PSYC380 Chapter 2 - Research in Psychopathology

Chapter 2 for Exam 1 of PYSC380

Rigorous research study

The scientific method to ensure robust, unbiased, and well-controlled results, characterized by strong experimental design, transparent methodology, systematic analysis, clear interpretation, and thorough reporting.

Why should we care about scientific rigor?

Allows us to have effective, safe and reliable treatments, Accurate diagnosis, and ethical responsibility

Wakefield case study (harm associated with poor research)

1998: Published study claiming that MMR vaccine causes autism

Study flaws: Small, biased sample; no control (comparison) group; Unethical methods (unnecessary medical procedures with no ethical approach; Financial COI (funding from lawyers wanting to sue vaccine companies); Data manipulation; No actual evidence; No replication

Long term consequences of Wakefield’s fraud

Vaccine hesitancy increased; Increase of measles and preventable death; Rise of anti vaccine movement; Public distrust in science

Who is most effected by poor research?

• Marginalized and underrepresented communities

• Patients and healthcare consumers

• Children and adolescents

• People struggling with mental illness and disabilities

• The general public (when it goes viral)

• Individuals with low research literacy

Poor research: small sample sizes

Reduced generalizability: Cannot be applied as well to the general population

Increased random variation: Random fluctuations in data more likely to influence results

Lower statistical power: Less power to detect a real effect, which can lead to inconclusive results or false negatives

Poor research: Bias

Mis-diagnosis: Leads to flawed diagnostic criteria or assessment tools. Example: Racial ___ can lead mental health professionals to underestimate the distress experienced by black individuals

Ineffective treatment: Care provided from ___ research can cause treatments provided to be ineffective or even harmful. Example: overestimated the effectiveness of a particular therapy can make it apply more broadly and delay patients from getting a more suitable intervention

Treatment disparities: Implicit __ from researchers can lead to disparities which can effect type of care, level of empathy, and even speed of crisis response

Poor research: Cannot be replicated

Ineffective treatments: The original findings might be flukes, meaning that treatment based on this research could be ineffective. This waste time and resources and could potentially harm the patients.

Fueling pseudoscience: When scientific evidence is untrustworthy due to poor ___ it can create a vacuum filled by non evidence based practices.

Decreased public confidence: When the public learns, many published psychological findings cannot hold up. It can damage trust in mental health professionals and scientific authority in general.

Misinformation

False or misleading information shared without intent to deceive

Disinformation

False or misleading information spread to intentionally deceive or push an agenda

Replication crisis

The failure of many psychological studies to be successfully replicated

About 40% of studies replicate

Suggests that our findings may not be reliable and therefore not be used to shape therapy, policy or beliefs

Damages public trust in psych as a science

Why does replication fail?

Researchers have a lot of flexibility with data, which makes it easier to manipulate it

They only post significant findings

May engage in poor research practices just to get published and payed

Publication bias (why replication fails)

Journals do not post replications, only what’s new and exciting. They also never publish null findings, which means people don’t know that a study can’t replicate.

Dissemination crisis

The gap between psychological research and public access/distribution

No data = misinformation fills in the gaps

Why does dissemination fail?

Content is behind expensive paywalls, and it cost a lot of money for researchers to make their work publicly available, money they do not have

The content is not easy to understand

Research is more important than other psychological jobs, therefore there are not enough people practicing treatments that are being published

Experimental research designs

Involve the active manipulation of a variable (independent variable) to observe its effect on another variable (dependent variable) allowing for the establishment of a cause and effect relationship.

Ex: To test the effectiveness of a new drug, compare to a placebo (drug vs. control group)

To test a new teaching method, compare with a standard method (new vs. old technique)

Alternative research designs

Do not manipulate variables but instead measure them as they naturally occur

Ex. Observational - watching people in their natural environment.

Case study - An in depth examination of a specific subject, Phineas Gage most famous one, iron rod shot through into the brain, and by watching him we learned how the brain affects behavior.

Internal validity

The degree of confidence we have that the relationship being tested is not being influenced by other factors

Threats: Experimenter bias, confounds, methodological errors, maturation, testing effects, attrition and regression to the mean

External validity

The degree to which results of a study can be generalized beyond the study

Threats: Biased samples, situational factors, time, and context

Correlation

The degree to which two variables are related to each other

Positive correlation example: High life stress = high depression rates

Negative correlation example = High depression = lower activity

Control group

A group in a research study that does not receive the experimental treatment or intervention, serving as a baseline to compare against the experimental group.