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Surveys

Surveys

Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally. Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people.

Group Design

Group Design

The most basic experimental design involves two groups: the experimental group and the control group. The two groups are designed to be the same except for one difference— experimental manipulation. The experimental group gets the experimental manipulation—that is, the treatment or variable being tested—and the control group does not. Since experimental manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control groups, we can be sure that any differences between the two are due to...

Blind Procedures

Blind Procedures

Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...

Study Design in Statistics

Study Design in Statistics

A study design is a set of techniques that allow a researcher to collect and analyze data from different variables defined for a specific research problem. Statistics is commonly for effective study design and more robust experiments,
Does aspirin reduce the risk of heart attacks? Is one brand of fertilizer more effective at growing roses than another? Is fatigue as dangerous to a driver as the influence of alcohol? Questions like these are answered using randomized experiments with proper...

Study Designs in Epidemiology

Study Designs in Epidemiology

Epidemiological study designs are fundamental tools for investigating the distribution, determinants, and control of health conditions in populations. They help researchers understand the relationships between exposures and outcomes, and they broadly fall into two categories: "observational" and "experimental" studies.
Observational studies are those where the researcher does not intervene but rather observes natural variations. They include cross-sectional, cohort, and case-control studies.

Data Collection by Survey

Data Collection by Survey

The systematic method of obtaining and analyzing accurate information of a population is called data collection. A survey is a standard method of data collection that involves collecting information from a target human population about their experience, opinion, or knowledge of a product, service, or process. The responses are recorded and interpreted. The most common survey examples are written questionnaires, face-to-face or telephonic conversations, focus groups, and electronic (e-mail or...

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Study design affects participant expectations: a survey.

Bret R Rutherford¹, Scott Alan Rose, Joel R Sneed

¹Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA. brr8@columbia.edu

Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology

|June 11, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Clinical trial design significantly impacts patient expectations. Participants anticipate greater improvement in trials comparing treatments versus those using a placebo, influencing perceived outcomes.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Clinical Research
Medical Ethics

Background:

Participant expectations of improvement in clinical trials are influenced by treatment knowledge.
Previous research suggests awareness of active treatment boosts expectations compared to placebo awareness.
Direct testing of this effect across different trial designs was lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether respondents report higher expectations of improvement in comparator-controlled versus placebo-controlled clinical trials.
To assess the influence of clinical trial design on participant expectations.

Main Methods:

A survey was administered to undergraduate students in an introductory psychology course.
Participants rated expectations of improvement in two hypothetical trials: one medication vs. placebo, and one medication vs. medication.
Expectations were measured on a 9-point Likert scale for both likelihood and magnitude of improvement.

Main Results:

Respondents reported significantly higher expected likelihood of improvement in comparator trials (7.2) versus placebo-controlled trials (5.3).
Similarly, the expected magnitude of improvement was significantly higher in comparator trials (7.2) compared to placebo-controlled trials (4.9).
The study included 37 undergraduates (69% female, mean age 22.4 years).

Conclusions:

Clinical trial design demonstrably influences participant expectations of treatment efficacy.
These findings support the hypothesis that study design impacts perceived outcomes.
Consideration of trial design is crucial for interpreting results, particularly in antidepressant clinical trials.