Research Methods Flashcards
Research aims to find out:
Demographics of a disorder
Diagnosis/Symptoms of a disorder
Phenomenology of a disorder
Causes and Correlates of a disorder
Treatment efficacy for a disorder
Demographics of a Disorder
Prevalence
The number of people with a particular diagnosis as a particular time
Lifetime Prevalence
The number of people who have experienced a particular disorder at some point in their lives
Gender distribution
Nationality distribution
Age-of-Onset
In order to find this demographic/ epidemiological data survey studies are used
Diagnosis/Symptoms of a Disorder
Questionnaire Studies are used in order to find valid measures of symptoms
Validity = a measure is testing what it is intended to test
Questionnaire studies can be used to create valid measures of disorder symptoms for clinical groups or for measuring sub-clinical traits in the normal population
Looking at sub-clinical traits is based on the dimensional theory of psychopathology – i.e. that psychological disorders lie on a continuum, and that everyone can be placed somewhere on that continuum
Questionnaire Studies are also used to see how symptoms of different disorders may relate to each other, or to personality traits
E.g. Measures of low self-esteem and perfectionism are highly correlated with measures of eating disorders
These types of study do not imply causation, but do suggest relationships that are worthy of future research
Phenomenology
Qualitative studies look into phenomenology – that is, what someone with a particular disorder actually experiences
How their disorder makes them feel, their thoughts about their condition, how it impacts on their life
Uses techniques such as structured interviews Gives a different type of information – exploratory, detailed
Can be a particularly useful first step in order to tailor later quantitative research
Causes and Correlates
Experiments designed to look for potential causes of disorders, or characteristics of disorders in order to gain a greater understanding of the disorder
Can look at any of biological, psychological, or social/environmental factors or a combination
of multiple factors
Individuals are assessed for current psychological disorder and asked to recall whether certain events have happened to them in the past
Allows us to see whether a history of negative life experiences is associated with developing a disorder
However, not entirely reliable –
Memory bias due to anxiety/depression can affect accuracy/detail of memory
Memory is imperfect
Memory for negative events may have been suppressed
Possibility of false memories
Causes and Correlates: Experimental Psychology
One way to discover whether a variable may have a causal effect on a psychological disorder is to experimentally manipulate that variable in controlled conditions
This can be done using control participants, to see if disorder-like symptoms can be induced
Or we may want to see if there are cognitive or behavioural differences between patient groups with different psychological disorders, or between a patient group and healthy controls
E.g. Studies on response inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compared with healthy controls
Participants are presented with rapid symbols on a computer screen, and have to respond with a button press when presented with a * on screen, and withhold response when presented with +
OCD patients find it harder to withhold a motor response than controls
Suggests that there’s a global inhibition deficit in OCD, which may be related to the occurrence of obsessions and compulsions
Experimental Pt2
If we do not have access to clinical groups, or if we want to conduct an experiment which may be unethical in clinical groups, we can use analogue samples
Again this is based on the dimensional theory of disorders
Groups of non-clinical individuals with high levels of disorder symptoms, but not over the clinical threshold
E.g. Individuals who experience high levels of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but not to the extent that it impacts severely on their life or causes substantial distress
What we learn about the factors that influence these symptoms in non-clinical groups should be relevant to our understanding of clinical groups
Genetic Association Studies:
Looks for a correlation between disease status and genetic variation
Are people with a particular psychological disorder more likely to have a particular genetic profile than people without that psychological disorder?
E.g. Might look for differences in genes coding for serotonin production between depression patients and healthy controls
Twin Studies:
Looks at similarities and differences between pairs of monozygotic twins compared with dizygotic twins
Monozygotic (identical) Twins share 100% of their genes
Dizygotic (non-identical/fraternal) Twins share approximately 50% of their genes
Gives us an estimate of heritability
Heritability - how much of the variance of a trait is due to inherited genetic factors
When a trait differs between DZ twins but not MZ twins, it is genetic
Calculates how much a trait is due to genetic, environmental, or shared environmental factors
Somewhat problematic as it is a statistical analysis based on certain assumptions
E.g. what is ‘shared environment’? Can we really say that the parental influence is a shared environment, i.e. that twins are treated in the same way?
Demographics- Why is this useful?
Identifies trends on a large (e.g. global) scale
Identifies cross-cultural differences
Identifies potential risk factors
Helps with allocation of resources, public health advice
Demographics- Limitations
Cannot make conclusions about causation only correlation
Broad snapshot – only limited detail of information
Diagnosis- Why is this useful?
Helps with accurate diagnosis (if diagnostic tools are not valid, patients may not be properly diagnosed)
Helps with accurate categorisation of disorders (e.g. can be used to identify consistent clusters of disorders or subtypes within disorders)
Identifies potential risk factors for future research
Diagnosis- Limits
Cannot make conclusions about causation only correlation
Broad snapshot – only limited detail of information
Phenomenology- Why is this useful?
Helpful when examining areas with little previous research
Can be a particularly useful first step in order to tailor later quantitative research
Good for assessing motivations, importance of different factors, quality of life etc.
Phenomenology- Limits
Small samples – individual detail rather than generalisable
