Research Design in Clinical Psychology

by Alan E. Kazdin

In this successful text, Kazdin describes research methods in psychology and provides criteria for conducting and evaluating clinical research. This text's emphasis is on clinical psychology, but the issues and methods it discusses are relevant to counseling, school psychology and psychiatry. The various stages of research are discussed, with an emphasis on the special demands that are placed on the investigator. Research Design in Clinical Psychology continues to explain how methodology is an approach toward problem solving, thinking, and acquiring knowledge. This revised edition includes several new topics, as well as an expansion of core topics from the previous edition, which reflect the evolving nature of methodology and the proliferation of clinical research into many topic areas. Students and clinicians will gain a thorough knowledge of the entire research process from developing the idea, selecting methods, analyzing the results, and preparing the written scientific report. To ensure that the book conveys practices concretely, many examples are presented both from research and from everyday life.More attention has been given to specific methodological practices intended to address principles and issues when designing a study.

Genres: Psychology, Research, Nonfiction

637 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D., is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Yale Parenting Center. His work on parenting and childrearing has been featured on NPR, PBS, the BBC, and he has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC News, 20/20, and Dr. Phil. He frequently lectures to parents, educators, and business groups interested in learning the latest research and techniques of childrearing.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alan Kazdin heads the department of clinical psychology at Yale, served (perhaps still does) as the president of the American Psychological Association, and is generally recognized as one of the leader authorities in the field today. That being said, I have a few criticisms of this text.

The text is ambitious and well-intended. Research design is, to most people, not inherently interesting and often tedious; Kazdin uses humor throughout the text to lighten things up and to try to keep the reader involved. I wasn't the biggest fan of his humor, but I think it was a good effort.

My problem is that the text is just too big. He tries to cover too much ground and gets way too detailed. It's not clear who exactly this text is written for. It was assigned reading in my clinical research methods class, but it didn't really have much competition. The book is supposed to be an introduction to these research methods, and for an old hand this work would sound pedantic. However, the descriptions and definitions are much too technical to be much use to an uninitiated audience. Far too much writing is spent on what I would consider minor issues (such as separating out with painstaking detail categories of experimental design). It is good to be familiar with the name and to know there are difference between them. But the gist is lost in the meantime. Fine distinctions are for the professional, or for anyone in a position to practice and see first-hand the importance of distinct categories. An intro text is supposed to give you bearings for when you have such an opportunity.

[Beatriz Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

tive 30/30 no exame oral sobre isto nunca fui triste

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undergrad level (read: easier to read, broken down).

[DinosaursAtWork · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book appears suitable for bachelor students, but too simple for master students. Kazdin tries to write engaging, but I find it annoying. For example, he comares to interventions that have equal effects and sassily remarks that you cannot conclude that either intervention was effective. Great, that's a mistake I haven't made since my first year Bachelor, maybe we can step up the intervention evaluation a bit. At times it reads as if Kazdin tried to imitate Andy Field, but isn't quite going all the way, making it a rather dry read with sad attempts at humour.
I would also like to point out that the book contains some errors and is not available in book-form in Europe, so I think this book is really overpriced.