Practical Investigation Flashcards
What was the aim of my Clinical Psychology summative content analysis? (2 points)
To conduct a summative content analysis to explore how attitudes towards mental health have changed overtime
I used 2 newspaper articles from the Guardian Newspaper in 1990 and 2020 which were analysed for the use of language related to attitudes towards mental health
What were the 2 hypotheses of my Clinical Psychology summative content analysis?
There will be a significant difference between the attitudes towards mental health between 1990 and 2020
The 2020 article will use more positive language, whilst the 1990 one will use more negative language toward mental health
What was the procedure of my Clinical Psychology summative content analysis? (4 points)
- The articles were read twice over
- Qualitative data was highlighted and reoccurring words and dialogues were colour coded
- The highlighted quotations were organised into nominal data categories of themes
- Using these categories, a tally chart was created - a tally was recorded every time a particular positive or negative word/phrase was used in the article that fell into my identified nominal categories
What were the results of my Clinical Psychology summative content analysis? (2 points)
The dialogues between the 2 articles were compared for similarities and differences towards mental health
Nominal categories identified:
1990: ‘insanity, violent, crazy’
2020: ‘recovery, healing, self-care’
Quantitative tally chart - ‘Insanity’ frequency
1990: 7
2020: 0
What was the conclusion of my Clinical Psychology summative content analysis? (3 points)
There was a significant difference between the attitudes towards mental health between 1990 and 2020.
The 1990 article’s frequency of negative term usage like ‘insane’ was greater
The 2020 Guardian article used more positive language associated with ‘self-care’ and ‘recovery’
How generalisable was my Clinical Psychology core practical? (3 points)
The articles were both taken from the Guardian newspaper in the UK
The practical investigation’s sources are ethnocentric - centred on Western perspectives of mental health and do not consider cross-cultural perceptions
E.g. in Ghana, Africa:
+ Symptoms of ‘hearing voices’ as part of a mental health condition like schizophrenia is perceived to be a positive attribute
How was my Clinical Psychology core practical reliable? (2 points)
Formulating a tally chart quantifies the frequency of a word or phrase - greater intercoder reliability is established
This could also be repeated by other researchers considering how mental health perceptions have changed over time to test for replicability
How was my Clinical Psychology core practical not reliable? (2 points)
The authors of the 2 articles extracted from the Guardian newspaper were different
The 2 articles are based on two different authors’ subjective interpretations of mental health which could impact the tally chart formulated
How ethical was my Clinical Psychology core practical? (2 points)
BPS ethical guidelines have been abided by as all authors and any patients’ names, including identifiable information anonymised
Therefore, people involved in publishing the articles could not be identified which protects their confidentiality and prevents any psychological harm
