Promoting the Internationalization of Evidence-Based Practice: Benchmarking as a Strategy to Evaluate Culturally Transported Psychological Treatments

Description

Presenters: Keith Dobson, PhD and Michael Spilka, PhD. Keith Dobson, PhD is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary. His research is on cognitive models of psychopathology, and trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy, with a focus on depression. He has served as the President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and the International Association of Cognitive Psychotherapy, which has led him to provide workshops and engage in treatment dissemination in many parts of the world. Michael Spilka, MSc is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary. His current research focuses on uncovering cognitive and biological mechanisms associated with functional impairment in schizophrenia, with a particular focus on social cognition. His clinical interests are in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation, and the promotion of evidence-based practice. Overview: This Webinar will present the application of the benchmarking strategy to facilitate research into the effectiveness of treatments transported to diverse cultural contexts. The content of the Webinar will be based on our recently published review paper (Spilka & Dobson, 2015) in which we proposed and described the way in which benchmarking can be applied to examining the generalizability of treatment efficacy and effectiveness research to diverse cultural settings. The content of the review, and Webinar, is grounded in psychological theory, research, and practice, including: research approaches to evaluate psychological treatments (e.g., efficacy, effectiveness, and benchmarking studies), the definition of evidence-based practice that emphasizes the importance of integrating research evidence with client characteristics and culture, as well as the literature stressing the need for greater research into the generalizability of treatments to culturally diverse populations and settings. Objectives: (1) Describe the purpose of benchmarking strategy; (2) List the steps involved in conducting a benchmarking study of culturally transported treatments; (3) Discuss the key considerations and challenges for conducting cross-cultural benchmarking research.