Decision analysis. Clinical art or Clinical Science
Abstract
An analogy is drawn between decision analysis and the somewhat older profession of psychotherapy. Both offer a variety of techniques designed to help people function in a difficult and uncertain environment; both developed rapidly, sustained by a coherent underlying thoery and anecdotal evidence of having helped some clients. Over the past half century, psychotherapy has faced a series of crises concerned with its transformation from an art to a clinical science. These include validation of the effectiveness of various forms of therapy, validating elements of treatment programs and assumptions of the underlying therapy, improving the clinical skills of individual practitioners, and considering the broader political, social, ideological and ethical issues raised by psychotherapy. It is hoped that by considering the issues which a related profession has identified, the approaches it has developed to study those issues, and the (partial) conclusions it has reached, we can speed the development of decision analysis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA045773
Entities
People
- Baruch Fischhoff