Brown (an example of an interview)

Question 1

AO1- Aim

Answer 1

to see how self-esteem, support and life events impacted on onset of Depression

Question 2

AO1- Sample

Answer 2

395 working class women with at least one child at home were recruited by postal questionnaire (husbands in manual jobs or single mothers) All women were aged between 18 and 50, had a partner in manual labour and all lived in Islington (prospective study)

Question 3

AO1- Method

Answer 3

• Women were assessed twice, approximately a year apart using a variety of measures
• Prospective study
• Initially interviewed about self-esteem and social support they had in their lives
• Assessments were done by interview (some recorded and checked for inter-rater reliability) and included measurements of psychiatric stress
• At the second interview (303) participants were questioned about stressful life events in the intervening period and looked to see who had been diagnosed as depressed

Question 4

AO1- Results

Answer 4

• Of the women who had developed depression in those twelve months, 29 of the 32 had experienced some major life event (involving a loss, failure or disappointment) 91% Vs 23% of the women without depression
• 33% of those who developed depression had negative evaluation of the self and 13% did not.
• The majority of women with core crisis support (85 of 92) saw it as helpful, and there was no difference in their perception of support being helpful whether they had developed depression or not.
• It is interesting that where a woman had said she had confided in a close tie (core support) at first contact, but not at crisis support and so felt let down, 42% developed depression

Question 5

+AO3- generalizable

Answer 5

A large sample

Question 6

+AO3- Validity

Answer 6

Very similar group minimises individual differences (but not fully)

Question 7

+AO3- Prospective study

Answer 7

means that there is no retrospective bias in the gathering of the data

Question 8

+AO3- Standardised

Answer 8

questions in semi-structured interview means it can be repeated

Question 9

+AO3- Interviews

Answer 9

Can ask follow up questions to gain more detail and depth

Question 10

+AO3- IRR

Answer 10

Inter-rater reliability was checked on a number of the women

Question 11

+AO3- Internal-validity

Answer 11

They eliminated women in the second stage who turned out to have depression in the first stage

Question 12

-AO3- Gynocentric

Answer 12

Sample only includes women and therefore may not be applicable to why men get depression

Question 13

-AO3- Generalisabilty

Answer 13

Sample only includes people from the same doctors surgery who have similar backgrounds which makes the results only applicable in that group

Question 14

-AO3- Social desirability/demand characteristics

Answer 14

Could be a problem due to the self-report nature of the measures

Question 15

-AO3- Reliability

Answer 15

Semi-structured interviews means some questions were only asked to some of the women