clinical chap 6 reviewer

Empirical Research

Empirical Research

Research that is based on observation and experience, using evidence and data to support conclusions.

Treatment Outcome

The result or effectiveness of therapy, which clinical psychologists research to determine how well their therapies work.

Psychotherapy

A form of therapy that focuses on improving a person's mental health and well-being through talk therapy and other techniques.

Outcome Measure

The specific aspect or outcome of a client that is measured when assessing psychotherapy outcome.

Evaluative

An approach to measuring psychotherapy outcome that determines how well the therapy worked after it has ended.

Formative

An approach to measuring psychotherapy outcome that assesses how therapy is working while it is still ongoing, with the intent of making immediate adjustments.

Objectivity

The ability to make unbiased and impartial judgments or evaluations.

Stakeholders

Parties who have an interest in therapy outcome, such as clients, therapists, family members, employers, and society as a whole.

Efficacy

Refers to the success of a particular therapy in a controlled study conducted with clients who were chosen according to particular study criteria.

Effectiveness

Refers to the success of a therapy in actual clinical settings in which client problems span a wider range, and clients are not chosen as a result of meeting certain diagnostic criteria.

Controlled study

A study in which participants are often selected on the basis of meeting strict criteria and are randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group.

Clinical trial

A research study that compares the outcome for treated individuals with the outcome for individuals who receive alternate or no treatment.

Internal validity

Refers to the extent to which the change in the dependent variable is due solely to the change in the independent variable.

External validity

Refers to the generalizability of the research findings to different settings and populations.

Dissemination strategies

Efforts to promote therapies that have demonstrated effectiveness in treatment studies to large numbers of therapists.

Uptake

Refers to the acceptance and use of evidence-based therapies by therapists in clinical settings.

Accreditation standards

Standards set by accrediting bodies for graduate programs that emphasize evidence-based therapies.

Efficacy

The effectiveness or success of a particular form of therapy or treatment.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A specific type of anxiety disorder characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about a variety of everyday things.

Diagnostic Criteria

The specific symptoms and criteria that must be met in order to receive a diagnosis of a particular mental health disorder.

Comorbidities

The presence of two or more co-occurring mental health disorders or medical conditions in an individual.

Empirical Basis

The foundation of knowledge and evidence that is derived from scientific research and observation.

Gender

The social and cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations associated with being male or female.

Assessment Methods

The tools and techniques used by clinical psychologists to evaluate and measure various aspects of a client's mental health.

Development

The process of creating and refining new assessment instruments or tools.

Normative Data

Information that establishes the average or typical scores on an assessment tool for specific populations.

Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV)

An assessment tool used to diagnose mental health disorders in children through structured interviews with parents or caregivers.

Depressive Symptoms

The signs and symptoms associated with depression, such as persistent sadness, loss of interest, and changes in sleep and appetite.

Rating Scales

Tools used to measure and quantify the severity or frequency of specific symptoms or behaviors.

Self-report Questionnaire

A type of assessment tool in which individuals provide information about their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Reliability

The consistency and stability of the results obtained from an assessment tool.

Validity

The extent to which an assessment tool accurately measures what it is intended to measure.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)

The most widely used and psychometrically sound objective personality test.

Faking

The act of intentionally providing false information or responses on a test.

Diagnostic Issues

Research conducted by clinical psychologists to explore issues of diagnosis and categorization regarding psychological problems.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

A commonly diagnosed personality disorder characterized by extreme distrust and suspicion of others.

Categorical vs

The debate over whether paranoid personality is something an individual "has" or "doesn't have" (categorical) or something that exists on a spectrum (dimensional).

ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

A childhood disorder characterized by a pattern of defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior towards authority figures.

Gender-Specific Norms

The use of separate norms for boys and girls when assessing for ADHD or ODD.

Eating Disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by abnormal eating behaviors and distorted body image.

Personality Disorders

Long-term patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions that deviate from cultural expectations and cause significant distress or impairment.

Stability of Personality Disorders

The assumption that personality disorders remain stable over time.

Professional Issues

Research conducted by clinical psychologists to examine elements of their own profession.

Ethical Dilemmas

Moral conflicts or challenges faced by psychologists in their professional practice.

Integration of Client Religion into Therapy

The extent to which psychologists incorporate client religion into therapy.

Ethnic and Racial Differences

Discussions and considerations of ethnic and racial differences in psychotherapy.

Psychologists' Professional and Personal Lives

The influence of psychologists' professional lives on their personal and family lives.

Attitudes Toward Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Lifestyles

Psychologists' beliefs and attitudes towards non-heterosexual lifestyles.

Predoctoral Internships

Internship experiences completed by graduate students in clinical psychology and counseling psychology programs.

Dependent variables

Variables that are expected to change as a result of changes in the independent variables.

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs)

Experimental studies in clinical psychology that involve randomly assigning participants to different groups to test the outcome of a therapy.

Quasi-experimental designs

Research designs used in clinical psychology when random assignment is not possible, involving comparisons between groups that are not randomly assigned.

Between-group design

A research design in which participants in different conditions receive different treatments.

Control group

A group in a between-group design that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Mixed-group design

A research design that combines aspects of between-group and within-group designs.

Analogue designs

Research designs used in clinical psychology when the target population or situation cannot be accessed adequately, involving approximations or substitutes for the "real thing."

Correlational Methods

Studies that examine the relationship between two or more variables without identifying them as independent or dependent.

Causality

The concept that one variable causes changes in another, which cannot be concluded in correlational studies.

Negative Correlation

A correlation between two variables where they vary in an inverse way, as one increases, the other decreases.

Idiographic Approach

Emphasizing or revealing the unique qualities of each person in research.

Meta-Analysis

A statistical method of combining results from separate studies to create an overall effect size, providing a comprehensive analysis of a topic.

Meta-analysis

A methodological approach that combines the results of multiple studies on a similar topic to form an overall effect size.

Effect size

A common numerical language used in meta-analysis to make findings comparable and compatible.

Rotten Tomatoes

A popular website that uses individual movie reviews to calculate a single statistic, known as the "Tomatometer," to represent the overall quality of a movie.

Metacritic

Another popular website that uses individual movie reviews to calculate a single statistic, known as the "Metascore," to represent the overall quality of a movie.

Cognitive therapy

A type of therapy that was found to be more effective than no therapy and slightly more effective than other kinds of therapy in a meta-analysis on generalized anxiety disorder.

Remote cognitive-behavioral treatment

A type of treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder conducted through videoconference and other media, which was found to be as effective as face-to-face treatments in a meta-analysis.

Cross-sectional design

A research design that assesses or compares participants at one particular point in time.

Longitudinal design

A research design that emphasizes changes across time and makes within-group comparisons from one point in time to another.

Family support and depression

A longitudinal study found that higher family support predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms over a 23-year period.

Experience sampling

A high-tech method of data collection in which participants' behavior is tapped into in real time through the use of technology, such as sending e-mails to smartphones or using actigraphs.

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)

An Internet-based crowdsourcing marketplace run by Amazon that allows researchers to recruit participants for their studies.

Actigraphs

Devices similar to Fitbit trackers that are worn on participants' wrists to measure sleep quality.

Efficacy

Refers to how well a therapy works under controlled conditions with selected clients.

Effectiveness

Refers to how well a therapy works in "real-world" clinical settings with a wider variety of clients.

Control group

A group in an experiment that does not receive the experimental condition or treatment being studied, used for comparison purposes.

Correlational methods

Research methods used to establish a non-causal link between two variables.

Case studies

In-depth investigations of individuals or small groups that provide detailed clinical information.

Meta-analysis

A statistical method that combines the results of individual studies on the same research question to produce a single overall estimate of effect size.

ABAB design

A single-case experimental design in which the intervention is alternated with a baseline condition to assess the effects of the intervention.

Quasi-experimental design

A research design that lacks random assignment to groups, but still allows for comparisons between groups.

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs)

Research studies that randomly assign participants to different treatment conditions to assess the efficacy of interventions.

Treatment outcome

The result or effect of a therapy or intervention.

External validity

The extent to which research findings can be generalized to real-world settings and populations.