Placebo Psychotherapies and Nonconscious Learning in the Placebo Effect: Reply to Kirsch (2004)

In this reply, the authors explore several issues raised by I. Kirsch (2004) concerning their original article ( S. Stewart-Williams & J. Podd, 2004 ), which dealt with the roles of expectancy and classical conditioning in the placebo effect. The only notable disagreement concerns a definitional...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological bulletin 2004-03, Vol.130 (2), p.344-345
Main Authors: Stewart-Williams, Steve, Podd, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classical Conditioning
Cognition
Cognitions
Cognitive psychology
Conditioning
Consciousness
Expectancy theory
Expectations
Experimentation
Human
Kirsch, Irving
Learning
Placebo
Placebo effect
Psychology
Psychotherapy
Subliminal processing
Verbal Communication
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this reply, the authors explore several issues raised by I. Kirsch (2004) concerning their original article ( S. Stewart-Williams & J. Podd, 2004 ), which dealt with the roles of expectancy and classical conditioning in the placebo effect. The only notable disagreement concerns a definitional issue, namely, Stewart-Williams and Podd's claim that the placebo concept can be extended to inert psychotherapies. The authors defend this claim against the criticisms Kirsch raised. In addition, they comment on the suggestion that nonconscious learning processes play only a small role in human placebo effects, arguing that there are theoretical reasons to expect these processes to be more important than has previously been recognized.
ISSN:0033-2909
1939-1455
DOI:10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.344