Participation in Research

Justify your answers with appropriate reasoning and research and comment on the postings of at least two peers.

5 sentences for each student 

Discussion: Participation in Research

Jane, a military psychologist, wants to examine two types of treatments for depression in a group of military personnel who have suffered the loss of their legs. She has only 20 men to work with.

What would be the best research design for the study and why?

I think that Jane should use the with-in study because she has 20 subjects that can be divided into two groups, that way she can conduct one experiment on both groups exposing them to all the different conditions for the independent variable in her study (Lewandowski et al., 2019).

What are some issues that Jane needs to consider before starting the study?

Jane should consider getting written consent from all participants, do a literature review about depression, consider factors that can influence the outcome of the study, and develop good research questions, and form a hypothesis (Lewandowski et al., 2019).

What is a longitudinal study?

A longitudinal study is an observational study that is conducted on the same subjects over weeks, months, or even years to detect any changes that may occur.

What are the benefits and challenges associated with a longitudinal study?

The benefits of this type of study are that it allows a researcher to observe their subjects in real-time so that the researcher can better establish a sequence of events that will allow the researcher to gain insight into the cause-and-effect relationships. It also allows the researcher to eliminate the risk of recall bias (Lewandowski et al., 2019).

The challenge of a longitudinal study is that these types of studies are time-consuming and expensive, they require a significant commitment and resources to be effective. These studies run the risk of participants dropping out of the experiment which will result in the conclusion of the study being invalid (Lewandowski et al., 2019).

The article Sub-Types of Safety Behaviors and their Effects on Social Anxiety Disorder by authors (Gray et al., 2019), is a between study design with the aim that examines whether certain safety behaviors are specific to (SAD) social anxiety disorder and the causal role of such safety behaviors. Three groups of individuals were compared, the social anxiety group of 106 subjects ages 20-56, (M=33.27, SD=8.38, 50.0% male). The post-traumatic stress disorder group that had 28 individuals, ages 20-59, (M= 32.57, SD= 10.44, 35.7% male), and the non-patient control group that had 59 individuals with no psychiatric disorder, ages 22-52, (M=35.10, SD= 9.50, 42.4% male). The hypothesis was tested using ANOVAs with post-hoc comparisons (Gray et al., 2019), a between-group analysis was used to compare the three groups on measures of depression and anxiety as well as basic demographics. The study results indicate for table one that the mean and standard deviation showed a significant difference for anxiety and depression measures. Suggesting that individuals with SAD scored higher than individuals with PTSD and that both groups scored higher than the control group (Gray et al., 2019).

The article Effectiveness and Underlying Mechanisms of a Group-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Indicative Prevention Program for Children with Elevated Anxiety Levels by authors (van Starrenburg et al., 2013), is a within-study with the aim are to conduct a Randomized Controlled Trial to examine the effectiveness of a Dutch version of Coping Cat as an indicative group-based program. The second aim is to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying effectiveness. The Coping Cat will be tested in Dutch primary school children grades five through eight (ages 7 to 13) with elevated levels of anxiety. This RCT has two conditions: 130 children will be randomly assigned to the experimental (N=65, Coping Cat) and control groups (N=65, no program) (van Starrenburg et al., 2013). All children and their mothers will be asked to complete baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up assessments. In addition, children in both the experimental and control group will be asked to complete 12 weekly questionnaires matched to the treatment sessions (van Starrenburg et al., 2013). The main outcome measure will be the child’s anxiety symptoms level (SCAS). Four potential mediators will be examined, namely active coping, positive cognitive restructuring, self-efficacy, and cognitions about the children’s coping ability. Randomization will be applied within schools using an equal number of experimental and control groups within one school (van Starrenburg et al., 2013). The children will be assigned either the treatment or the controlled condition and the participants will be stratified by age (young 7-9, old 10-12) and the numbers will be equally distributed over both conditions based on questionnaires (van Starrenburg et al., 2013).

Explain what practice and carryover effects are in the context of the within-subjects design study that you found. What steps did the researchers take to reduce these effects?

Both studies included variables that could influence the study to make sure that the study would be effective and excluded any variables that would cause the study to be invalid.

References

Gray, E., Beierl, E. T., & Clark, D. M. (2019). Sub-types of safety behaviors and their effects on social anxiety disorder. PLOS ONE, 14(10), e0223165. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223165

Lewandowski, G. W., Ciarocco, N. J., & Strohmetz, D. (2019). Discovering the scientist within (2nd ed.) [Ebook]. McMillian Higher Education. vitalsourcebookshelf. ISBN;9781319107369

van Starrenburg, M., Kuijpers, R., Hutschemaekers, G., & Engels, R. (2013). Effectiveness and underlying mechanisms of a group-based cognitive-behavioral therapy-based indicative prevention program for children with elevated anxiety levels. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244x-13-183

Participation in Research

The best research design that Jane should use is the between-study design. The between-study design is most suitable for this research because she has two groups, and she only needs to test each group once, and all the participants have different levels of depression. Issues that Jane should consider before starting the study are protection of the trial subjects through ensuring informed consent before they are included in the study. Jane should also consider the quality of the data to be obtained. This will ensure the validity and credibility of the data.

A longitudinal study is correlational research that involves observing variables over a lengthy period. Some of the benefits of longitudinal research are that they are effective in determining patterns of variables over a long period and are highly flexible. However, the disadvantage of a longitudinal study is that the lengthy research time could increase the chances of unpredictable outcomes.

One of the studies that use between study design is titled “A Descriptive Study of Health, Lifestyle and Sociodemographic Characteristics and their Relationship to Known Dementia Risk Factors in Rural Victorian Communities” (Ervin,2015). The study aimed to determine existing rates of chronic disease and current lifestyle and sociodemographic factors, which may predispose the population to a higher risk of dementia (Ervin,2015).

The researchers used non-random and random sampling techniques to recruit residents from three shires in rural Victoria of Australia during this study (Ervin,2015). The sample collected was used to complete a survey on dementia health perceptions, pre-existing illnesses, health behaviors, and social activity in the community. The study that involved 1,474 participants came up with both positive and negative factors.

The positive aspects that were identified included social participation and low rates of smoking. The negative factors identified included low rates of physical activity, increased rates of obesity, and high rates of chronic conditions, which reflected considerable risk factors for dementia within these communities (Ervin,2015). The problems that arose during the study were order effects. The researchers reduced these challenges by systematically varying the order of conditions so that each condition is presented equally.

An example of an article used within study design is entitled “Limitations of within-person study designs.” This study advises against using within study design because of the high chances of having bias information (Nicholas,2013). The main problem that could arise is that any changes brought up in the course of the study could cause a bias response to the survey.

References

Ervin, Kaye & Pallant, Julie & Terry, Daniel & Bourke, Lisa & Pierce, David & Glenister, Kristen. (2015). A descriptive study of health, lifestyle and sociodemographic characteristics and their relationship to known dementia risk factors in rural victorian communities. AIMS Medical Science. 2. 246-260. 10.3934/medsci.2015.3.246.

Nicholas, J. M., Grieve, A. P., & Gulliford, M. C. (2013). Limitations of within-person study designs. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 66(12), 1429.