Introduction to Clinical Psychology - Essay Example

It is important to gather valid epidemiological data from these regions so as to come up with noteworthy interventions and timely planning. Without validating the posttraumatic scale and depression checklist, wrong epidemiological data would be gathered leading to inaccurate interventions and planning. 2) Why do the researchers include assessments of exposure to war, abduction, spirit possession, and functioning in the local environment (see Table 1) in screening for PTSD? How does this affect the validity of PTSD assessment?

Post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, as the name suggests refers to a myriad of symptoms that arise as a result of being exposed to a particular traumatic experience. This experience sticks in the memory of the afflicted, and continues to torture them long after they separate. Normally, when the affected are exposed to the same stimuli, they react in a very disturbing way. It is important that the researchers have included exposure to war, spirit possession, abduction and functioning in the local environment as a screening tool for PTSD since all these factors are indices and triggers of PTD.

The PTSD is valid in the sense that the factors all have a likelihood of causing trauma in adults. 3) How do the researchers assess the reliability of the PDS and DHSCL screening scales? Are they adequately reliable? PDS and DHSCL are not adequate methods of validating data gathered. After validating the data using PDS and DHSCL, the researchers compare the findings using the expert methods of validating data i.e. use of the Clinic Administered PTSD scale and the Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview Depression section.

Comparing these two sets of data will be essential because it enables the researchers to validate their data accurately. 4) What are the Cohen’s kappa values reported by the authors? Please include values for PDS and expert clinician diagnosis, and for DHSCL and expert diagnosis. What does each of these values mean in this context? The kappa values indicated by the authors are 0.39 for PTSD only; 0.44 for cutoff score only; 0.51 for cutoff score and PTSD criteria all at cutoff 15. When the cutoff is 16, the values for kappa at cutoff score and cutoff with PTSD are 0.46 and 0.54 respectively.

For a cutoff score of 17, the values are 0.42 and 0.45 respectively. Kappa values above 0.75 are indicative of excellent agreement beyond chance between various researchers. Between 0.4 and 0.75 implies that there is intermediate agreement while a kappa value below 0.40 implies that there is poor judgment between researchers which would lead to a poor diagnosis. 5) Define sensitivity and specificity. How does using a PDS cutoff score of 17, rather than 16, change sensitivity and specificity (see Table 2)?

How will this change the rate of false positives and false negatives in screening for PTSD in the population? Sensitivity in a quantitative study refers to the probability that those with positive traits will be called positive, i.e. the ability of a study to give positive findings when the person has disease. Therefore, sensitivity refers to the proportion of positives (those with disease) that a test is able to detect. Specificity on the other hand refers to the ability of a test to give negative findings when a person has no disease i.e. the