Consumer satisfaction in adult behavior therapy: Procedures, problems, and future perspectives

Until recently there has been very little interest in assessing client satisfaction regarding the delivery of adult behavior therapeutic services. Given this preeminent finding, relevant literature is reviewed with respect to: levels of satisfaction, comparisons with other approaches, comparisons within behavior therapy, satisfaction/outcome in behavior therapy, and acceptability of behavioral treatment procedures. Methodological and research-related questions are addressed. These include psychometric considerations, comparative analyses, reported levels of satisfaction, and global satisfaction versus component evaluation. Alternative strategies for the measurement of consumer satisfaction are discussed. Among these options are the utilization of solicited/unsolicited comments, unobtrusive measures, archival records, consumer dissatisfaction information, continuous measures of satisfaction, goal attainment scaling, and survey methods.