Analysis of Anxiety Severity and Treatment Effectiveness

QUESTION 1

In this study, the effects of three treatment regimens – control, psychotherapy and drug treatment have been carried out. The patients were randomly assigned to different groups to receive one of the three treatments, while they were studied to measure their anxiety symptoms before and after the treatment. Higher scores indicated that the patients’ symptoms for anxiety were severe and vice versa. This question deals with analysing severity of anxiety among the patients and determining the effectiveness of different forms of treatments, which is crucial for those seeking psychology dissertation help. Independent variables in this question were the three groups - control, psychotherapy and drug; while the dependent variable was anxiety severity. Further, a 3x2 between-participant design was used as anxiety scores were measured at two points of time.

In the first part, the paired t-test was carried out to determine if the severity of anxiety was lower after the intervention as compared to before the patients received their respective treatment. Following is the hypothesis formed for this section of the study.

H0: Anxiety severity does not lower after the intervention as compared to before the intervention.

H1: Anxiety severity lowers after the intervention as compared to before the intervention.

Before treatment is termed as ‘pre’ while after treatment is termed as ‘post’. The results of the paired t-test are as follow:

Paired Samples Statistics

Paired Samples Test

Post-intervention (M = 20.03, SD = 6.75) reported higher levels of anxiety severity than the ‘pre’ patients (M = 30.26; SD = 5.69), t(29) = 12.227,p < 0.05.

This shows that the anxiety severity among the patients reduces after the intervention, thus proving the alternative hypothesis. On this basis, it may be said that the treatment given to the patients was effective in reducing their anxiety levels. It helped in making the patients feel comfortable; which therefore resulted in a ‘reduction’ in their anxiety.

In the second part of this question, anxiety levels among patients in the drug treatment group were compared with that of the patients in the other two groups, i.e. control and psychotherapy. A repeated measure ANOVA was performed to test the following hypothesis:

H0: Patients in drug therapy do not show a larger decrease in anxiety as compared to those in psychotherapy and control group.

H1: Patients in drug therapy show a larger decrease in anxiety as compared to those in psychotherapy and control group.

Descriptive Statistics

Herein it was noted that the pre-intervention anxiety levels for control (M=30.1250, SD=3.72012), psychotherapy (M=24.2, SD=2.78089) and drug (M=30.2667, SD=5.69896) were higher than the post-intervention anxiety levels for control (M=25.3750, SD=3.58319), psychotherapy (M=13.1, SD=3.98469) and drug (M=22.25, SD=5.41253). Further, the test of between-subjects effect shows that F(2, 27) = 25.33; p<0.05. It means there is a significant interaction between treatment group and time.

Furthermore, the multiple comparisons show that as compared to psychotherapy, the anxiety level among patients in the drug group was significantly less (p<0.05). On the other hand, anxiety level among patients in the drug group was not significantly less as compared to control group (p>0.05). Thus, the current study showed that anxiety among patients in the drug group after the treatment was significantly lower than those of patients in the psychotherapy group, but not in the control group. This shows that drug treatment proved to be more effective in reducing anxiety among the patients in comparison to the patients in psychotherapy group. Drugs, as treatment for anxiety were far more effective and soothing for the patients than the psychotherapy group.

QUESTION 2

In this question, an analysis between face recall and the ethnic minority was carried out. Herein, ability of the participants to recognise faces of models from both the genders from three different ethnic groups (Asia, Caucasian and Black Caribbean) were examined. In total six participants were involved in this study, who were presented with an equal number of faces of both male and female models from each of the three ethnic groups. They were, after an hour, again tested on their ability to recognise the same faces. In this study, a 3x2 between-participant design was used. The independent variable for this study was the three ethnic groups, and dependent variable was ability of the participants to recall the faces.

In the first part of the test, ANOVA was carried out to analyse the ability of the participants to recall the faces after a one-hour delay from seeing the faces. Following is the hypothesis used in this test.

H0: The recall was not better for Black Caribbean faces than both Caucasian and Asian faces.

H1: The recall was better for Black Caribbean faces than both Caucasian and Asian faces.

Descriptives

Recall for Caribbean black (M = 12.83, SD = 8.02) was better as compared to Caucasian (M = 10.66, SD = 5.58) and Asian (M = 6.33, SD = 3.49). Further, as per ANOVA, F(2,33) = 3.660; p<0.05. This shows that there is a significant difference between group means. The multiple comparison table shows that face recall ability of black Caribbean is significantly better as compared to Asian (p<0.05), but there is no significant difference in face recall ability between Black Caribbean and Caucasian.

As per the paired samples test, Male Faces (M=12.83, SD=7.61) had a higher recall rate than Female Faces (M=7.05, SD=3.07), t(17) = 2.575,p<0.05. This shows that the rate of recall for the male faces was significantly higher than the female faces.

Further, this report also focus was on determining recall for Black male faces will be more than Asian male faces. For this purpose, independent t-test was performed to test the following hypothesis:

H0: Recall for Black male faces was not higher than Asian male faces.

H1: Recall for Black male faces was higher than Asian male faces.

As per the independent t-test, Asian Male Faces Recall (M = 3.5, SD = 1.87) had lower recall rate than Black Male Faces Recall (M = 20.0, SD = 3.03), t(10) = -11.341, p<0.05. This shows that recall for Black male faces was significantly higher than Asian male faces. Thus, it proves the alternate hypothesis to be true.

Finally, this study further analysed the recall rate for Black female faces and Asia female faces. For this purpose, independent t-test was performed to test the following hypothesis:

As per the independent t-test, Black Female Faces Recall (M = 5.66, SD = 3.01) had lower recall rate than Asian Female Faces Recall (M = 9.16, SD = 2.04), t(10) = 2.357, p<0.05. This shows that recall for Black female faces was significantly lower than Asian female faces. Thus, it proves the null hypothesis to be true.

QUESTION 3

In this question, the focus was on analysing the accuracy of memory for recalling important details among police officers. Herein, three groups of officers (novice, experienced uniformed officers and CID) was made. They were shown video of a robbery and were asked to recall events shown in the video. Half of the police officers in each of the groups were given statements that were congruent with the video, while the other half were given statements that were incongruent. Herein independent variables are three groups while the dependent variable was the accuracy of their memory. In this study, 3x2 between-participant design was used – 3 groups and 2 types of statements.

For the first part, independent samples t-test was carried out to test the following hypothesis:

H0: There is no significant difference in the number of errors made by the CID Officers in the congruent and incongruent conditions.

H1: There is a significant difference in the number of errors made by the CID Officers in the congruent and incongruent conditions.

As per the independent samples t-test, congruent (M = 44.10, SD = 4.88) was higher than the incongruent (M = 39.4, SD = 1.71), t(18) = 2.870, p<0.05. This shows that there is a significant difference in the number of errors made by the CID officers in the congruent and incongruent conditions. Higher errors are made by CID officers in the congruent group as compared to incongruent group. Thus, it proves alternative hypothesis.

In the second part of this question, the focus was given on determining whether both novice and experienced uniformed officers made significantly more errors in the incongruent conditions as compared to the congruent conditions. Following are the hypothesis. The main objective of these tests was to determine if the novice and experienced uniformed officers made more errors when they had incongruent information available to them as compared to the situation when they had access to congruent information.

H0: Novice and experienced uniformed officers do not make significantly more errors in the incongruent conditions as compared to the congruent conditions.

As per the independent samples test for novices, congruent (M = 43.3, SD = 3.05) was lower than that of incongruent (M = 88.8, SD=3.01), t(18) = -33.533, p<0.05. This shows that the novice officers made significantly more errors in incongruent conditions than in the congruent conditions. This proves the alternative hypothesis.

Further, as per independent samples t-test for experienced uniformed officers, congruent (M = 41.2, SD = 4.07) was lower than the incongruent (M = 63.0, SD = 3.68), t(18) = -12.549, p<0.05. This also shows that the experienced uniformed officers made significantly more errors in incongruent conditions as compared to congruent conditions. This proves the alternative hypothesis.

On this basis, it can be said that police officers, novices or, can recall more accurately if they have congruent information as compared to situation when they have access to incongruent information.

QUESTION 4

This question analysed the factors that predict the amount of time people are willing to spend helping a friend in a problem. In this study, the dependent variable was zhelp, while the independent variables were – sympathy, anger, efficacy, severity and empathy. ‘zHelp’ was defined as the length of time the participants were ready to help their friend. The more time they spent with their friend, the more was their willingness and vice versa. Through this study, attention was given to analysing and understanding the psychology of the people, thereby exploring their mindsets and the extent to which they were ready to help a friend with a problem. The participants were asked to rate each of these factors on a scale of 1-7, with 1 being ‘very little’ and 7 being ‘very much’. This helped in understanding the factors even more, as well as the general mindset of the people. To analyse this, regression test was carried out. The regression analysis tests the following hypothesis:

H0: Only Empathy, Sympathy and Severity do not significantly predict the amount of time people are willing to spend helping their friend in need.

H1: Only Empathy, Sympathy and Severity significantly predict the amount of time people are willing to spend helping their friend in need.

Multiple regression analysis was used to test if Empathy, Sympathy and Severity significantly predicted amount of time people are willing to spend helping their friend. The results of the regression indicated Anger, Efficacy, Empathy, Sympathy and Severity explained 39.6% of the variance (R2=.39, F(5,75) = 9.83, p<.05). It was found that sympathy significantly predicted zhelp (β = .43, p<.05), as did anger (β = .284, p<.05) and efficacy (β = .412, p<0.05).

The results obtained here prove the null hypothesis as anger significantly predicts the amount of time people are willing to spend helping a friend in need, but severity does not.

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