Clinical Psychology Notes

Clinical psychology

Definition of the application

• Clinical psychology is the study of mental health and well-being and includes the study of mental health conditions and disorders.

• Clinical psychology aims to classify and diagnose, explain and treat mental health conditions or disorders, to reduce psychological distress and enhance and promote psychological well-being.

• Clinical psychologist work in a range of settings including hospitals, health centres, community mental health teams, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and social services. They work with children and adults with mental and physical health problems, including anxiety, depression, relationship problems and addictions.

• They undertake clinical needs assessments using psychometric tests, interviews and direct observations of behaviour. They deliver and evaluate the effectiveness of therapy, counselling and advice.

• Clinical psychologists often work as part of a team with, social workers, medical practitioners and other health professionals. Most of them work for the National Health Service, which has clearly defined career structure, but some work in private practice.

• The work is often directly with people, both individually or in groups, assessing their needs and providing therapies based on psychological theories and research. Some clinical psychologists also work as trainers, teachers and researchers at universities.

How science works

Primary and secondary data

Primary data

• Collected first hand by the researcher for a specific research purpose. It can be qualitative or quantitative.

• An example of qualitative primary data is Brown et al. 1986 who interviews pps and information was collected about self-esteem, life events and perceived social support over the course of the longitudinal study.

• An example of quantitative primary data was encountered in Castner et al. (1998) where a study of rhesus monkeys later exposed whilst in the uterus to radiation to see whether this led to symptoms of schizophrenia later in life; here the monkeys were observed for signs of hallucinations (a nominal scoring system was used such as a tally chart).

• The monkeys were also given cognitive tests to see whether exposure to radiation led to disordered thinking. These tests would have led to ratio data in the form of scores on a standardised psychological tests and this is also a form of primary data collection.

Secondary data

• This means that someone else has already collected the information, for a different purpose and the information have been stored on record for use by other researchers. The researcher will re-analyse this second hand data for a new purpose.

• Results of psychological studies are classed as secondary data and often a researcher will conduct an in-depth review of the data in the area of interest before embarking on his or her own primary data collection.

• In clinical psychology, secondary data might include medical records made by doctors including diagnosis of disorders or how a patient has responded to treatment options. It could also include school reports which provide insight into an individual's life before the onset of a disorder.

• A specific example of the use of secondary data in clinical psychology was Gottesman and Shields (1966) use of pre-existing diagnoses of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders in their twin pairs from Bethlem and Maudsley hospital.

Using both types of data

Gottesman and Shields (1966) used both types of data in their study to see if schizophrenia is inherited. First, they found out the mental health of pairs of identical and non-identical twins by accessing hospital records for twin where at least one of the pair had been diagnosed with a mental disorder. This was using secondary data. They then interviewed the twins, as adults, to assess their mental health and to find out the course of their mental disorder. When interviewing they were gathering primary data. They gathered quite a lot of information about the twins and then drew conclusions about how often when at least one twin had schizophrenia or some related disorder; the other had been diagnosed with it as well.

Evaluation of primary and secondary data

Primary strengths

• Gathered of intended purpose therefor likely to be more focused on that purpose, secondary data taken from another source and have often been gathered for a different reason. E.g. Gottesman and shields (1966) had to discount some of their pairs of twins because they could not be sure whether they were monozygotic or dizygotic twins, which affected their study.

• Primary data tends to be more valid in that they are gathered first hand and any operationalizing is done carefully with the purpose in mind so the data are more likely to represent real life. Secondary data if they are statistics from surveys, which they often are might not be valid if used as if they are about individuals. However if the secondary data was originally primary data from another study, then they might well have been gathered validly.

• Primary data is more likely to have credibility as they are gathered for a specific purpose and analysed with that purpose in mind. Secondary data are likely to have been gathered with one purpose in mind and when used in a 'secondary' fashion they may not be seen to have credibility.

• Primary data are analysed directly by the researchers, whereas secondary data may already have been analysed, which can bring in an element of subjectivity. However, secondary data can be 'raw' data and not previously analysed.

• Primary data are gathered at the time of the study, whereas secondary data is likely to be gathered some time previously, which mean primary data are more likely to be valid in the sense of being up to date.

Secondary strengths

• Secondary data are cheaper because they are already there. Primary data tend to be expensive because the study has to be run completely, including finding the pps, developing the research method and setting...

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