ABSTRACT
Clearly the introduction of cognitive, behavioral, and cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) into psychological practice and clinical intervention research has helped to encourage the consistent use of homework or self-help assignments in psychotherapy (e.g., Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Ellis, 1962; Kanfer & Phillips, 1966; Lewinsohn, 1974). The skills-based nature of these theories builds on an underlying assumption that homework directly reduces emotional distress by teaching patients skills to identify and modify unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns. CBT also hypothesizes that homework can help change patients’ behavior and support therapeutic gains between psychotherapy sessions, serving as a kind of between-session “maintenance of gains strategy.” As a result, homework has remained both a traditional and integral component of contemporary manual-based CBT approaches.
