methods in clinical psych

Question 1

what are the methods used to research mental health?

in clinical psychology

Answer 1

• longitudinal studies
• cross-sectional
• cross-cultural
• clinical interview
• case studies
• meta analysis
• primary and secondary data

Question 2

what is a clinical interview?

Answer 2

a special type of interview conducted by a medical practicioner to assess someone’s health. a psychologist might use this to determine if someone is suffering from a mental health disorder

usually semi-structured, using set questions based on psychometric tests and diagnostic manual criteria as well as providing opportunities for addtitional, unset questions to be asked in response to what the individual discloses

they are designed to get as much (relevant) info from the client as possible to help with diagnosis by asking a lot of open questions

Question 3

what is an example study of a clinical interview?

Answer 3

vallentine

Question 4

what is the aim of vallentine’s study?

Answer 4

Investigate usefulness of psychoeducation (info about symptoms, causes, treatments, coping skills) provided via group work for offender patients in a high-security psychiatric hospital.

Benefits = higher adherence to treatment programmes and reduction in relapse and readmission to hospital.

Question 5

describe the procedure of vallentine’s study

Answer 5

42 male patients detained under the Mental Health Act - 80% diagnosed with SZ

Groups run over three year period

Semi-structured interviews - evaluate pps’ experience of the group, how it could be improved and what they felt they had gained.

Data was transcribed (typed up) and stored electronically.

Qualitative data was analysed by looking for themes and conducting content analysis (tally when certain words/ concepts are used.)

A second researcher repeated the analysis showing a 60% level of agreement, suggesting inter-rater reliability.

Question 6

describe the findings/conc of vallentine’s study

Answer 6

Pps valued understanding their disorder and how treatments help, it gave them a sense of hope and empowerment, they found it difficult talking in front of the group.

Question 7

what are the strengths of using a clinical interview?

Answer 7

• Patients can fully explain their points of view and experiences of a mental health disorder, this is important as everyone is different so this makes the data and diagnosis more valid.
• Semi-structured or unstructured interviews collect large amounts of qualitative, detailed data from patients and allow the researcher flexibility to ask questions which are relevant to the individual patient, improving the validity of diagnosis. E.g. if a patient with SZ isn’t suffering from negative symptoms, only positive, then the researcher won’t ask about negative one
• Building a rapport between the patient and the researcher is vital as it means the patient’s responses are more likely to be valid as they feel relaxed and trust the researcher, increasing the validity of the diagnosis

Question 8

what are the weaknesses of using a clinical interview?

Answer 8

• Problems with subjectivity can occur when the researcher is interpreting the data, researcher bias may occur whereby they interpret the responses to fit their research aim. Researchers may also lose objectivity when building a rapport with the patient.
• Interviewer effects may influence a patient’s responses: their tone of voice, gender, ethnicity etc. may affect how comfortable the patient feels, which may affect whether they answer honestly or in-depth which can affect the validity of the diagnosis
• Social desirability bias may occur - patients may exaggerate or downplay symptoms, they may be embarrassed or may be unable to give clear information as they are suffering from severe cognitive impairments (psychosis, memory loss), lowering the validity of diagnosis

Question 9

what is a case study in clinical psych?

Answer 9

• an in-depth study of one individual or a small group
• the person or small group are usually interesting or unusual in some specific way e.g. a group of patients who are trialling a particular therapy
• they may be longitudinal, following the course of a disorder or a treatment
• different methods including observation, interview, questionnaire, standardised test etc are used to collect the data; this is called method triangulation; researchers try to identify common themes from the findings of their different measures
• they take an idiographic approach, meaning they build a detailed picture that helps us to understand how this one person or one small group constructs their understanding of the world; this is in contract to teh nomothetic approach which involves quantiative data meaning inferential stats can be used to test hypothesis (scientific approach)

Question 10

what is an example of a case study in clinical psychology?

Answer 10

bradshaw (also used for longitudinal)

Question 11

what is the aim of bradshaw’s study

Answer 11

to look at how CBT was used to treat a woman with SZ (26 yo woman - Carol)

Question 12

describe the procedure of bradshaw’s study

Answer 12

• measurement of the effectiveness of CBT looked at no. of hospitalisations, how well the client was functioning (work, social, family) and development of therapeutic relationship.
• 15min-1 hr sessions for 3 yrs
• Included going for a walk.

Question 13

describe the findings of bradshaw’s study

Answer 13

F: A weekly activity schedule helped her to cope with loss of daily structure after leaving hospital. She was asked to record what she did during the day, so that she and the therapist could review her daily life and put in different strategies. Behavioural activities were worked out —small tasks to start with and increasing level of activity.Stress management was addressed by using techniques such as meditation.

• Follow-up data showed that there was improvement in psychosocial functioning, reduction of symptoms and reduction in number of hospitalisations. This improvement lasted up to 6 months and the same was found again 1 year afterwards.

Question 14

describe the conclusions of bradshaw’s study

Answer 14

• Considerable improvements in functioning after a 3-years of CBT.
• It was therefore concluded that CBT can be successful in the treatment of schizophrenia: in controlling negative automatic thoughts and in changing behaviour in response to stressful situations

Question 15

what are the strengths of using case studies?

Answer 15

A large amount of in-depth data (qual and quant) can provide brilliant insight. Tests and assessments can be carried out more than once (test-re-test) to check for reliability and validity

Useful- to an extent - Case studies in clinical psychology can demonstrate the effectiveness of new treatments, the development of a disorder and individual experiences of symptoms. This can be a good starting point for further research on bigger samples.

Question 16

what are the weaknesses of using case studies?

Answer 16

• Risk of inaccurate recording of data or subjective interpretation of information due to large amounts of time invested and rapport between participant and researcher meaning objectivity may be lost, lowers the validity of the results
• Poor population validity due to an unrepresentative sample of usually one participant or small groups of participants with interesting or unusual behaviours means that the results may not be generalisable

Question 17

what is a longitudinal study?

Answer 17

involve following the same individual(s) over a period of time, gathering data from them more than once and comparing any changes over time

Question 18

example of longitudinal studies in clinical psych

Answer 18

• bradshaw - carried out a 3 year case study on how effective cbt was when used to treat a woman with sz
• williams - same tests were used three times over the course of 11 weeks to measure depression (before cbm-i, after 7 day cbmi- intervention, after 10 week icbt intervention)

Question 19

strengths of longitudinal studies

Answer 19

• As the same pps are measured throughout the duration of the study, there is no problem with individual differences, this means there is high internal validity
• As the same standardised tests are used at each point of measurement, the method is reliable because the method is replicable

Question 20

weaknesses of longitudinal studies

Answer 20

• Because the pps are being measured at different time intervals over a long period of time, there is a high chance of attrition. This reduces the sample size, therefore reducing the generalisability. People may move away, want to drop out due to boredom or personal problems, become too ill etc.
• Because the pps are measured over a long period of time, gathering and analysing the data is time consuming and may have a high cost (paying researchers and use of equipment)

Attrition - when the sample gets smaller bc people are ‘dropping out’

Question 21

what is a cross-sectional method?

Answer 21

takes a measurement of one group of pps at a specific time and compares it with another group e.g. memory of 16 yr olds compared to 18 yr olds

findings provide a snapshot of the differences between the behaviour of the two groups tested

similar to independent groups design

cross sectional studies are often used to look at the effect of age on ?

Question 22

what is an example of a cross-sectional method in clinical psych?

Answer 22

hyde

Question 23

what is the aim in hyde’s study?

Answer 23

A: To investigate whether cognitive decline is worse in pps with SZ

Question 24

what is the procedure in hyde’s study?

Answer 24

Patients with chronic schizophrenia, aged from 18 to 69 years were divided into five conditions: 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60-69 years (IV = age group) and cognitive deterioration (DV) was tested using the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Dementia Rating Scale. This was compared to control groups = same ages, no SZ.

Question 25

what are the findings/conc in hyde’s study?

Answer 25

There was no evidence of accelerated cognitive decline. The mean test performances were abnormal across all age groups compared to those without SZ but cognitive function does not seem to significantly decline from early adulthood to late adulthood in those with SZ.

This is cross-sectional because it provides a snapshot of cognitive decline across 5 different age groups. If a longitudinal design was used, the same group of pps would be measured every few years from 18 years to 69 years.