Psychotherapy patients as research subjects: Problems in cooperativeness, representativeness, and generalizability

Examined whether psychotherapy patients who cooperate as participant research ss are representative of the patient population from which they are drawn. 22 cooperative, 27 partially cooperative, and 16 noncooperative patients were studied. Results (a) indicate that the 3 groups were quite distinctive in both background and psychotherapy variables, (b) caution against generalizing on the basis of the results from cooperative research ss only, and (c) demonstrate that cooperativeness is predictive of psychotherapy outcome as judged by therapist. Cooperativeness is discussed as a possible personality predisposition, I.e., a readiness to participate in a variety of tasks, including research and psychotherapy. (18 ref.)