174 CHAPTER 5
Reactivity can also occur when investigators observe
family functioning. Suppose you were studying interaction
patterns in families in which a parent is depressed. If the
family members know that they are being observed (or at
least the parents do), it is possible that this will change
their behavior. Simply by giving you permission to
observe their behavior, they may subtly change what they
do and say. Thus, the behavior you observe may end up being
different than it otherwise would have been.Effects of Community Standards on
Individual Behavior
Different communities can have different views of what
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are “normal” and “ab-
normal.” These community views, or standards, in turn af-
fect individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. However,
as we have discussed earlier in this book, behavior that is
“normal” in one context may not be so in another. Researchers and clinicians recognize
the infl uence that community and cultural context can create and try to address these
effects. For example, some widely administered tests, such as the MMPI-2, provide
different norms on the basis of age, gender, ethnicity, education level, and occupation,
against which individual participants can be compared. Such norms then allow research-
ers to compare study participants to the population from which they were drawn.Cultural Differences in Evaluating Symptoms
Some researchers compare and contrast a given disorder in different cultures. Such
studies can help distinguish universal symptoms from symptoms that are found only
in certain cultures. Consider that some people in every culture may develop phobias,
and so they fear specifi c stimuli or circumstances, but which particular specifi c stimuli
or circumstances they fear tends to vary across cultures. For instance, people in India
are twice as likely as people in England to have phobias of animals, darkness, and bad
weather (types of specifi c phobias, discussed in Chapter 7), but are only half as likely
to have phobias related to social matters (Chambers, Yeragani, & Keshavan, 1986).
Assessing psychological or social factors in other cultures can be challenging
for researchers. Many words and concepts do not have exact equivalents across
languages, making full translation impossible. Even when two cultures share
a language, the meaning of a word may be different in each culture. For example,
when a comprehensive set of interview questions was translated into Spanish and
administered to residents of Puerto Rico and Mexico, 67% of the questions had to
be changed because the meanings of some of the Spanish words were understood
differently by the two populations (Kihlstrom, 2002b).Although reactivity may be decreased by observing
participants via video camera, they can still be
aware that they are being observed by others and
modify their behavior accordingly.David Young-Wolff/PhotoEdit Inc.
Key Concepts and Facts About Research Challenges to Understanding Abnormality
- Many studies that focus on neurological factors are correlational
and so do not reveal how neurological factors may give rise to
psychological disorders. They reveal only that certain neurologi-
cal factors are associated with some disorders. - Neuroimaging studies are becoming more common, and these
studies may indicate differences in brain structure or function
between those with a psychological disorder and those without
a disorder. However, it is not always clear how such differences
contribute to a disorder. - Self-reports of patients or reports by others may be biased in
what is paid attention to, remembered, or reported. In addition,
participants may respond differently to questions that are asked
during an interview and those that are presented on a question-
naire. Moreover, participants may misunderstand the intent of
a question and hence answer in way that distorts the results.
Researchers must take care in phrasing questions in order to
minimize misinterpretation and various types of biases.- Challenges in studying social factors can also create challenges
in studying other types of factors. Such challenges include
experimenter-infl uenced biases, such as experimenter expectancy
effects (which can be reduced with a double-blind design) and reac-
tivity. A major challenge for cross-cultural research on psychopathol-
ogy is the diffi culty of translating words or concepts across cultures.