Conducting Research in CP

By: Yemataw Wondie, PhD

 Session Objectives
• Examine as to why clinical psychologists do
research
• Distinguish between efficacy and effectiveness
• Distinguish between statistical significance and
clinical significance
• Examine as to how clinical psychologists do
research
• Compare and contrast between internal validity
and external validity
Why do clinical psychologists do
research?
– Treatment outcome

– Assessment methods

– Diagnostic issues
– Professional issues

– Teaching and training issues

 Research on Treatment Outcome

• Efficacy
– The success of a particular therapy in a
controlled study conducted with clients who
meet specific criteria
– In short, how well a therapy works “in the
lab”
 Research on Treatment Outcome …
• Effectiveness
– The success of a therapy in actual clinical settings
in which client problems are not limited to
predetermined criteria
– In short, how well a therapy works “in the real
world”
– 1995 Consumer Reports survey of readers is an
example
• Generally positive toward psychotherapy, but scientific
rigor is questionable
 Research on Treatment Outcome …

• Statistical vs. clinical (“real world”)

significance
• Statistical significance doesn’t necessarily
mean clinical significance
 Research on Treatment Outcome …

• Internal validity
– The extent to which change in the DV is due to change in
the IV
– Generally high in efficacy studies

• External validity
– Generalizability of result
– Generally high in effectiveness studies
 Research on Assessment Methods

• Examples can include:

– Validation or expanded use of assessment
tools
– Establishing psychometric data for
assessment tools
– Comparing multiple assessment tools to
each other
– Development of assessment tools
 Research on Diagnostic Issues

• Examples can include:

– Examine reliability or validity of diagnostic constructs
(e.g. dimensionality of paranoid p.d)
– Examine relationships between disorders (e.g. eating
disorder with OCD)
– Prevalence or course of disorders

– Others
 Research on Professional Issues

• Examples can include psychologists’:

– Beliefs
– Activities

– Practices
• Examples include ethical dilemmas and problems in
rural and urban settings
 Research on Teaching and Training
Issues
• Examples can include:
– Training philosophies
– Specific coursework
– Opportunities for specialized training
– Outcome of training efforts
– Comparison to training in similar disciplines
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research?
• The Experimental Method
– Observation of events

– Hypothesis
• Define independent and dependent variables

– Empirically test the hypothesis

– Alter hypothesis as necessary per results

 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …
• Quasi-experiments
– Used in place of true experiments when practical,
ethical, or other issues limit manipulations
– Less scientifically sound than true experiments,
but common in clinical psychology
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …
• Between-group designs
– Participants in different conditions receive entirely
different treatments
– Often, an experimental condition vs. a control
group
• Within-group designs
– Compare participants in a single condition to
selves at different points in time
• Mixed-group designs
– Combination of between- and within-group
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …

• Analogue designs
– Used when actual clinical populations or
situations can’t be accessed
– An approximation or simulation of the “real
thing”
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …
• Correlational designs
– Examine relationship between two or more
variables
– Causality cannot be determined

– Often used when experimental or quasi-

experimental designs are not feasible
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …
• Case studies
– Detailed examination of a single person or
situation; often very clinically relevant
– Often qualitative rather than quantitative
– Demonstrates the idiographic approach to
research (vs. nomothetic approach)
– Can inspire more systematic research
– ABAB design is one example
• Alternately apply and remove a treatment
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research?...
• Meta-analysis
– Statistical method of combining results of
separate studies into a single summary
finding
– Findings are translated into effect sizes
– Can quantitatively capture the trends of
many individual studies
– Examples include meta-analyses of
psychotherapy outcome
 How Do Clinical Psychologists Do
Research? …
• Cross-sectional designs
– Compare participants at a single point in time
– More efficient than longitudinal designs
• Longitudinal designs
– Compare participants at different points in time
– Less efficient than cross-sectional designs, but can
be more valid in assessing change across time
 Ethical Issues in Research in Clinical
Psychology
• Numerous APA ethical standards specifically
address research:
– Obtain informed consent
– Don’t coerce participation
– Use deception only when justified and necessary
– Minimize harm to participants
– Don’t fabricate or falsify data
– Assign authorship appropriately
– Share data with other researchers for verification