Clinical Research and Methods Flashcards
Nomothetic understanding
A general understanding of the nature, causes, and treatments of abnormal functioning in the forms of laws or principles that apply across people
Clinical researchers
Discover broad laws of ab psychological functioning, search for the understanding, causes, and treatments of abnormality.
-Interested in childhood upsets, present life experiences, moods, social functioning, and responses to treatment.
Clinical practitioners
Seek an idiographic and/or individualistic understanding of abnormal behaviour
Case Study
Detailed description of a person’s life and psychological problems. Describes the person’s history, present circumstances, and symptoms.
-May include speculation about why developed and treatment.
Case Study Pros
-Source of new ideas
-Offer support for a theory
-Challenge a theory’s assumptions
-Value of new therapeutic techniques
-Study more unusual problems
Case Study limitations
-Reported by biased observers
-Rely on subjective evidence
-Little basis for generalization
Correlational Method
A research procedure used to determine the co-relationship between variables
Correlational method pros
-Better position to generalize correlations because observe a large pool and apply statistical analyses.
-Easily repeatable
Correlational method cons
-Do not explain relationship, cannot imply causation
Experimental Method
Variable is manipulated and the manipulation’s effect on another variable is observed. Consists of independent and dependent variable. Eliminate all confounds
confounds of experimental method
control group, random assignment, masked design
Rosenthal effect
Experimenters may have expectations that they unintentionally transmit to the participants
Quasi-experimental design
designs that fail to include the key elements of a pure experiment.
matched design
do not randomly assign participants to control and experimental groups, make use of groups that already exist
-children of abuse vs not
natural experiment
nature manipulates the independent variable and the experimenter observes the effects. Used to study psychological effects of unusual and unpredictable events
analogue experiments
Induce laboratory participants to behave in ways that resemble real-life abnormal behaviour then conduct experiments on the participants
single-case experimental design
when don’t have the luxury of experimenting on many participants typically of a rare disorder. Single participant is observed before and after the manipulation of an independent variable
longitudinal study
investigators observe the same individuals on many occasions over a long period of time
Epidemiological studies
reveal how often a problem occurs in a particular population
incidence
the number of new cases that emerge in a population during a given period of time
prevalence
the total number of cases in the population during a given period
Institutional review boards
committee of five or more members that monitor and review every study conducted in facility to ensure ethical research and practices
