The role of epistemological beliefs in clinical practice, psychopathology, and psychotherapy research

Each scientific discipline develops implicit and explicit theories about the conditions of knowledge of its objects of inquiry; in turn, these theories guide empirical research and practical interventions in that scientific field. The investigation of these theories of knowledge is therefore of utmost importance for a proper scientific foundation of research and intervention. This is especially true for psychotherapy, whose object of study-human subjectivity-is intangible and knowable and can be investigated only through intersubjective encounter. In other words, human subjectivity is both the object of study and the instrument of knowledge in psychotherapy research. This implies special attention to epistemological theories in the study of psychotherapy, an aspect that has been much neglected by empirical research in this field. Panel presentations will address the relationship between epistemology and psychotherapy from three points of view: Tutal and De Felice will address the issue from the perspective of researchers: they will present an empirical study on the theories of change that complexity epistemology-oriented research of can develop. Norwood, Wesner, Schmidt, and Bernat will examine the interactive relationship between theoretical definitions and empirical approaches of the study of Intolerance of Uncertainty and the succeeding clinical implications and research applications. Negri, Gaj, Brugnera, and Castiglioni will explore the epistemic beliefs of psychotherapists, presenting a validation study of e new questionnaire able to investigate the epistemological assumptions guiding the theoretical choices of psychotherapists and psychotherapy researchers.