Article Identification

Article Identification

PSY 326 – Research Methods

In the article, Factors Involved in Recovery From Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study of Thai Mental Health Nurses by Kaewprom, C., Curtis, J., & Deane, F. P, written in 2011, offers great insight into the multiple factors that are involved in the recovery process from schizophrenia. The article goes into great detail explaining many different aspects of schizophrenia and the specific factors involved in one’s recovery by doing a qualitative study of Thai mental health nurses. In this paper, I will discuss the article Factors Involved in Recovery From Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study of Thai Mental Health Nurses and I will identify the authors and identify what question(s) they are attempting to answer by doing this research. Next, I will differentiate between qualitative and quantitative research methods and terminology and specify what approach is used for this study. Next, I will  explain whether this particular study is qualitative or quantitative by citing and referencing specific clues from the article, including the sample size, the technique that was used to collect data and the nature of the data collected, and the data analysis techniques that were used. Then, I will associate this study with a specific research area of psychology and explain why I believe it fits into this category. I will also summarize any ethical issues that were addressed in the article and analyze the ethical principles that were applied and if I think that there were any other ethical issues that were not cited in the article. Overall, I think that this is a very interesting and fascinating study and I think that having a better understanding of schizophrenia itself is extremely important in understanding people that suffer from this disorder. By discussing the factors of recovery with the nurses that treat the patients suffering from schizophrenia, we are able to gain a better understanding and perhaps work to improve the treatment of schizophrenia and understand the factors that are involved in the recovery process

First, I think it is very important that we have a clear understanding of what schizophrenia is exactly. Schizophrenia is defined as, “ A psychotic disorder typically characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and a loss of contact with reality” (Getzfeld, A., & Schwartz, S. 2012). “Schizophrenia is different. People with this enigmatic disorder behave in ways that most of us find incomprehensible. They may believe that other people can read their thoughts or that friends and neighbors are engaged in elaborate plots against them. In different historical periods, people who have displayed these behaviors have been given pejorative labels such as “mad,” “crazy,” “insane,” and “lunatic,” but such behaviors can be more accurately and appropriately categorized as symptoms of a group of disorders known as the psychoses, disorders characterized by gross distortions of reality” (Getzfeld & Schwartz, 2012). Having schizophrenia can be extremely difficult for people to live ordinary lives and to do day to day activities and lead a “normal life” with normal social activities.

I think that the authors of this study were trying to simply answer what the specific factors are in the recovery from schizophrenia. Many people think that schizophrenia is not something that a person can recover from, but that is not true. This study asked 24 Thai nurses what they thought the factors involved in recovery are. By gaining the knowledge of what the factors involved in the recovery from schizophrenia are the better we will be able to treat this disorder and help people recover quicker and easier and more effectively. If doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists knew how to identify the factors in the recovery of schizophrenia, then they would be able to do so much more to help their patients.

In researching different studies, we come across the words qualitative and quantitative many times. I think it is important for us to know the difference between these two words and to have a good understanding of their meaning. First, qualitative research is defined as, “a descriptive approach that attempts to gain a deep understanding of particular cases and contexts” (Newman, 2011). On the other hand, quantitative research is defined as, “is a systematic and empirical approach that attempts to generalize results to other contexts” (Newman, 2011). Both of these research approaches are useful in a myriad of situations and are imperative in most research studies, so knowing what each of these approaches means is very important to anyone doing a research study and to anyone that is reading and studying a research study.

In the article, Factors Involved in Recovery From Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study of Thai Mental Health Nurses, it states in the title that it is a qualitative study. However, even if it did not state that it was a qualitative study in the title, we would be able to tell that this was a qualitative study based on the information in the article. Qualitative data can be observed, however, it can not be measured. For example, the 24 Thai nurses were observing their patients with schizophrenia and then they were interviewed. Observations and interviews can not be measured, and this is how we know that it is a qualitative study.

We are able to further tell that this is a qualitative study by looking at things such as the sample size, data collection techniques, and also the nature of the data collected and the data analysis techniques that were used. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews and were analyzed by a thematic analysis method. There were 24 Thai nurses that were interviewed in interviews that lasted 60 minutes. The article states, “ The participants were asked to share their opinions about recovery from schizophrenia, as well as the factors that are involved in recovery. The following four questions were used as the initial prompts for the semi-structured interviews: (i) What does recovery from schizophrenia mean to you?; (ii) What do you consider to be the characteristics of recovery from schizophrenia?; (iii) Which factors facilitate recovery from schizophrenia?; and (iv) What are the barriers to recovery from schizophrenia? Each interview lasted ~ 60 min. All the interviews were audio-recorded to facilitate the process of data transcription” (Kaewprom, C., Curtis, J., & Deane, F. P, 2011).

There were two main types of data analysis that were used in this research study. The first process involved the data preparation. This preparation was started by the transcribing of the recorded interview verbatim into English text. The second data analysis process used thematic analysis. This included gaining familiarity with the data, generating initial codes, data extracts, and themes, and then refining and naming the themes. During the course of this process of generating the codes and themes, researchers were confirming and refining the codes and themes, and the relationship between the codes and themes to make sure everything was accurate. Having accurate data is imperative when doing research studies.

I think that this study can be associated with clinical psychology. Our text explains clinical psychology as, “the study of best practices for understanding, treating, and preventing distress and dysfunction. Clinical psychologists engage in both the assessment and the treatment of psychological disorders” (Newman, 2011). Because schizophrenia falls into the category of psychological disorders, and therefore it is associated with clinical psychology. I do not think that this study could easily fit into any other area of psychology. However, it fits perfectly into the area of clinical psychology.

From all accounts it appears that great ethical concern and consideration was used throughout this study and that every effort was made to make it an ethically correct study. The article states, “This study received primary ethical approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. In addition, ethics approval was granted by the ethics committees of two local hospitals in Thailand, where the data were collected. A detailed description of the study, including the risks and benefits, audio-recording, and confidentiality, was explained to the potential participants” (Kaewprom, C., Curtis, J., & Deane, F. P, 2011). Also, something that I found very important was that written consent was obtained from each and every participant prior to the interview and the data was treated confidentially. Pseudonyms were also used for the data analysis and for the presentation. I am not able to discern any additional ethical issues that apply but were not mentioned. I think that there are limitations to the study, such as there being only 24 nurses interviewed and that is not a large enough sample size, but I think that the researchers did a great job of applying ethical principles.

This research study and the article written about it, Factors Involved in Recovery From Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study of Thai Mental Health Nurses by Kaewprom, C., Curtis, J., & Deane, F. P, written in 2011, is a fascinating study that answers some very important questions about the specific factors that are involved in the recovery process of schizophrenia. The research study had a clear question that they wanted to answer and it was also very clear that it was a qualitative study, not just from the title of the study. This research study falls into the category of clinical psychology, and I do not think that it could fall into another category. I think that this research study was done ethically and that the researchers showed great concern to make sure that permission was given before interviewing anyone. The researchers also got permission from two separate hospitals about doing their study. I think that this research study is great, but that it has such a small amount of participants and we are unable to get the full picture of the factors that are involved in the recovery from schizophrenia. I think that if there were more participants that the data might be different. Regardless, I think that the more we know about schizophrenia then the better we will be able to recognize the symptoms and the more improved our treatments will become. I look forward to learning more in the future.

References

Getzfeld, A., & Schwartz, S. (2012). Abnormal Psychology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint

Education.

Kaewprom, C., Curtis, J., & Deane, F. P. (2011). Factors involved in recovery from schizophrenia: A qualitative study of Thai mental health nurses. Nursing & Health Sciences, 13(3), 323-327. doi:10.1111/j.1442-2018.2011.00621.x

Newman, M. (2011). Research methods in psychology: San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.