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Unit 4. Research Tools in Family Therapy

1. Briefly state the goals of therapy research.

• To understand the different forms of therapy
• process of therapy
• develop effective therapies for specific disorders

2. Outline the link between therapy and practice.

Research helps in developing effective therapies, examine specific therapies for specific disorders, to understand which patients will benefit from what kind of intervention.

Clinical Practice helps in opening up avenues for research questions and offers feedback to the researcher.

3. What are the ethical issues in using Assessment Tools?

• The examiner should have in mind to choose tests that are appropriate for both the particular purpose for which they are testing and also the persons to be examined;
• the tests are copyright protected and it is illegal to use them without the prior permission of the author; 
• they should be informed about the current research about the test and also be able to evaluate it’s technical merits with regard to such characteristics such as norms, reliability and validity; 
• they should draw conclusions carefully keeping in mind the other pertinent information about the individual; 
• the test results should be shared with the clients in such a way that it is readily understandable and free from technical jargon and labels

4. What is a research design? Name two types of designs.

It is a practical plan or a sketch of how to carry out a study. It has to be ethical, scientific and comprehensive. Research design has to specify what variable is being studied and simplifies the situation so that irrelevant influences in a study can be separated from objects of focus. The better a study is able to rule out implausible or alternate explanations to a particular phenomenon, the more methodologically sound it is. 

True experiments and Quasi experiments are two examples of research designs.

5. Define validity and reliability.

Reliability: Reliability is the consistency of a measurement, or the degree to which an instrument measures the same way each time it is used under the same condition with the same subjects. In short, it is the repeatability of your measurement. A measure is considered reliable if a person’s score on the same test given twice is similar. It is important to remember that reliability is not measured, it is estimated. There are different types of reliability like test-retest reliability, alternate form reliability and split half reliability.

Validity: The extent to which the test accurately measures what it is supposed to be measuring is called validity. A number of methods are available which demonstrate the fitness of particular tools. There are different types of validity like content validity, face validity, criterion related validity, construct validity.

6. State the criteria for a good assessment tool.

Criteria for a Good Measurement Tool are:

• good reliability, 
• validity and 
• norms available for the particular population to be used. 
• It also has to be easy to administer and score.

7. Name three scales used in family therapy research and marital therapy research.

1. Family Satisfaction Scale, 
2. Parent-Adolescent Communications Scale,
3. Marital Satisfaction Inventory

8. Outline the steps involved in conducting a research study.

1. Asking a research question; 
2. reviewing the relevant literature; 
3. planning a type of study which is scientific, ethical, comprehensive and feasible; 
4. selecting relevant tools based on the constructs that they measure, norms, validity and reliability; 
5. carrying out the study; 
6. analysis of results and 
7. discussing the results keeping mind the original research question.