PSYC 523: Statistics & Research Methods Flashcards
Achievement Test
Standardized assessment.
Designed to measure an individual knowledge, skill and competencies in a specific area to evaluate what a person has learned and is able to apply.
Important bc it provides data on areas of strenghts (self-efficacy) or weaknesses as well as provides a benchmark for educational/theraputic progress.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Ex: Your client is about to graduate from in-patient rehab who has been engaged in on the job traning and now wants to apply for a full time role. You adminstering a acheiventment test to determine their ability to remain successful in that role because gainful employment is a condition for discharge.
ANalysisOfVAriance
Statistical Mehtod
Used to compare the means of 3 or MORE groups to determine if there are significant differencces due to treatment effects or random chance that would impact the effectiveness of treatment.
Process of elemination to determine best fit for treatment.
Ex: A therapist uses ANOVA to compaires the outcomes of 3 different interventions for anixety (CBT, Mindfulness and Medication) to determine which treatment yeilds the most effective treatment.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Aptitude Test
Standardized assessment
Measures an individuals potential to succeed in a specific task and predicts their capacity to learn or perform in particular fields.
For example: Your client is graduating from in-patient rehab and has been engaged in on the job traning and now wants to apply for a full time role. You perform an aptitude test to ensure this job has the high opportunity for sucess bc because gainful employment is a condition for discharge.
Important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
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Clinical vs Statistical Significance
**Statistical signifcance **tells us that the results of the study are real and that is does what id needs to do but it does not tell us how big or important the results are - only that the results are not by chance.
Clinical signifance tells us that the results are impactful enough to be meaningful in the real world.
Ex: A new treatment shows statistical significance in reducing symptoms, but that reduction is not large enough to be all that helpful to the patient, therefore it is not clinically significant.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significance, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Construct Validity
Validity = valid
Examines whether a test truly measure the concept it cleains to mesure.
For example: If a test is designed to measure anxiety, construct validity looks at whether the test reflects different aspects of anxiety such as hypervigilance, muscle tension and excessive worry.
Construct Validity asks - does this test/assessment actually measure anxiety itself?!
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on valid data, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Content Validity
Validity = valid
Checks that a test covers all the necessary aspects of the concept it cleains to mesure.
For example: If a test is designed to measure anxiety, content validity confirms it includes different questions surrounding all the aspects of anxiety such as hypervigilance, muscle tension and excessive worry.
Content Validity asks - does this test/assessment all the nessecary part to fully measure anxiety?!
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on valid data, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.- is important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant empirical evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Correlation vs Causation
Correlation refers to a statistical relationship between two variables, where changes in one varialbe are associated with changes in another.
Causation implies that one variable directly affects or causes changes in another.
Ex: Your client is a victem of rape presenting with PTSD. You support her learning that reckless alcohol use may be the cause of a hangover and can be correlated to sexual assult.
Misinterpreting correlation and caustion can lead to incorrect and potentionally harmful treatments making this important to understand when making informed decisions enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Dependent T-test
Dependent t-Test (test are depended on therapy)
Statistical Method
Used to compare two sets of related data to see if there is a significant difference between them.
Pre and Post tests to determine if treatment made a real difference
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Independent T-test
Statistical Method
Used to compare the means of two separate groups to see if theres a significant difference between them - “independent” bc the groups are not related.
Ex: Therapist is studying affects of two different treatments for depressio by creating two different groups: Therapy A and Therapy B. After the treatment course is over, an idenpendent t-test is administered to compare the average scores from the two groups.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions regarding treatment enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Descriptive vs Inferential
Differential compairs individual scores to identify differences between groups to better understand variabiity amoung people based on traits like intelligence, personality or behavior. / individual differences
Inferential involves drawing conclusions about a population based on a sample’s data indicative of trends across diverse populations.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions when customizing interventions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Effect Size
Effect size is vital in clinical signficance to tell us how meaningful the results of research are.
It measures the strenght (Cohen’s d) or a relationship between variables such as the impact of an interventions.
Even if a treatment is statistically significant, if it does not have a large effect size, it may be limitied in it’s real world impact.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant information, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Internal Consistency
Refers to how well the items in a test or survey measure the same concept.
Think about it from same perspective as Construct and Content Validity.
High internal consistency means that the question work together well to assess that specific itda and ensures that the meaure is reliable.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant information, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Interrater Reliability
Measures how consistend different people (raters( are when evaluating or scoring the same thing.
Ensure that evaluations are dependable as results from multiple evaluators giving similar scores.
Ex: Multiple faculty members are reading this exam ensuring interrater reliablity of my comprehensive knowledge and aptitue to continue on in the graduate program. ;)
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed and confident decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Measures of Central Tendency
Statistical tools
Describe the center point or typical value of a dataset using the 3 main measures of mean (average), median, mode.
Escentially this tells researchers where data falls, summarizing data and making it easier to spot trends and track progress over time.
Ex: A therapist treating anxiety can assess a treatment group to located the average mean score indicating if they rate their anxiety as increasing or descreasinig.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on statistical evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Measures of Variability
Statistical Tool
Describes how spread out or diverse a set of data is using a measure of range, variance or standard deviation.
To show how much a clients scores differ from each other indicating whether changes in symptoms are consistent across clients or if some are experencing something significantly different.
Ex: A therapist assesses anxiety in a group and finds that the range is 2 - 7 with a mean of 4 and a standard deviation of 1 indicating that while most patients are around the average, some require more focused support.
- is important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant empirical evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Nominal/Ordinal/Interval/Ratio Measurements
Ways to measure data and organize information. Used in EPSS when running tests.
Norminal measurements categorize data w/o any order or ranking helping therapists classify clients into different groups based on characteristics.
Ordianl measurement ranks data in a specific order but does not qunaity the difference between ranks which is useful for understanding the stages of progress in therapy.
Interval measurement has orderd categories with meaning ful difference but no true zero point which helps track changes in symptoms over time.
Ratio measurement is just like interval measurement just with the added “zero” point which indicats a complete adscense of something.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significance, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Norm-referenced scoring/test
Assessment
Compare individual performance to a group norm/averaeg (“norming group”) who have tken the test before.
Provides benchmark to see where clients stand in relation to others to indentify strenghts and weaknesses that guide treatment goals.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significance, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Normal Curve
** Bell Curve**
Graphical distribution where most points cluster around the mean, with fewer values appearing as you move away from the center mean/average.
Understanding where you clients falls in a distribution guides therapy goals based on their strenghts and weaknesses.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significant data, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Objective Tests
Standardized Assessments
Measures specific traits, behaviors or ability using fixed questions with predetermined scoreing such as “true”, “false”.
Provide quanitifibale results that relects severity of symptoms critical for treatment planning and modification.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions using reliable data, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Probability
Statistical Concept
Measures the likelihood of an event occuring from 0 (impossible) - 1 (certain).
Ex: Therapist regually works with clients who have anxiety. Reaseach shows that 70% of clients improve with a specific therapy which informs treatment planning and enhanses psycoeducation leading to postive impacts on the theraputic process.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Projective Tests
Psycological assessment (think Frued showing clients pictures)
Uses images/pictures/abiguous stimuli to eliciet a responce from the client
Provides insight into clients subconscious thoughts and feelings which are uncovered and allow for a deepers understanding of a cilent’s inner-world.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Parametric vs nonparametric statistical analyses
Statistical Analyses
Parametric (think bell curve) test assume data follows a pattern of normal distribution.
Non parametric test don’t assume any specific pattern in the data and are used with rankking data such as “not at all”, “often”, “a little”.
Both are usful and provide reliable results without needing rules.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinically significant data, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Regression
Statistical Method
Used to understand the relationship between two or more variables to predict how one will change base on the other.
Client anxiety symtoms are reduced when therapy session frequency increased. - - Can indicate CAUSATION
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significant, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Reliability (Type of)
Test-retest reliability measures consistency over time (think Dependent t-test // test retest)
Inter-rater reliability ensures consistency when 2 or more raters or observer score a test consistently
Internal Consistency reliability ensures that items within a test measure the concept its indended to measure such as anxiety or depression.
All of these are important bc they ensure that the tools therapist use are objective, consistent and trustworthy, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Sample vs Population
A population is the entire group of individuals that a researcher is studying.
- can indicate clincial significance.
A sample is a smaller group selected form the population used to represent the whole in research.
- can be statistically significant but not clinically significant.
- used to make generalization bc studing a whole population is often impracticle
Ex: Before using a study on treatment for anxiety, a therapist first ensures that the sample size accurately represents the characteristic of their clients based on the population selected.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Standard Error of Estimate
Measures the accuracy of predictions made by a regression line (remember - a regression line shows how one variable impact another. Ex: Client anxiety symtoms are reduced when therapy session frequency increased.)
The smaller the SEE, the more accurate the prediction made about a regression line is helping the therapist undersand test or predict outcomes.
A larger SEE is a strong indication that something is off and adjustments in treatment need to be made.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical evidence, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Standard Error of Measurement
Reflects how much a test score is expected to vary due to measurement error and provides a range that a person’s** true score** will fall within if there are no errors in testing.
Ex: A therapist administers a depression scale and the client scores a 20. IF the SEM is 2, the therapist can assume that the “true score” falls somewhere in the range of 18 - 22.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Test Bias
Essay Question
Occurs when a test systematically is disadvantages a certain group (minority) based on factors such as race, gender or culture.
Leads to unfair results as the test may not accurately measure what it claims to for ALL groups.
Ex: Reading comprehenstion score above 80% is used as a measurment for acceptance to a charter kindergarden. Child from lower SES with fewer opportunites for preschool and in-home modeling of reading will typically score lower on this test than a student presented with more opportunites leading to greater admissions rate for privileged children.
important to understand to avoid misdiagnosis or inappropriate treatments as it aids therapists in making informed decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Type I and Type II Error
Type 1 (false positive) - researcher rejects a null hypothesis by stating there IS an effect when in fact there IS NOT.
- could result in diagnosing a client with a condidtion they do not have.
Type 2 (false negative) - researcher fails to reject a null hypotheseis and misses an effect that does in fact exisit.
- could result in not diagnosing a client who truley has a condidtion.
Ex: A client scores within an average range on the anxiety test indication that they do not have anxiety, yet they in fact to.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Validity (types of)
Content
Construct
Convergent
Discriminant
Criterion-related
Concurrent
Predictive
Critical to selecting and interpreting assessment tool effectively, ensuring that the test are used accurately to measure clients needs and conditions.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significance, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
Variance
Measures degree of spread among scores in a dataset that differ from the mean.
High variance indiates score are widley spread out.
Low variance indications score are closer to then mean.
Provides insights into the reliability and consistency of scores.
Ex: Therapist administers an anxiety test to a group and finds a mean score of 50 with a high variance, this suggest that while some clients similarly report severe axiety, others are showing more aniety as well as less anxiety within the variance.
important to understand because it aids therapists in making informed decisions based on clinical significance, enhancing the quality and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.
