PSYC Chapter 2 Lecture PDF

Research in Psychopathology ​ Research in psychopathology ○​ Research in psychopathology aims to improve clinical practice ○​ Inaccuracy in the field can cause great distress ​ Flawed research, giant impact ○​ Lobotomies ○​ Conversion therapy ○​ Schizophre...

Research in Psychopathology ​ Research in psychopathology ○​ Research in psychopathology aims to improve clinical practice ○​ Inaccuracy in the field can cause great distress ​ Flawed research, giant impact ○​ Lobotomies ○​ Conversion therapy ○​ Schizophrenogenic mother ​ What do clinical researchers do? ○​ Search for a general, or nomothetic, understanding of the nature, causes, and treatments of psychopathology ○​ Use the scientific method ○​ Clinical practitioners, seek an idiographic, or individualistic, understanding of psychopathology ○​ Clinical researchers use many different types of research designs ​ Case studies ​ Correlational methods ​ Experimental methods ​ Case studies ○​ Detailed, interpretative description of a person’s life and psychological problems ○​ Strengths: ​ Tentative support for a theory ​ Challenge a theory’s assumptions ​ Introduce new therapeutic techniques ​ Opportunities to study unusual problems ○​ Limitations: ​ Biased observer ​ Low internal (correlation) and external validity (generalization) ​ Correlational and experimental methods ○​ General characteristics ​ Involves many individuals ​ Researchers apply procedures uniformly ​ Studies can be replicated ​ Use statistical tests to analyze results ​ Describing a correlation ○​ Association between two variables ○​ Correlation coefficient (r) ○​ From -1 to 1 ○​ Line of best fit ​ Guess the type of correlation ○​ Correlation between time spent exercising and depressive symptoms  ○​ Correlation between avoidance behaviors and anxiety symptoms ​ When can correlations be trusted? ○​ Statistically significant= the finding is unlikely to have occurred by chance ○​ Less than a 5% probability that findings are due to chance (p