Chap 2: Research methods Flashcards
What are the three fundamental ethical principles?
- Respect for persons
- Beneficence
- Justice
What are the responsibilities of the left and right hemispheres?
Left: language and cognitive functioning
Right: spatial understanding, creativity
What is behavioral genetics and what are the three methods?
Approaches to the study of behavior that do not examine genes directly, but infer the action genes and environment
Three methods
1. family studies: familial aggregation, family history, family study
2. adoption studies: biological parents vs. adopted-away offspring and adoption placement
3. Twin studies: Monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, genetic influences
What is molecular genetics and what are the three methods?
Study of the structure and function of genes at a molecular level
Three methods:
1. Genome-wide linkage analysis: Allows research to narrow the search for genes from the whole genome to specific areas on specific chromosomes
2. Candidate gene association study: Compares a large group of individuals who have a specific trait or disease with a well-matched group of individuals without a trait or disease
3. Genome-wide associations study (GWAS)
What is involved in a case study? What are 3 benefits and 3 limitations?
A comprehensive description of an individual or group of individuals that focus on assessment or description of abnormal
- Data includes historical and biographical
- Relies on multi-source methods
Benefits: examination of rare phenomena, illustrates important clinical studies, allow practitioner to be involved in research
Limitations: No scientific method
Amount and type of data vary
Impossible to replicate
What are some examples of single-case design? What are some advantages and limitations?
Single-subject experimental design:
ABAB design: measurement of a specific behavior at different times
Multiple baseline design: used when treatment cannot be reversed
Advantage: controlled study, individual serves as his/her own control group, high internal validity
Limitations: limited generalizability, cannot account for individual differences
Who is Henry Gustav Molaison (H.M)? Why is he relevant?
Age 9 suffered a head injury
Age 16 developed epilepsy and grand mal seizures
Surgery to remove hippocampus suffered amnesia
Could not save new long-term memories
Able to recall long-term memories that occurred before surgery
Demonstrates that:
STM is not dependent on functioning hippocampus
LTM must go through the hippocampus to be stored
What are the two types of research performed at the group level? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
Correlational methods
- Attempt to determine the relationship between variables
- A: Non-invasive, Inexpensive, Meaningful associations
- D: Large heterogeneous N
Correlation does not equal causation
Directionality problem
Controlled group design
- Experiments in which groups of participants are exposed to different conditions at least one of which is experimental and one of which is a control
- A: allows inference of cause and effect, treatment evaluation
- D: most difficult, internal validity and confounds, ethical dilemmas
What is the difference between clinical and statistical significance?
Stat significance: likelihood results of an investigation are due to chance
Clinical significance: whether a relationship between variables is large enough to matter
Define cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort designs?
Cross-sectional: participants are assessed once for the specific variable under investigation
Longitudinal:
participants are assessed at least two times and often more over a certain time interval
Both examine change in prevalence of mental illness over time, as well as trajectories for illness
What is epidemiology? What are the key concepts involved?
Focuses on the prevalence and incidence of mental disorders
Key concepts: prevalence, incidence, comorbidity, risk factors
What are the two kinds of epidemiological research designs?
What are some benefits and limitations of epidemiological methods?
- Observational epidemiology - documents the presence of physical psychological disorders in the human population
- Experimental epidemiology - method in which scientists manipulated exposure to either casual or preventative factors
Benefits: info on incidence and prevalence, correlates
Limits: correlation does not equal causation, large number of participants required
