One of the most essential questions (and problematic): How to control for nonspecific elements of psychological treatments? 
What about therapist attention, therapeutic instructions (rationality) and expectancy of succesful treatment, are elements for all treatments.

Research > non specific elements lead to significant behavior change. 

- The first solution is to use a nonspecific therapy, that is, one without the specific therapeutic procedures being examined but which also has face validity as atherapy with which to compare the active treatment.
- Or compare a psychotherapeutic procedure with medication and with a pill placebo as a control condition.
- Finally, it is possible to compare a new therapy with a standard therapy for the condition which has already been demonstrated more succesfull than a nonspecific therapy.

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