Statistical Methods I: Exploring Relationships and Comparing Groups (990102) LAB EXERCISES Data: posttraumatic.sav Article: Bryant_2003.

pdf You are a psychologist who is treating patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event which results in psychological trauma. Diagnostic symptoms include re-experiencing original trauma(s), by means of flashbacks or nightmares; avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma; and increased arousal, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep. You used two types of therapy to help your patients: Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Supportive Counseling (SC). You would like to know which therapy helped your patients more and whether your results replicate those of Bryant et al, 2003, who already compared the two types of treatment. You used a psychological instrument (questionnaire) to measure the intensity of the trauma reexperience before the onset of therapy and two years after its end (on a scale from 1=low intensity of symptoms to 5=high intensity of symptoms). Use 2 d.p. when reporting the results. Q1. Report the following characteristics of your sample (attach tables from SPSS output to show how you obtained these results: 1.1 number of patients (N=), percentage male/female 1.2 age (M SD, minimum- maximum) Q2. You would like to investigate whether the mean intensity of trauma re-experience became weaker after compared to before treatment onset in all patients (i.e. you would like to find out if the therapy works). 2.1. Specify the variables DV IV 2.2. Specify the hypotheses (H0 and HA) for this question. H0: HA: Directional? Non-directional? 2.3. Conduct an appropriate statistical test to test the hypotheses above. Report the results in the same format as in Table 2, article (use similar column headings, ignore the effect size, report p-values rather than just stating ns for nonsignificant). Attach appropriate tables from SPSS to show how you obtained these results. Show the descriptive statistics (M1. S.D.) on a bar chart (note- normally you should report descriptive statistics either in tables, text, or graphs but not in more than one of these options. 2.4. Write a short conclusion (1-2 sentences). Was there a significant difference between the means? Did the mean intensity of trauma symptoms increase or decrease after compared to before the therapy? 1

Statistical Methods I: Exploring Relationships and Comparing Groups (990102) Q3. Now you would like to compare the two therapies (CBT and SC) in their effectiveness two years after the end of therapy to find out which one is better (more effective at treating PTSD). Therefore, you aim to test whether there is a difference between CBT and SC therapies on the mean intensity of trauma re-experience two years after the end of therapy. 3.1 Specify the variables: Dv IV 3.2 Specify the hypotheses H0 HA 3.3 Conduct an appropriate statistical test to test the hypotheses above. Report the results in text like done in paragraph 3.1 of the article. Attach appropriate tables from SPSS to show how you obtained these results. 3.4 Write a short conclusion (1-2 sentences). Was there a significant difference between the means? Did the mean intensity of trauma symptoms increase or decrease on CBT compared to SC two years after the end of therapy? Do your results confirm or disprove the results mentioned in the abstract of the article? Briefly (1-2 sentences) explain why.