from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:
In summary, a psychologist, or anyone in the social services, must avoid the siren songs of employers, laymen, other psychologists and the media. These sources will always lead astray and ensure that programs are polgrams, trendy and useless.
Characteristics of a Successful Program
Points for something which works: 1). Based on concepts which have produced results.
2). Failure results in program revision, not client excoriation.
3). The program is evaluated constantly, not after several years.
4). The program is tested constantly, the clients are tested once.
5). The program is scrapped if it doesn’t produce results based on the DIW criteria.
Sports commentators are always reminding us that successful athletes and teams “do the little things right.” The things are little only because they make up a small part of the whole. Without all of the “little things”, nothing exists.
We have seen that the misapplication of social sciences can produce "positive harm", an oxymoron, such as the case of false accusations based on repressed memories and non-occurring sexual abuse. The only positive aspect is in the intention of the program. An ounce of result is worth the world’s weight in intention. Proper application also produces non-results when programs are ineffective.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies
