Psychologists in administrative evaluation.

Psychology and accounting: An interface or a red face.

“…It has been argued elsewhere (Glass, Wilson, & Gottman, 1972; Nelson, 1975;Wortman, 1975) that the present methodology used in evaluating treatment procedures is not appropriate and may be misleading. However, the methodology does exist, at least in part, for use in large-scale evaluative programs.…”

“…T h e purpose of this article is not to argue that evaluation research should be done. The call for such research is already evident in psychological literature, along with an enumeration of the needs that motivate such research (Campbell, 1969;Iscoe, 1974;Nelson, 1975;Wortman, 1975). And evaluative research will be done regardless of whether psychologists become involved; accountants, systems analysts, public health administrators, and others are already involved.…”

“…However, Mechanic (1969) has warned that these indexes are particularly vulnerable to administrative manipulation and therefore of questionable validity when taken alone. Nelson (1975) has enunciated the results of examining mental health activities from a costeffort standpoint. Long-term, low intensive care involving minimal individual psychotherapy and maximal paraprofessional and nonprofessional personnel is considerably less expensive than intensive care by professional mental health workers.…”

Improving psychotherapy: Old beliefs, new research, and future directions.

“…With diverse methodological skills, the scientist-practitioner-manager is in the best position to analyze clinical and economic variables simultaneously and to ultimately help improve resource allocation decisions. Administrative training of psychologists within clinical programs and systematic application of expanded skills seem essential if psychology is to (a) insure against being dominated by other disciplines in administrative as well as funding decisions (Nelson, 1975), (b) follow training recommendations endorsed by a majority of APA-approved clinical training program directors (Rickard & Clements, 1981), and (c) contribute constructively to health team decision making.…”