Chapter 4 Flashcards
Goal of scientific theories
To understand cause and effect relationships
Uses for case studies
- Provide rich description of a new clinical phenomenon
- Disprove an allegedly universal hypothesis
- Generate new hypotheses
Statistical significance
When the alpha level is lower than 0.05
Clinical significance
Whether a relationship between variables is large enough to matter
The high-risk method
Only people with a high risk of developing a disease are studied
Third variable problem
Confound variables
3 focuses of epidemiological research
- Prevalence
- Incidence
- Correlates
The family method
Study genetic predispositions among members of a family.
Concordance
Degree of similarity between family members regarding a particular trait or disease
Index cases/probands
Collection of a sample of people with the diagnosis in question
The twin-method
Mono and dizygotic twins are compared
The adoptees method
Studies children who were adopted
Cross-fostering
Adoptee method but the adoptive parent has a particular disorder
Basic features of experimental design
- Independent variable is manipulated
- Participants are allocated to two conditions
- Researcher measures a dependent variable
- Differences between conditions are called experimental effect
Internal validity
Extent to which the experimental effect can be attributed to the independent variable.
Control group needed to have this
External validity
Extent to which results can be generalized to the public
Reversal/ABAB design
Form of single-case design where the participants behavior is measured in a specific sequence:
- Initial period of time, baseline
- Period where treatment is introduced
- Reinstatement of the conditions of baseline
- Reintroduction of treatment
Treatment outcome research
Research to find out if treatment works
Treatment study criteria
- Clear definition of the sample being studied
- Clear description of the treatment being offered
- Inclusion of a control condition
- Random assignment
- Reliable and valid outcome measures
- A large enough sample
Randomized controlled trials
Clients are randomly assigned to receive treatment or a comparison
Efficacy
Whether a treatment works under the purest of conditions
Effectiveness
How well a treatment works in the real world
Dissemination
Process of facilitating adoption of efficacious treatments in the community
Analogue experiments
Researchers try to create or observe a related but less severe phenomenon. An analogue of the risk variable
