A Rationale and Proposal for Cognitive-Mediational Research on Counseling and Psychotherapy

Cognitively oriented research on counseling and psychotherapy is criticized for ignoring the full implications of cognitive mediation for therapeutic science. A discussion of the individual uniqueness of human cognitive structures and the uncertainty of human social actions leads to a philosophical analysis of the relevance of these observations for a human social science of counseling psychology. Against this background, criteria for the conduct of cognitive-mediational therapeutic research are proposed and illustrated, as part of a larger proposal for multifaceted inquiry into therapeutic events and effects. In the later part of the article, implications of this proposal for the relationship between scientific theory and professional practice in counseling psychology are explored. Throughout the discussion, salient distinctions among experimental cognitive psychology, hermeneutic inquiry, and cognitive-mediational therapeutic research are elaborated.