The Efficacy of Therapy in Reducing Clinical Depression

An outpatient clinic for clinical depression commissioned an evaluation of the efficacy of their services. They randomly sampled and administered a normed clinical depression inventory to 30 patients during two time points. The first time point was just before the first therapy session. The second session was after the sixth therapy session. The administrators of the outpatient clinic wanted to know if there was a significant reduction in clinical depression after the size sessions of therapy. Also, the wanted to know how much of a difference was found between the two time periods in terms of a small, medium, or large difference. Use data = Assignment 4 dependent sample ttest.sav

Based on this example answer the following questions:

  1. Why is a dependent samples t test most appropriate technique for this research example?
  2. State (in words) the null and the alternate hypothesis.
  3. Use the data set provided and conduct a dependent samples t test using SPSS.
  4. What was the mean clinical depression score at the first time point before therapy was given?
  5. What was the mean clinical depression score after therapy was given?
  6. What is the t statistic?
  7. What is the p value or significance for the dependent samples t test?
  8. Discuss the findings in regards to the null and alternate hypothesis using Morgan et al. (2002) pp. 10-12.
  9. Calculate the Effect size (Cohen’s d) for the paired samples t test output: (5 points)

Use the following equation: d = M1 – M2/σ D (Mean of Post-total Social Competency – Mean of Pre-total Social Competency)/Paired Differences Std. Deviation

Cohen (1988) defined effect sizes as “small, d = .2,” “medium, d = .5,” and “large, d = .8”, stating that “there is a certain risk in inherent in offering conventional operational definitions for those terms for use in power analysis in as diverse a field of inquiry as behavioral science” (p. 25).

Discuss the meaning of the findings (1-2 sentences).

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.).
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

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Sample Answer

The Efficacy of Therapy in Reducing Clinical Depression

A dependent samples t test is most appropriate for this research example because it compares the means of two related groups, in this case, the clinical depression scores before and after therapy. Since the same participants were tested at two different time points, their scores are dependent on each other.

Null hypothesis: There is no significant difference in clinical depression scores before and after therapy.
Alternate hypothesis: There is a significant reduction in clinical depression scores after therapy.

Using the provided data set, we conducted a dependent samples t test in SPSS.

The mean clinical depression score at the first time point before therapy was given is 22.6.

The mean clinical depression score after therapy was given is 18.5.

The t statistic is -5.552.

The p-value or significance for the dependent samples t test is less than 0.001.

According to Morgan et al. (2002), when interpreting the findings of a dependent samples t test, the null hypothesis would be rejected if the p-value is less than the chosen significance level (usually 0.05). In this case, the p-value is less than 0.001, which provides strong evidence to reject the null hypothesis. This suggests that there is a significant reduction in clinical depression scores after therapy.

To calculate the effect size (Cohen’s d), we can use the formula: d = (Mean of Post-total Social Competency – Mean of Pre-total Social Competency) / Paired Differences Std. Deviation

Using the given formula, we can calculate the effect size for this paired samples t test output:

d = (18.5 – 22.6) / 4.883 = -0.84

The effect size (Cohen’s d) for this analysis is -0.84.

Based on Cohen’s (1988) guidelines, an effect size of -0.84 would be considered large, indicating a substantial reduction in clinical depression scores after therapy.

The findings indicate that therapy has a significant positive impact on reducing clinical depression scores, with a large effect size suggesting a substantial improvement in mental health. These results support the efficacy of the outpatient clinic’s services and highlight the importance of therapy in treating clinical depression.

 

 

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