Research Methods (Week 4)

Question 1

5 Ps of Conceptualization

Answer 1

• guide the process of developing a clear and structured concept
• help ensure that all relevant aspects of an idea or intervention are considered before moving forward
  1. Predisposing Factors
  2. Precipitating Factors
  3. Presenting Factors
  4. Perpetuating Factors
  5. Protective Factors

Question 2

Predisposing Factors

Answer 2

What factors make the individual vulnerable? (social, biological, psychological, environmental)

Question 3

Precipitating Factors

Answer 3

What is the acute event(s) that got the individual to this point?

Question 4

Presenting Factors

Answer 4

What is the primary presenting concern?

Question 5

Perpetuating Factors

Answer 5

What’s making the situation/disorder worse?

Question 6

Protective Factors

Answer 6

What is a good indicator of the success of therapy/intervention?
ex. person has a strong social support or person is motivated

Question 7

Reliability

Answer 7

• consistency of a measurement
• measured by correlation
• stronger the correlation the better the reliability

Question 8

Internal consistency reliability

Answer 8

• degree to which items on a test relate to each other
• looks at 1 test or scale
• way of checking if the items in a scale are all assessing the same concept

Question 9

Test-retest reliability

Answer 9

• People who take the same test twice - are their scores consistent?
• depends on what you are trying to measure; if it is a stable trait or not

Question 10

Inter-Rater Reliability

Answer 10

Degree to which two raters/observers agree

Question 11

Alternate form reliability

Answer 11

Degree to which scores on two forms/versions of a test are the
same

Question 12

What are the 2 components of reliability?

Answer 12

1. Sensitivity
2. Specificity

Question 13

Sensitivity

Answer 13

• Agreement regarding the presence of a particular diagnosis
• How good is a test at correctly identifying that a person has a
  disorder? (Correct positive)

Question 14

Specificity

Answer 14

• Agreement concerning the absence of a particular diagnosis
• How good is a test at not misidentifying that a person has a
  disorder when they do not? (Correct negative)

Question 15

Validity

Answer 15

• extent to which a test fulfills its intended purpose
• measures what its supposed to

Question 16

Relationship between validity and reliability

Answer 16

• validity is related to reliability
• unreliable measures will not have good validity
• reliability is a precursor and necessary to validity

Question 17

Content validity

Answer 17

• Degree to which a test appropriately samples from the domain of interest
• “Does this test include all the important elements of the concept?”

Question 18

Construct validity

Answer 18

• Degree to which the test measures an abstract characteristic or construct that is
  not simply defined
• “Are we really measuring what we think we’re measuring?”

Question 19

Criterion validity

Answer 19

• Degree to which a test is associated with a related measure/variable in the
  expected way
• “Does this test predict or reflect what it should in the real world?”
  2 types:
  Concurrent - degree to which a test is associated with a related
  measure/variable that is measured at the same time
  Predictive - degree to which a test is associated with a related
  measure/variable that is measured at the future time

Question 20

Ecological Validity

Answer 20

• Degree to which a test measures ‘real-world’ functioning/characteristics/behaviour
• “Does this reflect what happens in everyday life?”

Question 21

What is a Case Study?

Answer 21

• collection of historical or biographical information on a single individual, often including experiences in therapy
• Providing detailed descriptions of all aspects of their history, symptoms, concerns,
  behaviours, etc
• have to keep in mind role of the clinician’s paradigm in determining the kinds of information actually collected and reported in a case study

Question 22

Pros and Cons of Case Studies

Answer 22

Pros
- can include much more detail than is typically included with other research methods
- Helpful in generating hypotheses & making discoveries
- can be used as evidence to negate an assumed universal relationship or law
Cons
- limited by size (n = 1)
- lack control and objectivity

Question 23

What is Epidemiological Research?

Answer 23

• study of the frequency and distribution of a disorder in a population
• provides a general picture of a disorder
• important for planning health care facilities and services and for allocating provincial and federal grants for the study of disorders
• focuses on 3 features of a disorder:
  1. Prevalence
  2. Incidence
  3. Risk Factors

Question 24

Prevalence

Answer 24

the proportion of a population that has the disorder at a given point or period of time (often lifetime)

Question 25

Incidence

Answer 25

the number of new cases of the disorder that occur in some period, usually a year

Question 26

What is Correlational Research?

Answer 26

- Measuring relationship or association between two or more variables - variables being studied are measured as they exist in nature, no manipulations, only observational

Question 27

Directionality problem

Answer 27

- A difficulty that arises in the correlational method of research when it is known that two variables are related but it is unclear which is causing the other - "Correlation does not imply causation"

Question 28

ABAB design

Answer 28

- used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention Structure A (baseline) B (intervention) A (withdrawal) B (reintroduction)

Question 29

Internal validity

Answer 29

- degree to which a study can show that changes in the dependent variable are directly caused by the independent variable, and not by other factors Strong internal validity: - study controls confounding variables - a clear cause-and-effect relationship - results are not due to bias, errors, or external influences

Question 30

External validity

Answer 30

- extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other people, settings, times, or situations Strong external validity: - findings apply beyond study sample - context of the study mirrors real world conditions

Question 31

Analogue experiments

Answer 31

- designed to simulate or approximate real-life conditions in a controlled setting - often used when studying complex, sensitive, or hard-to-observe phenomena directly in the real world is difficult, unethical, or impractical - Researchers create a simplified or artificial version of a real-world situation or behaviour - May lack ecological validity

Question 32

Meta-analysis

Answer 32

- combines or pools results of multiple studies that all have the same/similar research question - increased robustness of evidence - increased confidence in evidence - may be subject to bias