model were developed and the similarities and differences between them. Specific examples of the use of the models to translate research to practice and the subsequent implications for support of each model are provided. The paper concludes that the ISF and the DHAP model are truly complementary with some unique differences, while both contribute substantially to addressing the gap between identifying effective programs and ensuring their widespread adoption in the field.     

Practice Guidelines in school psychology: Issues and directions for evidence-based interventions in practice and training

Practice Guidelines have become increasingly popular at the national and international level. Practice Guidelines are a natural extension of the “evidence-based intervention” movement, and could be a mechanism to promote the use of evidence-based interventions within the field of school psychology practice and training. In this paper we review the use of Practice Guidelines in other fields and the promise and potential pitfalls associated with the development and application of Practice Guidelines within the field of school psychology. Recommendations for how to avert some of the difficulties faced by other disciplines in the development and application of Practice Guidelines are discussed. Suggestions for next steps in the profession and future research are noted.     

Psychological research and practice in former Yugoslavia and its successors

This paper presents a brief history of Yugoslav psychology and a review of the current state of psychological research and practice in the former Yugoslav countries. Bibliometric mapping was used to explore the knowledge domain and international visibility of psychological research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Judging by the number of papers visible in Scopus, psychological research activity in these countries is similar to the other former communist countries. In a relative sense, it is even higher in Slovenia and Croatia. However, psychologists still rely heavily on national journals indexed in Scopus when publishing their papers. Regarding psychological practice, former Yugoslav countries are facing challenges that are more or less typical for all small countries in the global scientific and economic market. Keeping in mind all the obstacles and traumas in the past decades, it should be considered a success that psychology in the former Yugoslav countries is now a fully established profession and a recognized scientific discipline.     

How does evidence-based practice in psychology work? – As an ethical demarcation

Evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP) is ordinarily understood to demarcate between legitimate and illegitimate psychotherapy practice, based upon the epistemic demarcation distinguishing scientific from non-scientific knowledge. EBPP emphasizes the value of effective and efficient interventions identified through randomized controlled trials and cost-benefit analyses. Basing the template for choice of action or strategy on randomized controlled trials and cost-benefit analyses create a deceptive appearance of ethical neutrality. However, there is an implicit ethical demarcation at work in EBPP, which favors a non-articulated specific position in normative ethics. More particularly, evidence-based practice in psychology is structured according to a utilitarian framework, severely limiting the kinds of ethical perspectives available to assess psychotherapy practice. The latter point is illustrated through a new mode of delivering psychotherapy services called “Internet-based guided self-help” (IBGSH). In EBPP the only relevant ethical question is to what extent any intervention, such as IBGSH, is effective and efficient. Some of the limiting effects of the ethical, utilitarian, demarcation are showcased by presenting three alternative ethical perspectives by which psychotherapy practice in general and IBGSH in particular can be analyzed. The analysis concludes that EBPP is not suited to ethically regulate the practice of psychotherapy.     

Comments on "Distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology:" Evidence-based interventions for grandiose bragging

The purpose of this article is to provide some perspectives on Lilienfeld, Ammirati, and David's (2012) paper on distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology. In many respects their work represents an intervention for "grandiose bragging," a problem that has occasionally occurred when various non-evidence-based or discredited interventions receive sensationalized positive endorsement for adoption in school psychology practice. In this paper, the implications of the Lilienfeld et al. work are discussed within the context of the scientist-practitioner gap, scientific thinking and evaluation of scientific thinking, and negative results research. The authors have advanced our thinking on evidence-based practices in school psychology and education.     

Implementing the Scientist–Practitioner Model in the Hospital Setting

Psychologists who work in hospital settings confront assorted challenges in implementing the scientist–practitioner model. Clinical psychologists must deal with the tension between an evidence-based model and the realities of clinical practice. Psychologists can gain a better understanding of what it means to function as a scientist–practitioner by understanding current debates in both psychology and medicine on the relationship between research and practice. Psychologists are not unique in the slow pace of implementing research into practice. Psychologists in hospitals can make a contribution to the treatment of medical patients by emphasizing the role of the treatment relationship in health-care outcomes. Medicine’s use of practice-based research networks provides a valuable structure for psychologists to emulate in order to function as active participants in the collection of practice-based evidence rather than passively accommodating to the evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.     

心理治疗的循证实践与循效施治

循证实践与循效施治是当前国外心理治疗的两种相互补充的模式,二者在理论假设、获取证据的来源、操作流程等方面存在着明显不同。从影响来看,循证实践的影响力超过了循效施治,它被美国提升推广为一种心理学运动,它的倡导昭示着目前临床心理治疗的一个关键性改革。然而,在心理治疗中要真正实施循证实践存在着很多困难和挑战,循效施治是解决这些困难和问题的方法之一。我国心理治疗的专业化水平不高,藉美国心理治疗循证实践提供的理念和方法去思考中国心理治疗的问题,我们亦可获得有益于中国心理治疗发展的思路。     

Evidence-based treatment and practice: new opportunities to bridge clinical research and practice, enhance the knowledge base, and improve patient care

The long-standing divide between research and practice in clinical psychology has received increased attention in view of the development of evidence-based interventions and practice and public interest, oversight, and management of psychological services. The gap has been reflected in concerns from those in practice about the applicability of findings from psychotherapy research as a guide to clinical work and concerns from those in research about how clinical work is conducted. Research and practice are united in their commitment to providing the best of psychological knowledge and methods to improve the quality of patient care. This article highlights issues in the research- practice debate as a backdrop for rapprochement. Suggestions are made for changes and shifts in emphases in psychotherapy research and clinical practice. The changes are designed to ensure that both research and practice contribute to our knowledge base and provide information that can be used more readily to improve patient care and, in the process, reduce the perceived and real hiatus between research and practice.     

Synthesizing Single-Case Research to Identify Evidence-Based Practices: Some Brief Reflections

The purposes of this paper are to (a) propose an operational standard for defining a ??practice,?? (b) encourage development of professional standards for visual and statistical analysis of single-case research, and (c) propose a standard for using single-case research results to identify practices that are ??evidence-based.?? These topics are not new for behavioral researchers, but they become critical for the larger conversations now occurring among researchers, policy makers, and educators working to implement effective practices in psychology and education.     

The moral of the story: The importance of applying an ethics lens to the teaching of positive psychology

In a short-time positive psychology has progressed into a scientific and multidisciplinary field of enquiry. It is now necessary for positive psychology to develop clear practice standards which will be collectively endorsed and upheld by members and those undergoing training in positive psychology. Teachers of positive psychology are in a prime position to disseminate ethical knowledge. Moreover, the objectives of ethics and positive psychology are closely aligned in their focus on achieving optimal outcomes; hence, the pairing of the two is ideal. Consequently, it would be ironic if positive psychology did not explicitly embrace ethical standards in guiding those training for a future in positive psychology. As a professional entity, positive psychology needs to provide more direction and encouragement for teachers, students, scholars and practitioners of positive psychology, and in time, this should be codified and discussed in positive psychology university degrees to promote consistency among its future members.     

Reviewing psychologists' qualifications for career development practice in Australia

Vocational psychology and the practice of career development are important dimensions of the psychology discipline and profession. This paper contains an overview of Australian career development practice in light of recent trends, particularly the formalisation of career development practice among professions other than psychologists. Given the advent of professional standards for Australian career development practitioners, a review of postgraduate degrees in organisational, developmental and educational, and counselling psychology was conducted to determine their correspondence with the competencies presented in the Standards. The review found significant consistency with generic competencies. Degrees in organisational psychology provided the broadest correspondence, while degrees in counselling, developmental and educational psychology had lower levels of correspondence on specific competencies. The implications of the review are discussed in light of the evolution of the career development industry and psychologists' standing in this field.     

Bridging the divide in work and organizational psychology: evidence from practice

This study explores the extent to which work and organizational (W&O) psychology practitioners use evidence, how they apply it to the everyday contexts in which they work, and the types of barriers they encounter in so doing. It adopts a mixed methods approach involving the administration of a survey to a UK sample (N = 163) of W&O psychologists and a series of semi-structured interviews (N = 25) exploring in greater depth how evidence is applied in practice. Findings reveal that practitioners consult a wide range of different types of evidence which they employ at various stages of engagement with client organizations and that this evidence is pressed into service in the pursuit of solutions which are both acceptable from the client perspective and consistent with the scientific standards underpinning professional knowledge and expertise in W&O psychology. Barriers to evidence-use were mainly practical in nature, concerning issues around managing the client–consultant relationship and the particularities of implementation context, both of which were shown to influence evidence utilization. The study contributes to current debate on the extent to which W&O psychologists adopt an evidence-based approach and provides a valuable and much called-for empirical insight into the enactment of the scientist–practitioner model in W&O psychology.     

Introduction to the special section on dissemination: dissemination research and research dissemination: how can we close the gap?

One of the greatest challenges facing health promotion and disease prevention is translating research findings into evidence-based public health and clinical practices that are actively disseminated and widely adopted. Despite the tremendous strides made in developing effective disease prevention and control programs, there has been little study of effective dissemination of evidence-based programs to and adoption by community, public health, and clinical practice settings. This special section provides a venue in which to highlight exemplary dissemination research efforts while also identifying limitations in research to date and framing important future research questions. This issue establishes a resource for investigators interested in dissemination research, with relevance to health psychology. In this sense, it can serve as a benchmark by which to examine subsequent progress. The 6 articles reflect the state of the science in dissemination research for the promotion and adoption of health behavior change interventions.     

Academic perceptions of the research evidence base in work and organizational psychology: A European perspective

There has been a growing interest in evidence‐based management. A core component is a body of high‐quality research evidence to inform practice. Initial research with human resource managers in the United States and the Netherlands reveals only modest knowledge about a number of ‘widely documented’ research findings. However, it is unclear whether research experts would display any greater agreement about the research evidence. The present study addresses this issue by exploring levels of agreement about the quality of the research evidence base in work and organizational (W/O) psychology using a pan‐European sample of 75 senior academic W/O psychologists who completed two rounds of a study, first identifying core findings in the field of W/O psychology and then reporting levels of agreement about them. The results show that there were only seven of 24 core findings on which over 75% agreed that there was good‐quality evidence. The challenges of developing and utilizing an evidence‐based approach are discussed and it is concluded, in agreement with Briner and Rousseau (2011a), that there is some way to go before W/O psychologists can begin to feel confident about the quality of much of their research evidence.     

知识划界、追赶焦虑与中国本土心理学的理论建构导向

科学心理学以方法为中心的知识建构策略,内在地要求它与常识心理学划界以谋求自然科学分支的学科地位,其代价是对人类心理之情感与意义维度的隔离。在移植西方心理学体系的过程中,科学心理学的争议也内含于中国心理学的发展轨迹中,同时还附加了学术边陲地区特有的学科追赶焦虑。中国本土心理学理论应突破科学至上的观念束缚,致力于发展具有现实解释力和价值引导力的人文主义导向的心理学理论,以切实解决中国现实社会中的心理问题,并在世界心理学界发出真正的中国声音。     

The importance of an evidence-based approach in the current Spanish policy for crime prevention

This introductory paper has two objectives. On the one hand, to present the guidelines of the evidence-based perspective on crime prevention as an alternative to the usual criminal policy, which often disregards conclusions based on scientific evidence. On the other hand, to discuss the contemporary situation in Spain regarding crime prevention and particularly the role psychology develops in terms of the utility/effectiveness dichotomy. The evidence-based perspective on crime prevention is guided by the main criteria of collecting the best scientific evidence in relation to 'what works best' in the different areas of crime prevention. In that purpose systematic reviews and meta-analyses are strongly recommended. The Campbell Collaboration in Crime and Justice is a scientific endeavour oriented to prepare rigorous and systematic reviews of high-quality evidence about 'what works'. Regarding crime prevention in Spain it is argued that psychology and other disciplines must make society and its rulers see that intervention based on evidence-based policy is essential for crime prevention.     

Adult Re-collections of Childhood Sexual Abuse

A controversy exists regarding adults who come to bear memories of childhood sexual abuse. This debate in both the scientific literature and popular press has evolved into a dichotomous categorization which demands an identification of these memories as either "true" or "false." This paper will lend a theoretical foundation to the discussion, considering the phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, including: psychoanalytic, developmental and cognitive theories of psychology, folkloristic studies, and the sociology of knowledge. The goal of this consideration is to determine what can be said about "truth" in light of these memories. Implications for social work practice and research are provided.     

Why ‘What Works’ Still Won’t Work: From Evidence-Based Education to Value-Based Education

The idea that professional practices such as education should be based upon or at least be informed by evidence continues to capture the imagination of many politicians, policy makers, practitioners and researchers. There is growing evidence of the influence of this line of thought. At the same time there is a growing body of work that has raised fundamental questions about the feasibility of the idea of evidence-based or evidence-informed practice. In this paper I make a further contribution to this discussion through an analysis of a number of assumptions that inform the discussion. I focus on the epistemological, ontological and praxeological dimensions of the discussion and in each domain identify a deficit. In the epistemological domain there is a knowledge deficit, in the ontological domain an effectiveness or efficacy deficit and in the practice domain an application deficit. Taken together these deficits not only raise some important questions about the very idea of evidence-based practice but also highlight the role of normativity, power and values. Against this background I outline the case for the idea of value-based education as an alternative for evidence-based education. As I am generally concerned about the expectations policy makers hold about what evidence can and should achieve in professional practices such as education, my contribution is primarily meant to provide educators and other professionals with arguments that can help them to resist unwarranted expectations about the role of evidence in their practices and even more so of unwarranted interventions in their practices.     

Treatment manuals: use in the treatment of bulimia nervosa

As psychology has moved toward emphasizing evidence-based practice, use of treatment manuals has extended from research trials into clinical practice. Minimal research has directly evaluated use of manuals in clinical practice. This survey of international eating disorder professionals examined use of manuals with 259 clinicians’ most recent client with bulimia nervosa. Although evidence-based manuals for bulimia nervosa exist, only 35.9% of clinicians reported using a manual. Clinicians were more likely to use a manual if they were younger; were treating an adult client; were clinical psychologists; were involved in research related to eating disorders; and endorsed a cognitive-behavioral orientation. Clinicians were less likely to use a manual if they provided eclectic psychotherapy that incorporated multiple psychotherapeutic approaches. We conclude that psychotherapy provided in clinical practice often does not align with the specific form validated in research trials, and “eclecticism” is at odds with efforts to disseminate manuals into clinical practice.