Processes of Change and Mechanisms of Action in Behavioral Therapies
A Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X) belonging to the section "Psychiatric, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 March 2027 | Viewed by 138
Editor
Interests: mechanisms of change; behavioral processes; functional analytic psychotherapy; process based therapy; evidence based kernels; loneliness; social intimacy; interpersonal process model of intimacy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Understanding how and why psychotherapy works continues to be a central priority in contemporary clinical science. Although current standards for empirically supported treatments, such as the criteria adopted by APA’s Division 12, have advanced the field by emphasizing rigorous evidence for efficacy and effectiveness, these benchmarks do not, on their own, ensure that interventions operate through the mechanisms they purport to target. As scholars have argued, demonstrating that a treatment works is not equivalent to demonstrating how it works; without isolating and testing mechanisms of action, there remains a risk of attributing change to processes that are epiphenomenal or misidentified. Behavioral approaches, including Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Behavioral Activation, among others, have long emphasized observable processes, functional relations, and contextually bound behavior change, positioning them well for mechanism-focused inquiry. Nevertheless, the field continues to grapple with inconsistencies in how mechanisms are conceptualized, operationalized, and empirically tested, underscoring the need for more precise and methodologically rigorous approaches to identifying the active ingredients of therapeutic change.
This Special Issue brings together cutting-edge work aimed at advancing a more rigorous science of change processes in behavioral therapies. It is our hope that authors will submit manuscripts that investigate core components of treatment or potential mechanisms with attention to how these variables operate across contexts and levels of analysis.
A central goal of this issue is to move beyond treatment packages toward a process-based framework that prioritizes internal validity. By clarifying the conditions under which specific processes exert causal influence, this work has the potential to inform more efficient, personalized, and mechanism-driven interventions.
Collectively, these contributions aim to accelerate progress toward a cumulative, mechanism-focused science of behavioral therapy, one that bridges basic behavioral principles, clinical innovation, and translational application.
Dr. Daniel Maitland
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- processes of change
- mechanisms of action
- behavioral therapies
- process-based therapy
- component analysis
- evidence-based practice
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