About

The mission of the IBR is to evaluate and improve health services that address substance use as well as related mental health and social problems. For many years, research staff at the IBR have given special attention to addictions, treatment, and the evaluation of cognitive and behavioral interventions provided by community-based and criminal justice programs. Emphasis has been on the design of studies in real-world settings and the use of advanced multivariate methodologies.

Research interests in recent years include a focus on areas of significant public concern — especially addiction treatments for justice-involved populations (both adult and youth). Other areas of interest include: prevention efforts in the spread of HIV and related infections among drug users and the implementation of evidence-based practices, organizational functioning, and process research. For many years, the IBR functioned as a separate research unit of the university. Common research, training goals, and interests have and continue to align the IBR with the department of psychology. At the IBR, research scientists function much like other university faculty members in that the director is a professor of psychology, and all IBR scientists hold graduate faculty appointments, serve on student thesis and dissertation committees, supervise graduate students, and assist with independent studies. Advanced data management and multivariate analytic techniques provided by IBR staff serve as the foundation for graduate training in health services research.

IBR research goals include the:

(1) generation and dissemination of knowledge that impacts policy decisions in the addiction field at the state, national, and international levels;
(2) provision of graduate students with the critical methodological and substantive research training to continue this research;
(3) facilitation of collaboration of scientists in achieving their highest scholarly potential;
(4) raising the research reputation and visibility of TCU through scientific and public health contributions.

The Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) was established in 1962 by Dr. Saul B. Sells to conduct research on personality structure, personnel selection, social interactions, and organizational functioning. This pioneering work used first-generation computers to assess personality theories through large-scale factor analyses, develop performance-based selection criterion for airline pilots, and formulate personal distance needs for humans during long-duration space missions for NASA.

In 1968, the IBR was invited to develop and conduct the first federally-funded national evaluation of the newly formed community-based system for treating heroin addiction in the U.S. This work helped define methodological standards for addiction treatment process and follow-up outcome studies in natural field settings, leading to the IBR’s participation in all three major national treatment effectiveness studies funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). Conceptual frameworks emerging from this research for evaluating treatment dynamics, outcomes, and change—both at the individual client and organizational functioning levels—have yielded assessment and intervention resources as well as implementation strategies now being used internationally.

After joining the TCU Department of Psychology in 1958, Dr. Sells began to formulate plans for establishing a center for applied behavioral research. His paper on “interactive psychology” [American Psychologist, 1963, 18(11), pp. 696-702] foretold his commitments to merging interests in personality profiles, selection techniques that could predict performance outcomes, and organizational functioning with real-world applications.

Dr. Sells implored fellow scientists “to consider more seriously the dimensional nature of the behavior repertoire and the measurement characteristics of his apparatus, as well as the dimensions of the environments in which ‘the behavior occurs’ within multivariate analytic process models” (p. 698).

Dr. Sells received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1936 and was trained under Robert S. Woodworth and Edward L. Thorndike. He recruited Robert I. Watson and Phillip H. Dubois to serve as members of his first IBR Advisory Council. Dr. Sells served as the director of the IBR until his retirement from this role 20 years later. Dr. D. Dwayne Simpson, a student of Dr. Sells and a member of the IBR faculty since 1970, became director in 1982 and, subsequently, moved the IBR to Texas A&M University. In 1989 the IBR was re-affiliated with TCU, continuing the long-standing tradition of providing training opportunities for graduate students in health services research. Following Dr. Simpsons retirement, Dr. Patrick M. Flynn stepped in as director for a decade, followed by the appointment of our current director, Dr. Kevin Knight.

The IBR’s mission and role within TCU has remained essentially unchanged since its founding. The IBR received the designation of “Center of Excellence” in 1996 for providing valuable training opportunities in graduate and postgraduate education and contributing to the professional success of many former students and staff members in both academic and applied research leadership positions.

The 50th anniversary of the IBR included several prominent scientists and policy-makers, especially from the program evaluation and addiction treatment fields. Guests and attendees of the celebration reflected on their many experiences with both Dr. Sells and Dr. Simpson and the rich heritage they left behind. Robert DuPont and Karst Besteman, the first director and deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), recalled the pioneering role and impact that Dr. Saul B. Sells and his associates had in conducting the first large-scale national evaluation of community-based substance use treatment in the United States. Barry Brown (University of North Carolina at Wilmington), Carl Leukefeld (University of Kentucky), and George De Leon (New York University, School of Medicine) noted how these contributions moved treatment research beyond large-scale effectiveness evaluations into the identification of key issues in therapeutic process and field implementation.

A key operational principle is to be scientifically selective in requests and commitments for research funding. The IBR scientific strategy is organized around conceptual frameworks synthesized from existing knowledge as evidenced by both the TCU Treatment Process and Outcome Model as well as the TCU Program Change Model.

These two frameworks help staff visualize the foundations of our treatment and organizational research protocols, identify emerging issues that deserve attention, and integrate new findings with existing knowledge. Implementing innovations developed from field-based studies depends heavily upon partnerships with treatment systems and honoring commitments to address their needs.

The ability to provide useful and meaningful feedback to researchers, funding agencies, and policy-makers is a vitally important element of science. In particular, scientific publications are strategically planned, integrated with other studies from relevant literature, and structured to effectively communicate salient findings.

Finally, products developed from funded research (i.e., intervention manuals, assessments, presentations, and integrative summaries) are made available without cost to treatment
providers, interested researchers, and the general public. IBR researchers believe that dissemination and sustained implementation of science- supported innovations deserve as much attention as discovery.

Texas Christian University (TCU) was founded in 1873 as an independent and self-governing institution and is located on 277 acres five miles from downtown Fort Worth. It was established in association with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from which it receives a commitment to open-minded inquiry into all scientific and intellectual issues, with students and faculty representing Christian as well as Jewish and Muslim faiths. Research conducted at TCU is not bound by any code of religious perspectives or principles in its pursuit of knowledge and applications that address world needs. The University enrolls over 8,600 undergraduate students in 117 undergraduate areas of study and over 1,380 graduate students in 62 master’s level programs and 25 areas of doctoral study. It employs approximately 2,100 faculty and staff and has an annual operating budget of almost $550 million.

The IBR functions as a separate scientific unit of the university, but through common research training goals and interests it is most closely affiliated with the Department of Psychology. Research Scientists in the IBR function much like other university faculty members; they hold Adjunct Professor and Graduate Faculty appointments, serve on student thesis and dissertation committees, and teach formal courses when time and opportunities permit. Their special skills in advanced data management and multivariate analytic techniques provide the foundation for graduate training in health services evaluation research at TCU.