OM book glossary

This is the glossary for the book “Outcome measures and evaluation in counselling and psychotherapy” written by myself and Jo-anne Carlyle and available now from SAGE. I am over 430 entries now and still climbing though now (April 2026) I am concentrating more on harmonising, cleaning up and cross-linking existing entries than I am on adding new ones. Some glossary entries link to more detailed expansions of the topic in my Rblog and, at last, an increasing number now link with interactive online (“shiny”) apps.

You can see the alphabetical list of entries below which is a good place to browse, or you can use this search box.

Beware if you are searching, the way that the plugin orders the matches is to my mind bizarre so scroll down if what you typed isn’t first on the list, you may find something with exactly the word or phrase you typed in to find is hidden further down the list of suggestions. As of 29.ix.26 the plugin authors are aware and working on this.

As to the content, if a topic you want is not there and you think it should be, contact me and tell me and I will put it on the (long!) list of entries to be added!

E

Early termination

Like "attrition" a seemingly polite term for opting out that hides the client's autonomy and…

Eating attitudes test (EAT)

Two self-report questionnaires designed to tap into problematic attitudes common in eating disorders. Details The…

ECM (Embedded Change Measurement)

As we say in Chapter 1:"We will use ECM to describe the process when OMs…

Ecological fallacy

Rather a pompous but lovely term for a very common mistake. It means assuming…

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)

This refers to collection of data from participants at various times of day in their…

Effect size

Effect size measures are a way to separate the strength of an effect. An…

Effectiveness

One of the 3 E's from the hugely influential monograph: Cochrane, A. L. (1972). Effectiveness…

Efficacy (part of the 3 Es)

My "three E's" are Efficacy, Effectiveness and Efficiency which were the central theme of a…

Efficiency

One of the 3 E’s from the hugely influential monograph: Cochrane, A. L. (1972). Effectiveness…

Eigenvalue

The only places you find this term, which means "own value" from German, is in…

More

Creation date lost, last updated 19.ix.26. Author CE; this page and all glossary contents are copyright to me so contact me if you want to quote from them (I’m sure I’ll agree!). That may change to a Creative Commons licence later when I am happier with the content.