Horowitz, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1993). Fuzzy concepts in
psychotherapy research. Psychotherapy Research, 3, 131-148.
Describes the instability or unreliability of global
subjective state concepts, such as anxiety, or depression, and proposes a
procedure for identifying and removing ambiguous instances of the concept to
increase interjudge agreement. Concepts that lack external referents and denote
subjective, psychological states may be termed fuzzy concepts. The concept of
depression is examined to clarify its origin as a fuzzy concept and to explore
implications for psychotherapy. Distinctions are made between a person's
subjective experience on a specific occasion, a person's representation across
occasions (schema), and the modal schema across persons (prototype).
To request a hardcopy of the manuscript, send an email message -- with
your name and address and the title of the manuscript -- to bfmalle@darkwing.uoregon.edu
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