PSYC201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Body Language, Evidence-Based Practice, Randomized Controlled Trial
2 Jun 2018
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PSYC201 Week 2:
Part 1: Theory Topic – evidence based practice in psychology
• How do we know what works and what is marketing or a myth?
• How to decide what to use?
o The problem = there are all sorts of therapies out there
• APA Task Force definition
o Evidence-based practice in psychology is the integration of the best
available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient
characteristics, culture and preferences
• EBPP – what are the dangers of not using this?
o Ethical issues
o Might not be beneficial for long-term problems such as trauma
• Common errors when looking at evidence
o Reliance on personal anecdotes and individual cases e.g. ‘that child
made such an amazing recovery’
o Confusing client satisfaction with clinical improvement e.g. ‘the
family reported that they found the treatment very helpful, and that
they would recommend it to others’
o Failure to appreciate resilience and natural change over time e.g. ‘after
three months she was no longer depressed’
o Guru effect in choosing treatment e.g. ‘he has 20 years experience and
specialized training’
• What to look for in practice
o Interventions that have at least some scientific, empirical research for
their efficacy with the target population
o Evidence may be based on a variety of research designs e.g.
randomized clinical trial, controlled studies without randomization,
open trials, multiple baseline, single case study designs
o Quality of empirical support is important e.g. number of RCTs,
replication by independent groups, sampling, size, comparison
treatment, effect size
• EBPP – the RCT
o Participants are randomly allocated to either an intervention or control
group – this allows the effect of the intervention to be studies in groups
of people who are the same, except for the intervention being studied
o Any difference observed can be attributed to the treatment rather than
other confounding factors (e.g. bias or chance).
• EBPP – Peer review process
o Look for studies that are published in peer reviewed journals
o The publication process is used to check the quality and importance of
research studies – it provides a wider check on the quality and
interpretation of a study by having other experts in the field review the
research and conclusions
• Efficacy vs. effectiveness
o Efficacy = focuses on whether an intervention works under ideal and
controlled circumstances and looks at whether the intervention has any
impact at all
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