Research Methods in Psychopathology

Question 1

4 demographics of a disorder

Answer 1

Prevalence (no. of ppl with a particular diagnosis at a particular time)

Lifetime Prevalence (no. of ppl who have experienced particular disorder at some point in their life)

Gender distribution

Age-of-Onset

Question 2

4 reasons why demographics of a disorder are useful

Answer 2

• identifies trends on a large scale
• identifies cross-cultural differences
• identifies potential risk factors
• helps with allocation of resources, public health advice

Question 3

4 limitations of demographics of a disorder

Answer 3

• can’t make conclusions about causation only correlation
• broad snapshot - only limited detail of info
• representative sample?

Question 4

what are Questionnaire studies used to create

Answer 4

valid measures of disorder symptoms for clinical groups or for measuring sub-clinical traits in the normal population

Question 5

questionnaire studies are also used for

Answer 5

to see how symptoms of different disorders may relate to each other, or to personality traits

Question 6

3 reasons why questionnaire studies are useful

Answer 6

• Helps with accurate diagnosis
• Helps with accurate categorisation of disorders
• Identifies potential risk factors for future research

Question 7

3 limitations of questionnaire studies

Answer 7

• Cannot make conclusions about causation only correlation
• Broad snapshot - only limited detail of information

Question 8

what is phenomenology

Answer 8

what someone with a particular disorder actually experiences

Question 9

why is phenomenology useful

Answer 9

• 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.

Question 10

what are the limitations of phenomenology

Answer 10

time consuming

Question 11

what do experiments look for

Answer 11

potential causes or characteristics of disorders to gain greater understanding

can look at biological, psychological or social/environmental factors or combination of multiple

Question 12

what are Retrospective Questionnaire Studies

Answer 12

Individuals are assessed for current psych disorder and asked to recall whether certain events have happened to them in the past

Question 13

what do Retrospective Questionnaire Studies help us see

Answer 13

Allows us to see whether a history of negative life experiences is associated with developing a disorder

Question 14

cons of Retrospective Questionnaire Studies

Answer 14

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

Question 15

what is experimental psychopathology

Answer 15

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 ppts, to see if disorder-like symptoms can be induced

Question 16

what did Webb & Davey (1993) want to find out

Answer 16

wanted to see if disgust was involved with fear of animals

Question 17

Webb & Davey (1993) process and findings

Answer 17

First assessed ppts levels of fear of a number of animals

Then manipulated disgust by showing videos such as open-heart surgery

Then measured whether fear levels had changed

Found that fear of certain animals had increased following disgust-induction, suggesting that disgust is a causal factor

Question 18

what can experimental psychopathology also see and example

Answer 18

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 OCD compared with healthy controls

Question 19

explain response inhibition OCD

Answer 19

Ppts 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

Question 20

if we don’t have access to clinical groups, or if we want to conduct an experiment which may be unethical in clinical groups what can be used

Answer 20

analogue samples

Question 21

what are Genetic Association Studies

Answer 21

Looks for a correlation between disease status and genetic variation

Question 22

what are twin studies + info

Answer 22

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

Question 23

what is Heritability

Answer 23

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 statistical analysis based on certain assumptions

Question 24

post-mortem studies

Answer 24

Studies abnormalities in patients’ brains after death

It was through this method that the amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that characterise Alzheimer’s Disease were found

Question 25

brain-imaging studies

Answer 25

Compare brain structure/function of patient groups with that of healthy controls

Structure: size or shape of regions

Function: how active particular regions are, either at rest or during tasks

Methods include MRI, fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG

Question 26

in functional brain imaging experiments, we may use same sort of paradigms as…

Answer 26

experimental psychology

Question 27

imaging genetics

Answer 27

Combines genetic and neuroimaging methods

Measures the effect of a gene on brain structure/function

Looks at the relationship with disorders

E.g. early impact of 5-HTTLPR polymorphism on the neural correlates of sadness

Question 28

animal models

Answer 28

Sometimes ppl use animals as ppts instead of humans

Experimental studies, particularly behavioural

Emotion studies

Pharmacological studies, genetic studies, neuroimaging studies, post-mortem studies

Question 29

treatment efficacy - randomised control trials

Answer 29

Compares groups of patients who are randomly allocated to either an experimental condition or a control condition (placebo)

Keeps all other factors constant to minimise bias

Good for testing efficacy of drugs, finding side-effects, controlling for placebo effect

Question 30

what do MRI, fMRI, PET, EEG, MEG all stand for

Answer 30

• magnetic resonance imaging
• functional MRI
• positron emission tomography
• electroencephalogram
• magnetoencephalography