Chapter 2: Research Methods in Abnormal Psychology

Question 1

What is a clinical researcher?

Answer 1

• Clinical researchers (A.K.A clinical scientists), try to discover universal laws, or principles, of abnormal psychological functioning. They do not assess, diagnose, or treat individual clients (that’s what clinical practitioners do)
• Search for nomothetic understanding (a general understanding of the nature, causes, and treatments of abnormal functioning, in the form of laws or principles)
• Use the scientific method (the process of systematically gathering and evaluating information, through careful observations, to understand a phenomenon) = these observations enable them to pinpoint and explain the relationships between variables

Question 2

Nomothetic Understanding

Answer 2

• A general understanding of the nature, causes, and treatments of abnormal functioning, in the form of laws or principles
• Googled Definition: is about attempting to establish general laws and generalizations. The focus of the nomothetic approach is to obtain objective knowledge through scientific methods…. Psychologists who adopt this approach are mainly concerned with studying what we share with others (i.e., similarities between people) therefore, for this approach involves establishing laws or generalizations that apply to all people

Question 3

Internal Validity

Answer 3

• The accuracy with which a study can pinpoint one factor as the cause of a phenomenon
• Case studies rate low on internal validity

Question 4

External Validity

Answer 4

• The degree to which the results of a study may be generalized beyond that study
• Case studies rate low on external validity

Question 5

Case Study Advantages

Answer 5

• A detailed description of a person’s life and psychological problems (e.g., their history, present circumstance, and symptoms which then may also include speculation about why the problems developed, and the person’s treatment)
• Can be a source of new ideas about behavior and “open the way for discoveries”
• May offer tentative support for a theory
• Case studies may serve to challenge a theory’s assumptions
• May show the value of new therapeutic techniques
• Case studies may offer opportunities to study unusual problems that do not occur often enough to permit a large number of observations

Question 6

Case Study Disadvantages

Answer 6

• They are reported by biased observers, that is, by therapists who have a personal stake in seeing their treatments succeed
• Case studies rely on subjective evidence (e.g., is a client’s problem really caused by the events that the therapist or client says are responsible?) = low internal validity rates
• Case studies provide little basis for generalization (e.g., the causes behind one person’s problem might be different from someone else) = low external validity

Question 7

Correlational Method

Answer 7

• a research procedure used to determine how much events or characteristics vary along with each other
• the degree to which events or characteristics vary along with each other

Question 8

Correlational Method Advantages

Answer 8

• Provides general information (external validity)
• Statistical analysis is possible
• It is replicable

Question 9

Correlational Method Disadvantages

Answer 9

• Does not provide individual information
• Does not provide causal information (internal validity)
• Correlations allow researchers to describe the relationship between variables but don’t explain the relationship

Question 10

Experimental Method

Answer 10

• involves manipulating one variable to determine if changes in one variable cause changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled methods, random assignment and the manipulation of variable to test a hypothesis (googled definition)
• Experiment: a research procedure in which a variable is manipulated and the effect of the manipulation on another variable is observed

Question 11

Experimental Method Advantages

Answer 11

• Provides general information (external validity)
• Provides causal information (internal validity)
• Statistical analysis is possible
• It is replicable

Question 12

Experimental Method Disadvantages

Answer 12

Does not provide individual information

Question 13

Control Group

Answer 13

• In an experiment, a group of participants who are not exposed to the independent variable
• Important because researchers need a group with no exposure to compare the effect of whatever they are studying. The experimenter can better determine the effect of the independent variable by having a control group

Question 14

Random Assignment

Answer 14

a selection procedure that ensures that participants are randomly placed either in the control group or in the experimental group

Question 15

Masked Design

Answer 15

an experiment in which participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or the control condition. Previously called a blind design

Question 16

Double Masked Design

Answer 16

while either the participants or the experimenter may be kept unaware in an experiment, it is best that both be unaware (e.g., the participants nor the experimenter know what group the participant is in)

Question 17

Triple-Masked Design

Answer 17

Many experimenters also arrange for judges to assess and statistically analyze the patient’s improvement independently, and the judges too are kept unaware of the group assignments

Question 18

Quasi-Experimental Design

Answer 18

a research design that fails to include key elements of a “pure” experiment and/or intermixes elements of both experimental and correlational studies (A.K.A. Mixed Design)

Question 19

Matched Design

Answer 19

a research design that matches the experimental participants with control participants who are similar on key characteristics (e.g., when researching the effects of child abuse, researchers must compare children who already have a history of abuse with children who do not)

Question 20

Natural Experiment

Answer 20

an experiment in which nature, rather than an experimenter, manipulates an independent variable (e.g., can be used for studying the psychological effects of unusual and unpredictable events, such as floods, earthquakes, plane crashes, and fires)

Question 21

Analogue Experiments

Answer 21

a research method in which the experimenter produces abnormal-like behavior in laboratory participants and then conducts experiments on the participants (e.g., when Martin Seligman produced depression-like symptoms in laboratory participants – both animals and humans – by repeatedly exposing them to negative events (shocks, loud noises, task failures) over which they have no control)

Question 22

Single Subject Experimental Design

Answer 22

a research method in which a single participant is observed and measured both before and after the manipulation of an independent variable.

Question 23

Longitudinal Studies

Answer 23

a study that observes the same participants on many occasions over a long period of time

Question 24

What are epidemiological studies?

Answer 24

• a study that measure the incidence and prevalence of a problem, such as a disorder, in a given population. More specifically, they determine the incidence and prevalence of the problem
• Incidence: the number of new cases of a disorder occurring in a population over a specific period of time
• Prevalence: the total number of cases of a disorder occurring in a population over a specific period of time. Includes both existing and new cases
• Cannot confirm the suspicions of causation

Question 25

Incidence

Answer 25

the number of new cases of a disorder occurring in a population over a specific period of time

Question 26

Prevalence

Answer 26

the total number of cases of a disorder occurring in a population over a specific period of time. Includes both existing and new cases

Question 27

Independent Variable

Answer 27

the variable in an experiment that is manipulated to determine whether it has an effect on another variable = a variable whose variation does not depend on that of another. It is a variable that stands alone and isn’t changed by the other variables a study is trying to measure.

Question 28

Dependent Variable

Answer 28

the variable in an experiment expected to change as the independent variable is manipulated = a variable whose value depends on that of another. The variable depends on other factors that are being measured. These variables are expected to change as a result of an experimental manipulation of the independent variable(s)

Question 29

Confound

Answer 29

• in an experiment, a variable other than the independent variable that is also acting on the dependent variable
• When there are confounds in an experiment, they, rather than the independent variable, may be causing the observed changes

Question 30

Random Assignment

Answer 30

• a selection procedure that ensures that participants are randomly placed either in the control group or in the experimental group

Importance:

• To reduce the effects of preexisting differences
• Ensures that every participant in the experiment is as likely to be laced in one group as the other

Question 31

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Answer 31

• an ethics committee in a research facility that is empowered to protect the rights and safety of human research participants
• It ensures that each study grants the following rights to its participants:
• The participant enlists voluntarily
• Before enlisting, the participants are adequately informed about what the study entails (“informed consent”)
• The participants can end their participation in the study at any time
• The benefits of the study outweigh its costs/risks
• The participants are protected from physical and psychological harm
• The participants have access to information about the study
• The participants’ privacy is protected by principles such as confidentiality or anonymity