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THE ART AND SCIENCE OF EVALUATION IN THE ARTS THERAPIES: HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S WORKING? By BERNARD FEDER and ELAINE FEDER. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas,1998. 398 pp.
When I attended the 1998 AATA conference in Portland, Oregon, I listened with great interest to Gladys Agell, Barry Cohen, and Linda Gantt-who constituted a panel-talk about assessment procedures they used in their work for educational, research, diagnostic, and therapeutic purposes. This seemed to be an excellent start for art therapists to discuss different methods of evaluation in order to determine the strengths and limitations of each, and to develop a "toolbox" of assessment methods to be used for different functions. The Art and Science of Evaluation in the Arts Therapies also offers a start to the development of educational and research initiatives to coordinate efforts and establish a variety of sound methods of evaluation.
Before reading, I experienced a moment of dread at what appeared, on the surface, to be a brown, dry, and potentially dull textbook, and I wondered how long it would be before my thoughts drifted from the task. I was happily surprised, though, because Feder and Feder have produced a well-written, easy-to-read volume that covers the fundamentals and principles of quantitative and qualitative evaluation, including statistical procedures, and how to use those principles to think critically about evaluation in art, dance/movement, and music therapies. The authors have a gift for presenting complex concepts in terms that are both accessible and thought-provoking. Their book would be most useful to graduate students in the arts therapies, as they learn how to think about issues of diagnoses, treatment, and research.
Although the authors' approach to a difficult topic is sound and palatable, more attention to details would have increased my confidence in their work. On occasion, I discovered misspelled words, a reference not listed in the bibliography, the wrong first name of a well-known art therapist, and a sentence with a segment repeated twice. Some assessments, such as the Ulman Personality Assessment Procedure, were not included in the visual arts section. Since I am not trained in dance/movement and music therapy, I am not in a position to evaluate the sections on those methods, but those chapters not only served as an informative introduction to those fields, they also held my attention.
As an art therapist and psychologist, I would hope to see a companion volume for art therapists in which there are chapters devoted to the various methods of assessment developed to date. In the meantime, The Art and Science of Evaluation in the Arts Therapies would certainly be a worthy textbook to include in a graduate level course of study as a starting point for more critical thinking and analysis of what it is we do as arts therapists.
Reviewed by PAULA PHILLIPS, PhD, ATR-BC, who is self employed as a clinical psychologist and art therapist in a private group practice in Bloomington, Minnesota. She is also an adjunct faculty member of the Master of Arts in Art Therapy Program at Vermont College. Diagnostic assessment and psychotherapy are her primary functions in those roles, and they have strongly influenced her interest in related research, development, and education.
Copyright American Journal of Art Therapy May 2000