They found that there was a high inter-rater reliability which showed that the diagnosis of phobia is reliable. However they only looked at social phobias and didn’t consider any specific phobias therefore it cannot be generalised meaning that it is low in external validity. Also they only used interviews which means there are issues with self-report data. Social desirability bias could also occur as the participants may act in a certain way to make themselves look better even though it’s not necessarily their true behaviour. The other way of examining reliability is through test re-test, which is
Introducing an ally who resisted the majority caused conformity levels to drop sharply (5%). The presence of an ally makes an individual feel more confident and better able to stand up to the majority. Asch also discovered that people are better able to resist pressure to conform if the decision has a moral dimension. For Asch’s participants, the costs of conforming were not particularly great given the insignificance of the task. However if the behaviour is judged as immoral such as joining others in cheating there is less evidence of conformity as the costs are perceived as greater.
A higher response rate can be obtained if follow-up questionnaires are sent, but this can add to the cost and time. However, some sociologists may choose to use questionnaires as there is no need to recruit and train interviewees thus saving costs. Another reason as to why some sociologists choose not to use questionnaires when conducting research is because of the fact that questionnaires are snapshots of social reality of the time when the respondents answer the questionnaires. This means that they fail to produce valid pictures as they do not capture how people’s attitudes can change over time. On the other hand, questionnaires tend to be used by sociologists as they provide less ethical issues than other research methods.
Quality Improvement (QI) can lead to a general approach to the measurable improvement of patient care. Quality improvement uses specialized plans and principles that guarantees quality of care for patients in healthcare facilities. Quality outcomes centers on quality management principles. This report will cover the fundamentals of Quality Improvement. This report will also explain the importance of stakeholders an how quality is identified.
Usually the most effective treatment would be the approach that combines psychological and psychopharmacologic approaches. Medication therapy is somewhat helpful in treating the panic attacks but should be used as a short-term solution only. “Clinicians should be especially watchful of the individual becoming psychologically or physiologically addicted to certain anti-anxiety medications, such as Xanax.” (www.psychcentral.com) Psychotherapy for GAD needs to be oriented toward Tom’s low-level, ever-present anxiety. Many times anxiety is often accompanied by inadequate planning skills, high stress levels, and difficulty in relaxing.
However, token economy has issues, such as that you could argue that you are taking away patient’s basic rights to use as rewards. Another criticism which shows why token economy may not be and appropriate and effective therapy is that it has low ecological validity; it may not transfer into the real world. Once patients are away from institutions, they often discarded desirable behavior as there are no longer any rewards to reinforce it. Another disadvantage is the ethical issues surrounding the use of behavioral therapy. It could be argued it doesn't really help the patient; it just makes their behavior more acceptable to others.
With this being the case, antipsychotic medications often have side effects that need to be monitored regularly by the health professionals (Young et al, 2011). Compliance is often a challenge with patients either because of the unmanageable side effects they experience or through limited insight. It is a role of the health professionals involved in the care to closely monitor this behaviour, as the effectiveness of the treatment may be affected (Young et al, 2011). Keller, Drexler &Lichtenberg (2009) discuss the benefits of treating paranoid schizophrenia with atypical antipsychotic medication clozapine and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). However both forms of treatment are linked with harsh side effects.
Knowledge of ethnic differences alone does not help counselors be more effective. The knowledge must be turned in to actual tactics. If a counselor takes the over simplified information that minority groups prefer a more directive approach to counseling and puts that in to practice, they will be ultimately ineffective as a counselor because that is not what counseling is all about. Changing counseling practice to match the merely presumed needs of a group of clients should not mean abandoning good counseling work. When a counselor is too directive in attempt to fulfill the needs of the minority groups in such a way as to become more assertive and directive, they are watering down the principles of good counseling and will be ineffective because the client will not gain the ability to resolve their own
One method they use is an affirmative action policy. Implementing such policy in a state will help reduce the problem in a wide view; however, within the society, people will always suffer racism in small matters. This means people will be declined social issues at the community level, despite the implementation of the policy at the national level. Likewise, many people support the use of ethics in controlling racism and yet they do not consider the practice at the community level. Racism starts at the ground level, limiting people from benefiting from the social benefits.
The reliability of the diagnosis of schizophrenia is bases on the extent to which different psychiatrists can agree on the same diagnosis of a patient and the validity is based on the extent to which psychiatrists can agree on what (the diagnosis of) schizophrenia actually is. The existence of classification systems such as the DSM or ICD claim to lead to a greater agreement on the diagnosis of schizophrenia. The different classification systems are each used in different cultures: ICD in the UK and DSM in the US. However the use of different systems of classification has problems because even though (theoretically) they both show diagnosis of SZ, they both describe schizophrenia in different ways. This is shown in a follow up study of Whaley’s inter rater reliability correlation of +.11, by Copeland et al.