Failure: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed the enthusiastic development of behavioural methodology. Numerous new journals have emerged (for example Behavior Therapy, Behaviour Research and Therapy, Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis, Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry); multitudes of successful single-case studies have been reported; new and large organisations have developed (for example Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and European Association for Behaviour Therapy); and many behaviour therapy handbooks have appeared on the American market. However, recent reports suggest that any representation of a high success rate is misleading when the behavioural method is applied routinely in the field (Patterson, 1975; Wahler, Berland and Leske, 1975; Jayaratne, Stuart and Tripodi, 1974; Weathers and Liberman, 1975).