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Abnormal Psychology Chapter 1
Abnormal psychology - ✅ The scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain & change abnormal patterns of functioning. Clinical scientists - ✅ Gather info systematically to:
- Describe
- Predict
- Explain -the phenomena they study. Clinical practitioners - ✅ Use the knowledge from clinical scientists to:
- Detect
- Assess
- Treat -abnormal patterns of functioning Through the years, various terms have been used to describe a state in which one's emotions, behaviors & thoughts are psychologically abnormal. Some of these terms are: - ✅ -psychopathology -maladjustment -emotional disturbance -mental illness -dysfunctional impaired Most of the definitions have certain features in common, called "the four Ds": - ✅ 1) Deviance -Different, extreme, unusual & bizarre
- Distress -Unpleasant & upsetting to the person
- Dysfunction -Interfering with the person's ability to conduct daily activities in a constructive way
- Danger -A useful starting point to explore the phenomena of psychological abnormality. Deviance: From what? - ✅ 1) Social norms & societal values.
- Specific circumstances or context. -Abnormal behavior, thoughts & emotions are those that differ markedly from a society's ideas about proper functioning. -Each society establishes NORMS, stated and unstated rules for proper conduct. -Behavior that breaks LEGAL NORMS is considered to be CRIMINAL. -Behavior, thoughts & emotions that break NORMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING are called ABNORMAL.
-A society's norms grow from its particular CULURE, its history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology & arts. -EX: A society that values competition & assertiveness may accept aggressive behavior, whereas one that emphasizes cooperation & gentleness may consider aggressive behavior unacceptable & abnormal. -A society's values may change over time, causing its views of what is psychologically abnormal to change as well. -Judgments of abnormality also depend on specific circumstances (social context, grieving, reactions to traumatic events) & cultural norms. Norms - ✅ A society's stated & unstated rules for proper conduct. Culture - ✅ A people's common history, values, institutions, habits, skills, technology & arts. Distress - ✅ -Behavior, ideas, or emotions have to cause distress BEFORE they can be labeled abnormal. -EX: Ice Breakers, a group of people in Michigan who go swimming in lakes every weekend from November through February; the colder the weather, the better they like it. Far from experiencing distress, they feel energized & challenged, their positive feelings must cause us to hesitate before we decide that they are functioning abnormally. -Some people who function abnormally maintain a positive frame of mind and present no distress. Dysfunction - ✅ -Abnormal behavior tends to interfere with daily functioning. -Culture plays a role in the definition of abnormality as well. -It upsets, distracts, or confuses people that they cannot:
- Care for themselves properly
- Participate in ordinary social interactions
- Work productively -However, this alone does not necessarily indicate psychological abnormality. -EX: Ice Breakers, who continue to perform well in their jobs & enjoy fulfilling relationships, would be considered simply unusual. Danger - ✅ -The ultimate psychological dysfunction is behavior that becomes dangerous to oneself or others. -Behavior that is consistently careless, hostile, or confused may be placing themselves or those around them at risk. -Although cited as a feature of abnormal psychological functioning, research suggests that being dangerous is the EXCEPTION rather than the rule. -Most people struggling with anxiety, depression & bizarre thinking, pose no immediate danger to themselves or to anyone else. The Elusive Nature of Abnormality - ✅ -A society selects general criteria for defining abnormality & then uses those criteria to judge particular cases.
✅ -Abnormal functioning is considered to be deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, and dangerous. -Because behavior must also be considered in the context in which it occurs, however, the concept of abnormality depends on the NORMS and VALUES of the society in question. Treatment - ✅ -A systematic procedure designed to help change abnormal behavior into more normal behavior. -Also called therapy. -Once clinicians decides a person is suffering from some form of psychological abnormality they seek to treat it. According to clinical theorist, Jerome Frank, all forms of therapy have 3 essential features: - ✅ 1) A sufferer, who seeks relief from the healer.
- A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is accepted by the sufferer and his/her social group.
- A series of contacts b/w the healer & the sufferer through which the healer tries to produce certain changes in the sufferer's emotional state, attitudes & behavior. Treatment and Therapy - ✅ -Clinicians who view abnormality as an ILLNESS, consider therapy a procedure that helps CURE the illness. -Others see abnormality as a PROBLEM IN LIVING & view therapists as TEACHERS of more functional behavior & thought. -Clinicians differ on what to call the person who receives therapy: -Those who see abnormality as an illness speak of the "patient" -Those who view it as a problem in living refer to the "client." Clinical treatment is surrounded by conflict and confusion: - ✅ -Lack of agreement about goals or aims -Lack of agreement about successful outcome -Lack of agreement about failure -Are clinicians seeking to cure? To teach? -Are sufferers patients (ill) or clients (having difficulty)? How Was Abnormality Viewed and Treated in the Past? - ✅ -In any given year, as many as 30% of the adults and 19% of the children & adolescents in the U.S. display serious psychological disturbances & are in need of clinical treatment. -The rates in other countries are similarly high. -Although modern pressures may contribute, they are hardly the primary cause; every society, past & present, has witnessed psychological abnormality. -In addition, most people have difficulty coping at various times Ancient Views and Treatments - ✅ -Ancient societies regarded abnormal behavior as the work of evil spirits. -People in prehistoric societies believed all events around & within them resulted from the actions of magical, sometimes sinister beings who controlled the world. -They viewed the human body & mind as a battleground b/w external forces of good & evil. -This supernatural view of abnormality may have begun as far back as the Stone Age.
-Skulls from that period show evidence of an operation called trephination, a stone instrument or trephine was used to cut away a circular section of the skull. -Historians concluded this early operation was performed as a treatment for severe abnormal behavior, either:
- Hallucinations, people saw or heard things not actually present
- Melancholia, extreme sadness & immobility -The purpose of opening the skull was to release the evil spirits supposedly causing the problem. -Egyptian, Chinese & Hebrew writings all account for psychological deviance this way & the Bible describes how an evil spirit from the Lord affected King Saul & how David feigned madness to convince his enemies that he was visited by divine forces. -The treatment for abnormality in these societies was exorcism. -The idea was to coax the evil spirits to leave or to make the person's body an uncomfortable place in which to live. -A shaman or priest would recites prayers, plead with the evil spirits, insult the spirits, perform magic, make loud noises, or have the person drink bitter potions. -If these techniques failed, more extreme forms of exorcism such as whipping or starving the person were used. Trephination - ✅ An ancient operation in which a stone instrument was used to cut away a circular section of the skull to treat abnormal behavior. Greek and Roman Views and Treatments: 500 B.C.− 500 A.D. - ✅ -Hippocrates, father of modern medicine, taught illnesses had natural causes. -He saw abnormal behavior as a disease arising from internal physical problems. -He believed that some form of brain pathology was the culprit & that it resulted like all other forms of disease in his view, from an imbalance of 4 fluids (humors) that flowed through the body:
- yellow bile
- black bile
- blood
- phlegm -An excess of yellow bile caused mania, a state of frenzied activity -An excess of black bile was the source of melancholia, a condition marked by unshakable sadness. -To treat psychological dysfunction, Hippocrates sought to correct the underlying physical pathology. -He believed the excess of black bile underlying melancholia could be reduced by a quiet life, a diet of vegetables, temperance, exercise, celibacy & bleeding. -Hippocrates' focus on internal causes for abnormal behavior was shared by Greek philosophers Plato & Aristotle. Humors - ✅ -According to the Greeks & Romans, bodily chemicals that influence mental & physical functioning. -The 4 humors flowing through the body were
- Yellow bile
- Black bile
- Blood
- Phlegm Europe in the Middle Ages: Demonology Returns 500-1350 A.D. -
-In 1547, Bethlehem Hospital was given to the city of London by Henry VIII for the purpose of confining the mentally ill. -In this asylum, patients were bound in chains & cried out for all to hear & the hospital became a popular tourist attraction. -People were eager to pay to lo Asylum - ✅ -A type of institution that 1st became popular in the 16th century to provide care for persons with mental disorders. -Most became virtual prisons. The Nineteenth Century: Reform and Moral Treatment - ✅ -As 1800 approached, the treatment of people with mental disorders began to improve once again. -La Bicêtre, an asylum in Paris for male patients was the 1st site of asylum reform. -In 1793, during the French Revolution, Philippe Pinel was named the chief physician there. -He argued the patients were sick people whose illnesses should be treated with sympathy & kindness rather than chains & beatings. -He allowed them to move freely about the hospital grounds, replaced the dark dungeons with sunny, airy rooms & offered support & advice. -Pinel's approach proved remarkably successful in that many patients who had been shut away for decades improved greatly over a short period of time & were released. -Pinel later brought similar reforms to a mental hospital in Paris for female patients called La Salpetrière. -Meanwhile, William Tuke was bringing similar reforms to northern England & in 1796 he founded the York Retreat, a rural estate where 30 mental patients lived as guests in quiet country houses & treated with a combination of rest, talk, prayer & manual work. The Spread of Moral Treatment - ✅ -The methods of Pinel & Tuke, are called moral treatment b/c they emphasized moral guidance & humane & respectful techniques, which caught on throughout Europe and the U.S. -Patients with psychological problems were increasingly perceived as potentially productive humans who deserved individual care, including discussions of their problems, useful activities, work, companionship & quiet. -The person most responsible for the early spread of moral treatment in the U.S. was Benjamin Rush, a physician at Pennsylvania Hospital who is the father of American psychiatry. -Limiting his practice to mental illness, Rush developed humane approaches to treatment. -He required the hospital to hire intelligent & sensitive attendants to work closely with patients, reading & talking to them & taking them on regular walks. -He suggested it would be therapeutic for doctors to give small gifts to their patients now & then. -Rush's work was influential, but it was a Boston school teacher, Dorothea Dix, who made humane care a public & political concern in the U.S. -From 1841 to 1881, Dix went from state legislature to state legislature & to Congress, speaking of the horrors she observed at asylums & calling for reform. -Dix's campaign led to new laws & greater government funding to improve the treatment of people with mental disorders. -Each state was made responsible for developing effective public mental hospitals or state hospitals, all of which were intended to offer moral treatment. -Similar hospitals were established throughout Europe.
Moral treatment - ✅ A 19th century approach to treating people with mental dysfunction that emphasized moral guidance & humane & respectful treatment. State hospitals - ✅ State-run public mental institutions in the U.S. The Decline of Moral Treatment - ✅ -By the 1850s, a # of mental hospitals throughout Europe & U.S. reported success using moral approaches. -By the end of the 19th century, several factors led to a reversal of the moral treatment movement:
- Money & staff shortages
- Declining recovery rates
- Overcrowding
- Lack of effective treatments for severe mental disorders
- Emergence of prejudice against people with mental disorders
- The speed with which the movement had spread.
- The assumption behind moral treatment that all patients could be cured if treated with humanity & dignity. -For some, this was sufficient, however, others needed more effective treatments than any that had yet been developed.
- The emergence of a new wave of prejudice against people with mental disorders. -The public came to view them as strange & dangerous. -Many of the patients entering public mental hospitals in the U.S. in the late 19th century were poor foreign immigrants whom the public had little interest in helping. -By the early years of the 20th century, the moral treatment movement had ground to a halt in the U.S. & Europe. -Public mental hospitals were providing only custodial care & ineffective medical treatments & they were becoming more overcrowded every year. -Long term hospitalization became the rule once again. As the moral movement was declining in the late 1800s, 2 opposing perspectives emerged: - ✅ 1) Somatogenic: abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes
- Psychogenic: the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological. -These perspectives came into full bloom during the 20th century. somatogenic perspective - ✅ Abnormal functioning has physical causes. psychogenic perspective - ✅ The chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological. The Early Twentieth Century: The Somatogenic Perspective - ✅ -Two factors were responsible for this rebirth:
- Emil Kraepelin argued that physical factors (such as fatigue) were responsible for mental dysfunction. -He developed the 1st modern system for classifying abnormal behaviors, listing their physical causes & discussing their expected course.
- New biological discoveries
-Patients seemed to be helped by this treatment, called mesmerism; their pain, numbness, or paralysis disappeared. -Scientists believed Mesmer was inducing a trancelike state in his patients & this state was causing their symptoms to disappear. -The treatment was so controversial that Mesmer was banished from Paris. -It was not until years after Mesmer died that researchers had the courage to investigate his procedure, later called hypnotism & its effects on hysterical disorders. -Bernheim & Liébault showed that hysterical disorders could be induced in normal people while they were under the influence of hypnosis. -Physicians could make normal people experience deafness, paralysis, blindness, or numbness by means of hypnotic suggestion & they could remove these artificial symptoms by the same means. -Later Bernheim & Liébault established a mental process (hypnotic suggestion) could cause & cure a hysterical disorder, showing that this disorder was psychological in origin. -Among those who studied the effects of hypnotism on hysterical disorders was Josef Breuer of Vienna. -Breuer discovered that his patients sometimes awoke free from hysterical symptoms after speaking openly under hypnos Psychoanalysis - ✅ Either the theory or the treatment of abnormal mental functioning that emphasizes unconscious psychological forces as the cause of psychopathology. It would hardly be accurate to say we now live in a period of great enlightenment about or dependable treatment of mental disorders. Surveys have shown that: - ✅ -43% of respondents believe people bring mental disorders on themselves -31% consider such disorders a sign of personal weakness -35% of respondents consider mental disorders to be caused by sinful behavior. In the 1950s, researchers discovered new psychotropic medications drugs that affect the brain & reduce symptoms of mental dysfunction, they included: - ✅ 1) Antipsychotic drugs, correct extremely confused & distorted thinking.
- Antidepressant drugs, lift the mood of depressed people.
- Antianxiety drugs, reduce tension & worry. -When given these drugs, patients who spent years in mental hospitals began to show signs of improvement. -Hospital administrators, encouraged by these results & pressured by public outcry over the terrible conditions in public mental hospitals, began to discharge patients almost immediately. -Since the discovery of these medications, mental health professionals in most developed nations have followed a policy of deinstitutionalization, releasing thousands of patients from public mental hospitals. -These drugs led to deinstitutionalization & a rise in outpatient care. -58,000 people receive treatment in private psychiatric hospitals, care paid by the patients themselves or their insurance companies. -On average, private facilities offer more pleasant surroundings & more favorable staff patient ratios than public ones. -Outpatient care has become the primary mode of treatment for people with severe psychological disturbances & those with more moderate problems. -When severely disturbed people need institutionalization these days, they are hospitalized for a short period of time.
-They are then provided with outpatient psychotherapy & medication in community programs & residences. -This current emphasis on community care for people with severe psychological disturbances, a philosophy called the community mental health approach. -The approach has been helpful for many patients, but too few community programs are available to address current needs in the U.S. -As a result, thousands with severe disturbances fail to make lasting recoveries & shuttle back & forth b/w the mental hospital & the community. -After release from the hospital, t psychotropic medications - ✅ Drugs that mainly affect the brain & reduce many symptoms of mental dysfunction. deinstitutionalization - ✅ The practice begun in the 1960s of releasing hundreds of thousands of patients from public mental hospitals. The treatment picture for people with moderate psychological disturbances has been more positive than people with severe disorders. - ✅ -Since the 1950s, outpatient care has continued to be the preferred mode of treatment for them and the # & types of facilities that offer such care have expanded. -Before the 1950s almost all outpatient care took the form of private psychotherapy, individuals meet with a self employed therapist for counseling services. -Since the 1950s most health insurance plans have expanded coverage to include private psychotherapy so that it is available to people of all incomes. -Today, outpatient therapy is offered in less expensive settings such as community mental health centers, crisis intervention centers, family service centers & other social service agencies. -Surveys suggest 60% of people with psychological disorders in the U.S. receive treatment in the course of a year. -When Freud 1st began his practice, most of his patients suffered from anxiety or depression. -Almost 1/2 of today's clients suffer from those same problems, but people with other kinds of disorders are also receiving therapy. -At least 20% of clients enter therapy because of milder problems in living, problems with marital, family, job, peer, school, or community relationships. -Another change in outpatient care since the 1950s has been the development of programs devoted exclusively to specific psychological problems. -We now have suicide prevention centers, substance abuse programs, eating disorder programs, phobia clinics & sexual dysfunction programs. -Clinicians in these programs have the kind of expertise that can be acquired only by concentration in a single area. -Outpatient care has now become the primary mode of treatment for both severe & moderate problems. private psychotherapy - ✅ An arrangement in which a person directly pays a therapist for counseling services. The community mental health approach has given rise to the prevention movement. Many of today's programs aim to: - ✅ 1) Correct the social conditions that underlie psychological problems (poverty or violence in the community)
-In the mental health realm, therapists & clients dislike managed care programs b/c they fear the programs:
- Shorten therapy (for the worse)
- Unfairly favor treatments whose results are not always lasting (drug therapy)
- Pose a special hardship for those with severe mental disorders
- Result in treatments determined by insurance companies rather than by therapists. -A key problem with insurance coverage, both managed care & other insurance programs is reimbursements for mental disorders tend to be lower than those for physical disorders. -This places persons with psychological difficulties at a disadvantage. -In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a federal parity law that directed insurance companies to provide equal coverage for mental & physical/medical problems. -In 2014, the mental health provisions of the Affordable Care Act, ACA (Obamacare) went into effect & extended the reach of the earlier law. -ACA designated mental health care as 1 of 10 types of "essential health benefits" that must be provided by all insurers. -All health plans must provide preventive mental health services at no additional cost. -Insurers must allow membership for those who have preexisting conditions. managed care program - ✅ Health care coverage in which the insurance company largely controls the nature, scope & cost of medical or psychological services. One of the most important developments in the clinical field has been the growth of theoretical perspectives. - ✅ -Before the 1950s, the psychoanalytic perspectives emphasis on unconscious psychological problems as the cause of abnormal behavior was dominant. -Since then additional perspectives have emerged:
- Biological
- Cognitive-behavioral
- Humanistic-existential
- Sociocultural
- Developmental psychopathology -At present, no single viewpoint dominates the clinical field as the psychoanalytic perspective once did. -Before the 1950s, psychotherapy was offered only by psychiatrists, physicians who complete 3 to 4 additional years of training after medical school (a residency) in the treatment of abnormal mental functioning. -After World War II, with millions of soldiers returning home to countries throughout North America & Europe, the demand for mental health services expanded so rapidly that other professional groups had to step in to fill the need. -Among those are clinical psychologists professionals who earn a doctorate in clinical psychology by completing 4 to 5 years of graduate training in abnormal functioning & its treatment & 1 year internship in a mental health setting. -Psychotherapy & related services are also provided by:
- Counseling psychologists
- Educational psychologists
- School psychologists
- Psychiatric nurses
- Marriage therapists
- Family therapists
- Clinical social workers; largest group -Each of these has its own graduate training program & each conducts therapy in a distinctive way but use similar techniques. -A related development in the study & treatment of mental disorders since World War II has been the growth of effective research. -Clinical researchers have tried to determine:
- Which concepts best explain & predict abnormal behavior
- Which treatments are most effective
- What kinds of changes in clinical theory or practice may be required. -Well trained clinica The digital world provides new triggers & vehicles for the expression of abnormal behavior: - ✅ 1) Many who grapple with gambling disorder found the availability of Internet gambling all too inviting.
- The Internet, texting & social media have become tools for those who -stalk others -cyberbully -express sexual exhibitionism -pursue pedophilic desires
- Clinicians believe violent video games contribute to antisocial behavior.
- Constant texting, tweeting & Internet browsing may become an addictive behavior or lead to shorter attention spans.
- Social networking can contribute to psychological dysfunction in certain cases. -On the positive side, research indicates social media users are likely to:
- Maintain close relationships
- Receive social support
- Be trusting
- Lead active lives -On the negative side, there is research social networking sites:
- Increase peer pressure
- Increase social anxiety in some adolescents. -Telemental health, technology that delivers mental health services w/o the therapist being physically present is growing. -Telemental health takes forms as long distance therapy b/w clients & therapists using videoconferencing (Skype), therapy offered by computer programs & Internet based support groups. -Smartphone mental health apps are devoted to:
- Relaxing people
- Cheering them up
- Giving them feel good advice
- Helping them track their shifting moods & thoughts
- Improving their psychological states. -Unfortunately, along with this wealth of online info comes misinformation about psychological problems & their treatments offered by persons & sites that are far from knowledgeable. -Major issues with Internet-based therapy involve those of quality control. -There are antitreatment sites that guide people away from seeking help for their psychological problems. -EX: Pro anorexia & pro suicide sites & their dangerous influences.
-Each method is best suited to certain kinds of:
- Circumstances
- Questions -Correlational & experimental approaches are used to gather info about many individuals. -Together, these methods enable scientists to form & test hypotheses that variables are related in certain ways & draw broad conclusions as to why. -A hypothesis is a tentative explanation offered to provide a basis for an investigation. scientific method - ✅ The process of systematically gathering & evaluating info through careful observations to understand a phenomenon. hypothesis - ✅ A hunch/prediction that certain variables are related in certain ways. The Case Study - ✅ -Provide a detailed description of a persons:
- Life
- Psychological problems -Describes the persons:
- History
- Present circumstances
- Symptoms -Includes speculation about:
- Why the problems developed
- Describe the person's treatment -The best known case study is called 'The Three Faces of Eve' -It describes a woman with 3 alternating personalities, each having a distinct set of:
- Memories
- Preferences
- Personal habits -Clinicians take notes & keep records in the course of treating their patients -Some organize notes into a formal case study to share with other professionals. -The clues offered by this study help a clinician better understand or treat the person under discussion. case study - ✅ A detailed account of a person's life & psychological problems. How Are Case Studies Helpful? - ✅ 1) Provide a detailed, interpretative description of a person's life & psychological problems
- A source of new ideas about behavior & open the way for discoveries. -EX: Freud's theory of psychoanalysis was based on the patients he saw in private practice.
- Offer tentative support for a theory. -EX: Freud used these studies in this way, regarding them as evidence for the accuracy of his ideas.
- Challenge a theory's assumptions.
- Inspire new therapeutic techniques
- Offer opportunities to study unusual problems that do not occur often enough to permit a large # of observations.
-EX: Investigators of dissociative identity disorder, the multiple personality pattern on display in The Three Faces of Eve, once relied entirely on case studies for info. What Are the Limitations of Case Studies? - ✅ 1) Reported by biased observers. -Therapists who have a personal stake in seeing their treatments succeed. -Therapists choose what to include in a case study -Their choices may be self serving.
- Relies on subjective evidence. -EX: Is a client's problem really caused by the events the therapist or client says are responsible? -Those are only a fraction of events that may be contributing to the situation.
- Provide little basis for generalization. -Even if we agree Little Hans developed a dread of horses because he was terrified of castration & feared his father, how can we be confident that other people's phobias are rooted in the same kinds of causes? -Events/treatments that seem important in one case may be of no help in understanding/treating others. -The limitations are addressed by 2 methods of investigation:
- Correlational
- Experimental The Correlational & Experimental Method - ✅ 1) Do not offer the rich detail that makes case studies so interesting
- Allow researchers to draw broad conclusions about abnormality in the pop at large. -Now the preferred methods of clinical investigation for 3 reasons:
- Researchers observe many individuals. -Researchers are using social networking sites (Facebook & Twitter) to recruit participants for their studies.
- Researchers apply procedures uniformly. -They can repeat or replicate their investigations
- Researchers use statistical tests to analyze results -Determine if broad conclusions are justified. The Correlational Method - ✅ -A research procedure used to determine the "co relationship" b/w variables. -This method can be used to answer the question, "Is there a correlation b/w the amount of stress in people's lives & the degree of depression they experience?" -That is, as people keep experiencing stressful events, are they increasingly likely to become depressed? -To test this question, researchers collected:
- Life stress scores (# of threatening events experienced during a certain period of time)
- Depression scores (scores on a depression survey); from individuals & correlated these scores. -The people chosen for a study are called subjects or participants. -Investigators found that life stress & depression variables do increase or decrease together. -The greater someone's life stress score, the higher his/her score on the depression scale. -The direction of this resulting correlation between the two variables will be either:
- Positive -When variables change the same way
- Negative -The value of 1 variable increases as the value of the other variable decreases.
✅ 1) Are stress & onset of mental disorders related?
- Is culture (gender or race) generally linked to mental disorders?
- Are income & mental disorders related?
- Are social skills tied to mental disorders?
- Is social support tied to mental disorders?
- Are family conflict & mental disorders related?
- Is treatment responsiveness tied to culture?
- Which symptoms of a disorder disappear altogether?
- How common is a disorder in a particular population? The Experimental Method - ✅ -A research procedure in which a variable is manipulated & the manipulation's effect on another variable is observed. -The manipulated variable is the IV -The variable being observed is the DV -This method allows researchers to ask questions such as: Does a particular therapy relieve the symptoms of a particular disorder? -B/c this question is about a causal relationship, it can be answered only by an experiment. -Experimenters must give the therapy in question to people who are suffering from a disorder & then observe if they improve. -Therapy is the IV & psychological improvement is the DV. -As with correlational studies, investigators who conduct experiments must:
- Do a statistical analysis on their data
- Find out how likely it is the observed improvement/result (DV) is due to chance. -If that likelihood is very low, the improvement is considered statistically significant and the experimenter may conclude with confidence it is due to the IV. -If the true cause of changes in the DV cannot be separated from other possible causes then an experiment gives little info. -Thus, experimenters try to eliminate all confounds from their studies, variables other than the IV that may be affecting the DV. -When there are confounds in an experiment, they, rather than the IV, may be causing the observed change. -Situational variables, such as the location of the therapy office (a quiet country setting as opposed to a busy city street) or soothing background music in the office may have a therapeutic effect on participants in a therapy study. -EX: Participants are unusually motivated or have high expectations the therapy will work, factors that account for their improvement. Most Investigated Causal Questions in Clinical Research - ✅ 1) Does factor X cause a disorder?
- Is cause A more influential than cause B?
- How does family communication & structure affect family members?
- How does a disorder affect the quality of a person's life?
- Does treatment X alleviate a disorder?
- Is treatment X more helpful than no treatment at all?
- Is treatment A more helpful than treatment B?
- Why does treatment X work?
- Can an intervention prevent abnormal functioning? 3 features included in experiments to guard against confounds -
✅ 1) Control group
- Random assignment
- Masked design (blind design) experiment - ✅ A research procedure in which a variable is manipulated & the effect of the manipulation on another variable is observed. independent variable (IV) - ✅ Is manipulated to determine if it has an effect on another variable. dependent variable (DV) - ✅ Is expected to change as the IV is manipulated. confound - ✅ A variable other than the IV that is also acting on the DV. The Control Group - ✅ -In an experiment, researchers divide participants into 2 groups. -The control group consists of research participants who are NOT exposed to the IV but whose experience is similar to the experimental group (participants who ARE exposed to the IV). -To guard against confounds, experimenters provide all participants, control & experimental, with experiences that are identical in every way, except for the IV. -By comparing the 2 groups, an experimenter can better determine the effect of the IV. control group - ✅ Participants who are not exposed to the IV. experimental group - ✅ Participants who are exposed to the IV under investigation. A Random Assignment - ✅ -Researchers must watch out for differences in the makeup of the experimental & control groups since those differences may confound a study's results. -EX: In a therapy study, the experimenter may unintentionally put wealthier participants in the experimental group & poorer ones in the control group. -This difference, rather than their therapy, may be the cause of the greater improvement later found among the experimental participants. -To reduce the effects of preexisting differences, experimenters use random assignment. -This refers to any selection procedure that ensures every participant in the experiment is as likely to be placed in 1 group as the other. -Researchers might assign people to groups by flipping a coin or picking names out of a hat. random assignment - ✅ A selection procedure that ensures participants are randomly placed either in the control group or in the experimental group. Masked Design/Blind Design - ✅ -Participants may bias an experiment's results by trying to please/help the experimenter.
