Researching Abnormality 189
know before generalizing from her results to
other people with compulsive gambling?Summary of Research
Challenges to
Understanding
Abnormality
Many studies that focus on neurological fac-
tors are correlational and so do not reveal
how neurological factors may give rise to psy-
chological disorders. Neuroimaging studies
may indicate differences in brain structure or
function between those with a psychological
disorder and those without a disorder. How-
ever, it is not always clear how such differ-
ences contribute to a disorder.
Self-reports of patients or reports by
others may be biased in what is paid atten-
tion to, remembered, or reported. In addi-
tion, participants may respond differently to
questions that are asked during an interview
and those that are presented on a question-
naire. Researchers must take care in phrasing
questions in order to minimize misinterpreta-
tion and various types of biases.Challenges in Researching Neurological Factors
also create challenges for studying other
types of factors. Such challenges include
experimenter-influenced biases, such as ex-
perimenter expectancy effects (which can be
reduced with a double-blind design) and reac-
tivity. A major challenge for cross-cultural re-
search on psychopathology is the diffi culty of
translating words or concepts across cultures.Thinking like a researcher
Suppose that you are investigating pyromania—
the intense urge to start fi res. Your participants
come from two groups: those who’ve been
arrested for arson, and those who have inter-
acted in a chat room for people with urges to
start fi res. To collect your data, you could either
have participants complete an anonymous sur-
vey online or arrange to interview them over the
phone. Discuss biases that might uniquely affect
each method and biases that might affect both.
How could you try to minimize these biases?
Suppose you had some participants who agreed
to have images taken of their brains while they
imagined lighting fires: How might you, as a
researcher, use the neuroimaging information?Summary of
Researching Treatment
When studying biomedical treatments, re-
searchers should try to determine the extent
to which a placebo effect—rather than a true
drug effect—influences the results. Many of
the challenges that arise in studying biomedi-cal treatments, such as placebo effects and
attrition, also arise when studying psycho-
logical treatments. A treatment may be effec-
tive because of common factors, as well as
because of specifi c factors that are unique to
that treatment. In general, research has dem-
onstrated that therapy is more helpful than
no treatment. Although the Dodo bird verdict
found no one form of therapy superior overall,
some specific therapies are better for some
particular disorders.
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are de-
signed to investigate the efficacy of specific
factors or treatments. RCTs typically involve
manual-based treatment; some RCTs may have
limited generalizability because of their exclu-
sion criteria, homogenous samples, and other
factors. Results of well-designed and well-
conducted studies may indicate whether a par-
ticular treatment is empirically supported for a
specifi c disorder. The results of research gen-
erally suggest a dose-response relationship.Neurological Factors Researching Treatments That Target
factors reveals that matching patients and ther-
apists by ethnicity, gender, or age does not sys-
tematically alter the effectiveness of therapy.
For patients with a strong preference, however,
matching may lead to a better outcome. Any
successful treatment, whatever type of neu-
ropsychosocial factor it targets, also affects the
other factors through feedback loops, inducing
positive change. This is also true of change that
arises because of the placebo effect.Thinking like a researcher
Based on a survey, County Community Col-
lege has found that 23% of their first-year
students have anxiety or depression severe
enough to meet the DSM-IV-TR criteria. The
college would like to institute a treatment
program for these students. In fact, the staff
at the counseling center plans to conduct
a research study and offer several different
types of treatment: medication (if appropri-
ate), CBT with an individual therapist, and
CBT in group therapy. Students can sign up
for whichever type of treatment they prefer
and can even receive more than one type of
treatment. The results will be recorded and
used to guide how treatment is provided in
the future. Is this study a randomized clinical
trial—why or why not? What are some poten-
tial problems with the research design of this
study? To learn whether each of the treat-
ments is helpful to students, what questions
should be asked of the students before and
after the study?Key Terms
Scientifi c method (p. 154)
Data (p. 154)Replication (p. 155)
Hypothesis (p. 155)
Theory (p. 155)
Predictions (p. 155)
Experiments (p. 156)
Independent variable (p. 156)
Dependent variable (p. 156)
Confounding variables (confounds)
(p. 157)
Control group (p. 158)
Bias (p. 158)
Random assignment (p. 159)
Sampling bias (p. 159)
Population (p. 159)
Sample (p. 159)
Internal validity (p. 159)
External validity (p. 159)
Correlation (p. 160)
Correlation coeffi cient (p. 160)
Statistically signifi cant (p. 160)
Epidemiology (p. 162)
Longitudinal studies (in studies of
psychopathology) (p. 162)
Case studies (in studies of
psychopathology) (p. 163)
Single-participant experiments (p. 164)
Meta-analysis (p. 166)Response bias (p. 171)
Social desirability (p. 172)
Experimenter expectancy effect (p. 173)
Double-blind design (p. 173)
Reactivity (p. 173)
Placebo effect (p. 176)
Attrition (p. 176)
Common factors (p. 177)
Specifi c factors (p. 178)
Analogue study (p. 179)
Randomized clinical trial (RCT) (p. 181)
Allegiance effect (p. 182)
Dose-response relationship (p. 184)More Study Aids
For additional study aids related to this
chapter, go to:
http://www.worthpublishers.com/rosenbergkknowbefore generalizingfromherresultsto caltreatmentssuchasplaceboeffectsand Replication(p 15 5)