ABSTRACT
One of the pioneers among controlled studies evaluated the effectiveness of therapy in a delinquency prevention program as part of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study, which extended from 1937 to 1945. The research was concerned with the effects of therapy upon delinquency prevention. The novel therapy, called the operant-interpersonal method, involved an elaborate, multiple operant problem-solving apparatus that dispensed rewards of candy and cigarettes when problems were solved by moving wooden levers in correct sequences. An evaluation of group therapy with acutely disturbed patients was carried out at Winter Veterans Administration Hospital, Kansas. A controlled research project was initiated at the Boston State Hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy with chronic psychotic patients. The main grounds for caution were that the conditions of therapy were less than optimal. Dynamically oriented group psychotherapy was evaluated on servicemen and wives seen as outpatients at a US Air Force Hospital.
