Critically discuss the role of evidence-based practice in the practice of psychology.

Evidence based practice can be defined as an integration of the best research evidence with clinical expertise, in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and other preferences. Ganon & Ward (2014) examine three aspects of EBP that are being neglected in a forensic correctional setting, this includes: Individualized and flexible client focus, the therepeutic alliance and psychological expertise. Individualized and flexible client focus suggests an overreliance on the Risk-Need Responsivity model to guide correctional practice resulting in a severe identity problem while also obliging the risk and security policies of the correctional system. The therapeutic alliance and psychological expertise is concerned with the dual relationship problem, this results in a crisis for the discipline of forensic psychology. Maricutoiu & Sava (2012) found that most occupational and health research is focused on theory development and refinement and less than 10% of the papers focus on intervention practices. In addition, a few papers were found to report the use of randomized controlled trials, they believe the research topics can be investigated using more rigorous designs and that they can represent good examples when meeting EBP standards. Heibert et al (2011) also questioned the used of RCT's as a main source of evidence in counselling psychology. It was highlihghted that researchers may choose interventions linked to therapeutic orientation and this may impact on experimental conditions. If a sample is random, treatment may not be appropriate to certain clients. This can also cause differences in effect sizes between treatments and can cause them to become small too often.