Placebo-Like Effects of Education about Rational-Emotive Therapy

Bibliographic Data

ID13648587
AuthorsRussell C Leaf (Rutgers University and Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, New York, corresponding author), Amy K Todres (AT&T Information Systems Laboratories), Paget Hope Gross (Indiana University Bloomington), Susan M Marcus (Texas Christian University), Susan Marcus (Texas Christian University), B J Bradford (0000-0002-6775-4961), Barry Bradford (Lederle Laboratories)
Year1986
Volume58
Issue2
Pages351-370
Publication date1986-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Reports (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2466/pr0.1986.58.2.351
PMID3704039
OpenAlexW2116408555
LanguageEN
References cited34

With the aid of course lectures, in-class group exercises, homework, and texts undergraduate students in abnormal psychology courses used Rational-Emotive Therapy simulations to treat problems in their own lives. The mental health of these students improved but that of untreated controls did not. The amount of improvement, in both groups, was predicted by the intensity of their pretest nonspecific emotional and social distress, but it was not a function of other variables measured. These benefits seem to be nonclinical placebo effects, side-effects of the pedagogical process, based on a combination of preexisting personal demoralization and training-initiated self-acceptance. The methods and measures used in these studies may provide a useful paradigm for studying “therapeutic” effects in natural, nonclinical situations

Alternative medicine · Class (philosophy · Cognition · Distress · Emotive · Mental health · Placebo · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Rational emotive behavior therapy · Clinical Psychology · Medicine · Pain Management and Placebo Effect · Psychological Treatments and Assessments · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications