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Testing Hypotheses

Testing hypotheses is the last stage that leads to intervention. After gathering and synthesising information that viewed from the lens of theories and case conceptualization frameworks, a psychologist sets out to test the proposed hypothesis from case formulation by intervention. Testing hypotheses is a recursive process – hypotheses may need to be adjusted throughout the intervention process. This is to ensure that intervention plans remain to be relevant for the psychologist to make sound clinical decision making on assessment needs and intervention goals. Psychologists are expected to:

• Translate hypotheses and formulations into respective goals and intervention plans

• Gather different methods and select appropriate methods to test hypotheses

• Participate in the dynamic process of ongoing refinement of formulation by identifying gaps in intervention, clarifying information and integrating new information based on available data

• Manage their own biases which may hinder their ability to consider other perspectives when revising formulation.

• Evaluate and reflect on the formulation process and the course of action to consider possible alternatives available, if necessary

Here are some ideas and resources to spark your learning and thinking:

Hypothesis testing process

The following articles delineate the process of hypothesis testing in case formulation.

1. Richard S. Hallam (2015)– Case Formulation: A hypothesis testing process

2. Jacqueline Persons & colleagues (2013) – Testing case formulation hypotheses in psychotherapy

Pitfalls of mis-conceptualisation

The following articles speak about the danger of misconceptualisation and how we can improve our clinical decision making and judgement.

1. Kuyken W., (2006). Evidence-based case formulation: Is the emperor clothed? In Tarrier, N, & Johnson, J. (Eds), Case Formulation in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: The Treatment of Challenging and Complex Cases, pp. 12 –35.

2. Ridley, C. R., Jeffrey, C. E., & Roberson, R. B. (2017). Case mis-conceptualization in psychological treatment: An enduring clinical problem. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(4), 359-375.

3. Jacinto, S. B., Lewis, C. C., Braga, J. N., & Scott, K. (2018). A conceptual model for generating and validating in-session clinical judgments. Psychotherapy  Research, 28(1), 91-105.

Request an article from the authors here.

Functional behaviour Analysis (FBA)

Dr. Brian Iwata – Functional Analysis of Problem Behavior

This video presents an example of how one can use a symptom/behaviour-based conceptualization framework  (FBA) to analyse client’s behaviour and test the hypotheses generated from the process of case conceptualisation.