Clinical psychologists do research to gain knowledge about psychological disorders
Treatment outcome is when clinical psychologists conduct research on how well their therapies work
Essential questions to ask when measuring therapy outcome:
How should psychotherapy outcome be measured?
What should be measured when assessing psychotherapy outcome?
When should psychotherapy outcome be measured?
Who should rate psychotherapy outcome?
Efficacy refers to the success of a particular therapy in a controlled study conducted with clients who were chosen according to particular study criteria
To test efficacy, participants are selected on basis of meeting strict diagnostic criteria, in that they lack comorbid diseases
Effectiveness refers to the success of a therapy in actual clinical settings in which client problems spam a wider range, and clients are not necessarily chosen as a result of meeting rigid diagnostic criteria
Effectiveness is how well it works in the real world
When it comes to effectiveness, the lack of scientific rigor leaves us unsure that the therapy is undoubtedly the factor that produced the outcome
When measuring the outcome of therapy in either an efficacy or effectiveness study, researchers must be careful to distinguish statistical significant from clinical (real-world) significance when interpreting results
Statistical tests can indicate whether a significant difference exists between two groups
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 result, the extent to which the same finding is valid for different settings and populations
Efficacy studies have high internal validity, but have low external validity
Effectiveness studies have high external validity, but low internal validity
Dissemination strategies are efforts to promote therapies that have demonstrated effectiveness in treatment studies to large numbers of therapists
Researchers must select clients who meet the DSM diagnostic criteria and whose diagnostic profiles are free of other complicating factors or comorbidities
Unfortunately, many studies lack participants of ethnic minorities, and the conclusions regarding efficacy are not necessarily applicable to those differing from the study's participants
Success of cultural adaptations can enable improvement in related problems including the fact that ethnic minorities simply receive less psychotherapy than those in the majority
There are continuing studies about assessment methods
Clinical psychologists also examine elements of their own profession through empirical research
Impostor syndrome is commonly experienced by graduate students - the belief that they believe they are not as capable as others
The experimental method involves a number of sequential steps: observation of events, hypothesis, experiment, analyzing the results
The independent and dependent variables are mentioned in the hypothesis
The independent variables are manipulated by the experimenter
The dependent variables are expected to change as a result of the independent variables, a measurable value.
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are when researchers test the outcome of a particular, manualized therapy on a particular diagnosis
RCTs begin with recruitment and selection of participants who meet criteria for the diagnosis
In RCTs, participants are randomly assigned to the experimental group that receives the therapy, or a control group that does not.
In RCTs, the control group may either get no treatment, be waitlisted, get a placebo or nonspecific treatment or receive a routine type of therapy
In RCTs, target variables are assessed at the outlet as baseline and at the end (e.g. measures of symptoms - frequency of panic attacks)
RCTs maximize internal validity by ensuring that improvements in patients are due to the therapy rather than external factors
RCTs also oversimplify clinical problems by reducing them to objective and easily measured symptoms - producing results that may not translate to the real world
Quasi-experiments estimate causal relationships and have participants that are grouped on non-random criteria.
Quasi-experiments do NOT have random assignment, and occur when there may be impractical or have ethical issues
Quasi experiments do not have good internal validity
Between-group designs are when participants in different conditions receive entirely different treatments
Between-group studies have two conditions or groups, one would be an experimental group, the other would be the control
Within-group designs involve comparisons of participants in a single condition at various points in time
In other words, within-group studies would see if the levels depend on the point in time they were assessed
Mixed-group designs combine traits, having both an experimental group and control group, all while measuring changes in all participants on a weekly basis