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This study investigated the stability of extreme response style (ERS) and acquiescence response style (ARS) over a period of 8 years. ERS and ARS were measured with item sets drawn randomly from a large pool of items used in an ongoing German panel study. Latent-trait-state-occasion and latent-state models were applied to test the relationship between time-specific (state) response style behaviors and time-invariant trait components of response styles. The results show that across different random item samples, on average between 49% and 59% of the variance in the state response style factors was explained by the trait response style factors. This indicates that the systematic differences respondents show in their preferences for certain response categories are remarkably stable over a period of 8 years. The stability of ERS and ARS implies that it is important to consider response styles in the analysis of self-report data from polytomous rating scales, especially in longitudinal studies aimed at investigating stability in substantive traits. Furthermore, the stability of response styles raises the question in how far they might be considered trait-like latent variables themselves that could be of substantive interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systems providing feedback on treatment progress have been implemented in outpatient psychotherapy. They are recognized as a helpful tool to identify possible treatment failures. This report presents the ideas underlying the planning of feedback interventions and the implementation of such programs into practice settings. Strategies to identify patients at risk for treatment failure (rationally- and empirically-derived decision rules) are presented. Additionally, evidence for the usefulness of feedback systems is discussed. The report ends with the description of an ongoing feedback intervention study in private practices in Germany (aimed at gathering information on 400 therapists with 2,000 patients). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study to evaluate a quality assurance and feedback tool with regard to its practical feasibility in routine care and within the German health insurance system. This paper summarizes the evaluators' perspective on issues regarding the representativeness of the sample, consequences for therapy length and central assumptions and concepts of the project. The evaluation team comments on the paper "Pilot project of the Techniker-Krankenkasse - A comment from the perspective of the academic advisory council"., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)