Psychology is weird. Some of the most important and useful insights involve things that nobody can observe — things that go on in your head — events that only you witness. And yet our most developed theories were developed to predict observable behaviour, not hidden thoughts and feelings.

I live this conundrum on a daily basis.

As a coaching psychologist (and as a human being) my main psychological interest is in self-development through regulating our own thoughts and behaviours. Learning to meditate changed my life. Of course, what it mostly changed was how I deal with my own thoughts and bodily sensations. As an Associate Professor of Psychological Measurement and Statistics, I spend large parts of my life trying to figure out how we can accurately measure, understand, and teach such self-development processes.

Until we have the sort of brain scanners only found in sci-fi, our best bet is psychometric measurement.

Quality checklist for experimental and component studies in coaching and therapy

This is a checklist for good design of experimental and component studies in CBS. It is adapted from a list published by Steve Hayes, which itself was based on work presented by Dermot Barnes-Holmes at the first ACT Summer Institute in Reno in 2003.

Rosina Pendrous and I adapted this checklist for our own work and it has since been used by other members of our lab.

Intervention Experiment Quality Checklist Download