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Target Complaint Scaling/Evidence
Method evidence record

Target Complaint Scaling

Target complaint scaling is an individualized outcome measure in which the client names the specific complaints that brought them to treatment, each complaint is rated for severity at the outset and again at follow-up, and the change in those ratings indexes improvement. Introduced by Carolyn Battle, Jerome Frank, and colleagues at Johns Hopkins in 1966, it grounds outcome measurement in the client's own presenting problems rather than a fixed questionnaire, making it an early and influential model for person-centered, idiographic outcome assessment in psychotherapy and social work.

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Source record

Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.

Target Complaints Method for Individualized Outcome Measurement
Taxonomic method record · process-pipeline / social-work
  • Battle, C. C., Imber, S. D., Hoehn-Saric, R., Stone, A. R., Nash, E. R., & Frank, J. D. (1966). Target complaints as criteria of improvement. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 20(1), 184–192. · DOI 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1966.20.1.184
  • Bloom, M., Fischer, J., & Orme, J. G. (2009). Evaluating Practice: Guidelines for the Accountable Professional (6th ed.). Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. · ISBN 9780205458066
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Related methods

Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.

Same method familyGoal Attainment Scalingmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familyOutcome Rating Scalemachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familySelf-Anchored Rating Scalemachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familySingle-System Designmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.

Evidence status

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Bibliographic sources are present. Claim-level evidence review has not been performed.

Sources

2 recorded citations, copied from the method source record.

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