Scenario: Mental Health

The efficacy of two kinds of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in relation to a clinical population were compared. The therapies differed on the dimension of how wedded they were to the rational-emotive behavioral therapy (REBT), a subtype of CBT that emphasizes a directive, confrontational approach to encourage a patient to recognize the irrationality of specific thought patterns. Forty adolescents at an inpatient clinic for treatment of self-destructive behaviors were randomly divided into two groups of equal size, one of which received the less challenging type of CBT (Treatment A) and one of which received the more challenging kind of CBT (Treatment B). All patients were treated by trained therapists in one-on-one sessions for 1.5 hours per day (broken down into 45-minute sessions) for six weeks. All participants were apprised that they were part of a study, all participants signed consent forms, and all were told they would be informed of the results at its conclusion; participants exhibiting any behaviors that required critical intervention were promptly treated outside the plan of the study. Outcome data on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC)-PAR Edition* collected at the conclusion of six weeks as shown below (also found in the Data Set Scenario 3 Excel file).

Treatment A    Treatment B
74                        80
50                         82
70                         49
60                         44
30                         60
37                         65
34                         77
40                         45
39                         51
70                         70
19                         53
43                         16
25                         38
15                         44
20                         29
55                         51
48                         54
42                         46
60                         18
27                         61

Data Analysis

A. Identify the sample size and explain how it will inform your analysis. In other words, what is the sample size? How will the size of the sample inform your analysis?

B. Select what statistical procedures should be implemented in your analysis, and justify why you feel these are appropriate.

C. Explain how statistical procedures can help you determine whether the data is attributable to chance factors.

D. Compute the mean and the standard deviation for each set of data using appropriate abbreviations and terminology.

E. Prepare an appropriately labeled histogram for each set of data.

F. Evaluate the shape of each distribution using your created histograms. In other words, what does the shape of each distribution tell us about the data?