U41-P5/M4 Investigation on mental illnesses Aim- The aim of the study is to investigate whether females have mood problems than males in second year Science students at Stanmore College. Hypothesis-...

U41-P5/M4

Investigation on mental illnesses


Aim- The aim of the study is to investigate whether females have mood problems than males in second year Science students at Stanmore College.
Hypothesis- Second year females BTECH science students will have more mood associated problems than male second year science BTECH students.

This investigation involves finding out whether male or female BTECH science students show more mood associated problems than male second year science BTECH student. The participants took part in a questionnaire this was completed at Stanmore College.



What is depression?

Depression is used to describe everyday feelings of low mood which could affect us from time to time. Symptoms of depression could be feeling sad or fed up to experiences which are upsetting, stressful or difficult. The results show that female participants showed more symptoms of mood associated problems.
At least 350 million people live depression¹, and is known to be the leading cause of disability worldwide. Depression is affected also to the family of the patient and the patient as well and could have a huge impact on their lives. Depression could start at a young age affect women more commonly than men. 1 of 2 mothers out of 10 has depression after childbirth. Depression also could affect how a mother could care for her child and this could affect the child’s growth and development (²). A research was conducted to compare the rates of major depressive disorders and be able to compare the symptoms between women and men aged between 18-24 years. In this study there were 1560 participants used were screened with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The participants then were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire so that they could gather information on if someone has depression this was accessed using a Beck Depression Inventory. From the results it showed women had the highest percentage of likely hood for depression (12.2%) and men only had (5.3%). The symptoms of depression was more seen to be in women than men as women showed more symptoms like sadness, crying, lack of energy, difficulty making decisions, work difficulty etc. Studies show that Depression is about twice as common in women as in men, with about 1 in 4 women suffering from depression at some point during her lifetime.
A research was carried out to see if there is any impairment in emotional intelligence which could be a cause of anxiety and depressive disorders. 31 patients were used 11 were male and 20 were female which were diagnosed with the DSM of a major affective disorder. 28 participants were used as a control group 5 male and 23 female who completed a self-report accessing the emotional intelligence, depression and social anxiety. The control group compared to the clinical group scored lower in the emotional intelligence test of understanding emotions, emotional recognition and expression. The self-report measure was an effective way to measure the emotional intelligence in terms of finding an early diagnosis of patients who may be having symptoms of depression or anxiety disorders. (³)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23651450(¹)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23651450 (²)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23632828(³)
The experiment that would be conducted will be Laboratory experiment which will use high levels of control over the variables, therefore this would allow you to investigate the study further and produce valid and reliable results. The variables that would be controlled are the males and females taking part in the study who are in second year by filling out my questionnaire to determine if there are any symptoms of mood problems in males or females in second year BTECH science Stanmore college students.
An experiment consists of the IV the independent variable and the DV the dependant variable, in a natural experiment the researcher is able to create different conditions of the IV and the changes that may occur in the DV although natural experiments are more realistic to life, control over extraneous variables are not possible therefore a laboratory experiment is more effective in terms of control. Laboratory experiments are able to control the extraneous variables (outside influences) more than natural and field experiments. Controls used in a laboratory experiment would allow identifying the changes in the IV to be only affecting the DV thus this increases validity. In the experiment that would be conducted there shall be females and males from second year BTEC science students used, the IV is the females and males and what is been measured is if there are any symptoms of mood problems in the two conditions (DV). Hence the changes in the IV females and males would enable to determine if this has an effect on the DV the symptoms of depression so whether the symptoms are higher in male or female. Laboratory experiment also uses standardised procedures thus they are the same for each participant which helps increase reliability.
In the experiment that shall be conducted will take place in Stanmore college laboratories where male and female BTEC science students will be approached to answer a questionnaire therefore the same procedure applies for all students. A questionnaire has an advantage for producing large number of results and as they are easy to create it will also be easy to carry out. There may be less demand characteristics when using a questionnaire if the questions are not too personal, participants would be likely to fill them in properly. Although interviews may allow in depth data analysis it may be time consuming hence would be harder to carry out especially if participants are not willing to take part. The participant could also show more demand characteristics to please the researcher when being interviewed so less reliable results would be produced. Therefore questionnaires would be more ideal to use to investigate the study as you could achieve a large sample in less time and would be representative. The type of sampling used for the study would be opportunity sampling, participants would be selected at the time available of the study, as this study shall be conducted during lesson time it would allow easy access to student in a laboratory hence could achieve a larger sample in less time. Opportunity sampling has many advantages as it is more accurate and is able to aim at the target group, therefore males and females that shall take place in the study would be available at the time when conducting the study. The questionnaire shall be given in the laboratories to fill out and return for data analysis and to be able to draw conclusions and relate the results to the hypothesis, either approving or disapproving the hypothesis.
The pilot study consisted of giving 5 questionnaires out to student in second year BTECH science class, the feedback was obtained from the participants and suggested there was no issues with the questions asked in the questionnaire. Pilot study are conducted before the investigation could be approved this allows to gather relevant problems that may have occurred in my questionnaire i.e. the questions asked may be unclear or there’s not clear options to follow. Therefore this would increase validity of the study as improvements could be suggested before conducting the study and giving out the hand outs of the questionnaires.
The problems that may have been occurring when collecting the data for my questionnaire is that if using an opportunity sampling, only data would be collected at the available time of the study. Hence it may not be the right target group or equal amounts of males and females to collect the results. The data may be biased as participants may show demand characteristics when filling out the questionnaire therefore the results may not be valid to draw meaningful conclusions. Also some participants did not fill out all the relevant information on the questionnaire therefore cannot analyse the data properly and compare amongst other participants.
Ethical Principles for Clinical Psychology Practise as a CoP for my practical investigation:
•Data protection- allows all data to be kept confidential and not disclosed to other staff or members if not necessary.
•People having the right to withdraw from experiments- if they do not feel comfortable at any time of the experiment they have the right to leave.
•Reduce risk- protection from psychological harm should be avoided so participants don’t undergo any stress responses.
•Informed consent- the participants should give consent in taking part in the experiment.
The results show that females showed more symptoms of mood problems than males overall. This can be concluded because of the answers in question 2 the females stated their answers because most females answered the questions and stated their problems (qualitative data) therefore could suggest that they are more likely to be having mood problems. Also most of the females stated that they think about things that affect them daily hence that shows that they are more likely to be having problems in their lives that affects their mood. The number of females who said that they are affected by their problems and they think about it daily were 8/10 female participants=0.40%. The number of males who said they are affected by their problems and they think about it daily 4/10=0.40%. Hence this shows females were more affected by their problems and they think about those problems daily more than males. For question number 3 it shows that higher percentage of females said yes that they do things slowly 7/10 participants= 0.70%. For question number 3 it shows that a higher percentage of males said no they do things slowly= 9/10=90%. So therefore I could conclude that females are likely to be affected if they answered the first 2 questions and those problems are causing there mood to change hence doing tasks/things more slowly.
The participants find it hard to concentrate when studying shows that males and females similarly find it hard to concentrate when studying however females shows a high 70% that they are not able to concentrate whilst studying compared to males 60%. Therefore I could conclude that females may be having more difficulties being able to study well maybe due to other factors surrounding them. In relation to question 6 most of the most participants did not fill out the answer to the question however in comparison the females stated why they are not able to concentrate. The same number of participants female and male participants feel that they are achieving well 50/50, this may be due to chance or I could conclude that participants may show demand characteristics as they don’t want to be seen in a bad light therefore mostly answered ‘yes’ to achieving well in their studies. The overall mood of participants was 40% sad and 40% other in females; in comparison to males there overall mood was happy up to 70%. Therefore I could conclude that females may be seen as having mood problems than males. Females considered to receive 50% good feedback from teachers in comparison males received 80% good feedback from teacher, therefore I could conclude that females may not be achieving as well as males in Second year BTEC science students. In relation to this question also 50% felt they feel happy when receiving the feedback and the other 50% feel sad; in comparison 70% males feel happy when they receive feedback from teachers.