Careers and Research in Health Psychology
Careers and Research in Health Psychology
September 16, 1999
The Biopsychosocial Perspective
Biomedicine vs. the BPS Perspective
Treat a disease and you may win or you may lose; treat the whole person and you win every time, no matter what the outcome… Patch Adams
Health Psychology’s Perspectives
The BPS Perspective
The Life-Course Perspective
Cohort effects
The Sociocultural perspective
The Gender perspective
Career Issues: Roles and Training
3 roles
Teachers
Research scientists
Applied clinicians
Training
Ph.D. or Psy.D. programs
Career Issues: Where Do Health Psychologists Work?
Conducting/Evaluating Health Psychology Research
Scientific and Not-so-Scientific Reasoning
Faulty intuition
Overconfidence
Belief bias
Confirmation bias
Hindsight bias
Scientific Reasoning
Skepticism
Empiricism
Objectivity
Openness to alternative explanations
Self-correcting
replication
Humility
Principle of Parsimony
Conducting Research in Health Psychology
The Role of Theory
A set of related assumptions from which testable hypotheses can be drawn
Theories organize data and guide research
Hypotheses create operational definitions of independent variables and dependent variables
The Research Loop
Descriptive Research
Observational Studies
Naturalistic observation
Field studies vs. lab studies
Case studies
Self-Report Studies
Surveys and questionnaires
Interviews
Correlation v. Causation
Correlation coefficient
-1.0 < r < + 1.0
Strength (absolute value)
Direction (sign: positive/negative)
Positive Correlation
Negative Correlation (r = -.70)
No Correlation (r = 0)
Correlation and Causation
Experimental Research
cause-effect relationships between independent variables and dependent variables
Between Groups Design
At least 2 groups tested on the effects of at least 2 levels of at least one independent variable
Experimental group (e.g. drug)
Control group (e.g. placebo)
Dependent variable (hypertension)
Within Subjects (Groups) Design
Each subject serves as his/her own control
Quasi-Experimental Research
Ex post facto design
Compares two groups that differ on the independent variable under study at the start of the study
Independent variable is not manipulated
E.g. sedentary vs. active individuals and CHD
Other ex post facto variables: age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status
Lifespan Change Methods
Cross-sectional study
Cohort effects
Longitudinal study
Cross-sequential study
Epidemiological Studies
Observational in nature
Cannot establish cause and effect
Determining associations between specific risk factors and disease
risk factors—characteristic or condition that occurs more often in people with a disease than in people free from the disease
Test whether hypotheses drawn from other studies are consistent with epidemiological data (e.g. identifying
Provide a basis for evaluating different preventive procedures
Areas of Epidemiological Study
Observational Methods
Retrospective study (retro-backward)
Also called case-control studies. Compare background risk factors in cases of a disease with controls
Prospective study
Also called cohort studies. Follow healthy people forward in time.
Framingham Heart Study
Nurses Health Study
Prospective Study of 250 medical students/MDs followed 25 years)
Epidemiological Methods
Natural Experiments
Similar to ex post facto design. Two groups of people naturally divided themselves into those exposed to a pathogen and those not exposed.
Clinical Trials
Similar to experiment. Randomly assigns subjects to two or more treatment groups
Example of Epidemiological Research
The Alameda County Study
Large community trial begun in 1965 to identify certain health practices that related to mortality and morbidity
People who practiced 6 or 7 basic health-related behaviors had lower mortality and morbidity rates than those who practiced zero to 3 of these behaviors
getting enough sleep; eating breakfast; rarely eating between meals; using alcohol in moderation or not at all; not smoking; exercising regularly; maintaining ideal weight
Validating Research
Validity & reliability of observations/measures
Wording of survey questions (framing effects)
NYT study: “oppose abortion” v. favor “protecting the rights of the unborn child”
Avoiding Sampling Error
Samples, populations
Representative v. unrepresentative (biased samples)
Random samples/stratified samples
Sample size
Validating Research
Observer-expectancy effect
Subject-expectancy
Blind and double-blind controls
Standardizing (“norming”) tests
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