methods in clinical psych Flashcards
what are the methods used to research mental health?
in clinical psychology
- longitudinal studies
- cross-sectional
- cross-cultural
- clinical interview
- case studies
- meta analysis
- primary and secondary data
what is a clinical interview?
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
what is an example study of a clinical interview?
vallentine
what is the aim of vallentine’s study?
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.
describe the procedure of vallentine’s study
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.
describe the findings/conc of vallentine’s study
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.
what are the strengths of using a clinical interview?
- 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
what are the weaknesses of using a clinical interview?
- 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
what is a case study in clinical psych?
- 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)
what is an example of a case study in clinical psychology?
bradshaw (also used for longitudinal)
what is the aim of bradshaw’s study
to look at how CBT was used to treat a woman with SZ (26 yo woman - Carol)
describe the procedure of bradshaw’s study
- 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.
describe the findings of bradshaw’s study
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.
describe the conclusions of bradshaw’s study
- 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
what are the strengths of using case studies?
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.
