Research method in Psychopathology Flashcards
(37 cards)
Clinical interviews
- paradigm influences information sought
- Structured (behavioral, cognitive)
- Unstructured (psychodynamic, humanistic)
Stress measures
- Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SSRS) -relies on retrospective ratings
- Assessment of Daily Experiences (ADE) -monitor and record thoughts and events on a daily basis
- Bedford College Life events and difficulties Schedule (LEDS) -evaluates stressors within the context of each individual’ss circumstances
Response Inventories
- people provide info about themselves but focus in 1 specific area of functioning
- affective inventories -emotions
- social skill -social situations
- Cognitive -distorted patterns of thinking
Mental Status Exam (MSE)
- Appearance and behavior -overt behavior, attire, posture
- Thought processes -Derailment, delusions of persecution, grandeur, ideas of reference
- Intellectual functioning -type of vocab, abstractions, metaphors
- Sensorium -general awareness of surrounding, Oriented times 3
- Mood and affect -predominant state of the individual
Psychological tests
- Self-report personality inventories
- projective tests
- intelligence tests
Self-observation and self-monitoring
- Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) -collection of data in real time using diaries
- Dysfunctional Attitude Scale -identifies maladaptive thought processes
- Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) -assesses immediate thoughts in specific situations
Computerized Axial Taxonomy (CT or CAT Scan)
reveals structural abnormalities by detecting differences in tissue density (eg enlarged ventricles)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- similar to CT but higher quality
- Functional MRI
- images reveal dunction as well as structure
- measures blood flow in the brain
Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan)
Reveals brain functions
Electroencephalogram
Brain’s electrical activity measured by electrodes placed on scalp
Case study
- detailed biographical description of an individual
- cannot rule out alternative explanations
- low internal validity; low external validity
Correlational method
- do variable x and y vary together?
- variables measured but not manipulated
Statistical significance
- probability is less than or equal to .05
- larger samples increase likelihood of significance
Clinical significance
- is the association meaningful as well as statistically significant?
- amount of improvement is meaningful in the individual’s life?
Problems of causality
- correlation does not imply causality
- directionality (var x may cause Y; var Y may cause X)
- third variable problem (var z causes both var x and var Y)
Longitudinal studies
- examines whether causes are present before disorder develops
- High risk method: include only those who are at greatest likelihood of developing a disorder
- can be complicated by cross-generational effect (generalize findings to groups whose experiences are differencet from those of the study of participants
Cross-sectional studies
-measure causes and effects at the same time
-compare different people of different ages
COHORTS: participants in each age group
Cohort effect -confounding age and experience between cohorts
Sequential design
- Combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies
- repeated study of different cohorts
Epidemiological research
Epidemiology -descriptive statistics
-Study of the distribution of disorders in a population and possible correlates (incidence, prevalence)
Experiment
-IV, DV, random assignment
-can evaluate treatment effectiveness
-guard against confounds:
control group
random assignment
blind design
Comparative Treatment Research
Researcher gives different treatments to 2 or more groups then assessing which among them is effective
Frustro effect
participants in the control group disappointed because no treatment
How to resolve placebo effect?
give therapy with not effect
Analogue experiment
Experimenter produces abnormal-like behaviror in lab participants and conducts experiments on the participants
Ex. Seligman’s learned helplessness
