Self-Selection and Performance-Based Ratings: A Case Study in Program Evaluation

Burton Singer

A chapter in Drawing Inferences from Self-Selected Samples, 1986, pp 29-49 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Randomized clinical trials are widely regarded as the method of choice for evaluating the efficacy of therapeutic treatments in medicine. For a critique of this attitude and a balanced discussion of alternative strategies, the reader should consult Feinstein (1985). Despite the rigorous nature of randomized trials, their domain of applicability is essentially restricted to studies where the investigator can control the structure of the population to be investigated and where the number of conditions (or circumstances) involved in comparisons is small in number. Programs in which voluntary self-selection for entry is an essential feature and in which the full treatment involves not only drug therapy but a variety of counseling services and an appropriate administrate structure do not lend themselves to evaluation by conventional randomized trials. In fact, the act of randomization into a program could destroy one of the central processes under investigation; namely, the process of voluntary self-selection.

Keywords: Methadone Maintenance Treatment; Heroin Addict; Vietnam Veteran; Heroin Addiction; Heroin Abuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1986
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4612-4976-4_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-4976-4_4

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