Brown Flashcards
What is the aim of Brown?
To see how life events, social support and self-esteem impact depression
What is the sample of Brown?
395 women - single mothers or have husbands in manual jobs, aged 18 to 50, from Islington
What type of study is Brown?
Prospective
What happened in the initial phase of Brown?
Semi-structured interviews about self-esteem and social support (including 13 scales)
What happened 12 months later in Brown?
Second interview
303 participants questioned about stressful life events in the intervening period and looked to see who had been diagnosed as depressed
What are the results of Brown?
85 out of 92 found core crisis support helpful
33% of those who developed depression had negative evaluation of themselves
29 out of 32 with depression had experiences some major life event
What is good about Brown’s sample?
Large sample of 395 women so results we get about the factors that impact and protect people from depression are more representative to a wider population
How does Brown remove extraneous variables?
Very similar group minimises individual differences (but not fully) so results about protective and risk factors in depression would therefore be more valid
Why is it good that Brown used a prospective study?
No retrospective bias in the gathering of the
data about the women’s depression so their current mental state doesn’t impact the data which has already been gathered about them before depression
How can we repeat Brown’s procedure?
Standardised questions in semi-structured interview about depression so we can test the results about protective and risk factors for depression
reliability
What is good about Brown using semi-structured interviews?
Can ask follow up
questions to gain more detail and depth so we get a better understanding of the
protective and risk factors which impact on depression
What is a weakness of Brown’s sample?
Gynocentric so results we get about risk factors for depression might not be equally representative in men
Why is it a weakness that Brown used similar characteristics for his sample e.g. husbands in manual jobs?
Results only applicable to that group so results we get about risk factors
for depression might not be equally representative in a wider population
Why might social desirability be an issue with Brown?
Self-report about depression so women could have lied about how they were
feeling or how the risk and protective factors affected them
Why is it an issue that Brown used semi-structured interviews?
Some questions were only asked to some of the women with depression so there may be problems with reliability as the
interviews are not fully replicable
