The tension between research and practice: Assumptions of the experimental paradigm

The development of an empirical (as opposed to a theoretical, clinical-intuitive) basis for practice using experimentally derived knowledge will produce a new model of practice based upon the same interactional paradigm that governs experimental research. Practice will become frankly manipulative and practitioners will employ all the devices that experimenters now use to assure the internal validity of experiments—deception, control of idiosyncratic behavior, stifling of dialogue, and the repression of two-way synergistic learning. While the new paradigm may accelerate the pace and intensify the degree of behavior change, it may, in the end, bring unwanted consequences for all participants.