Inferential Research and Statistics Project Inferential Research and Statistics Project, Part 1

PSY 315 Inferential Research and Statistics Project

Inferential Research and Statistics Project, Part 1

Psy/ 315

There is a high population of people who suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the National Center, “Nearly 8 million adults suffer from PTSD during a given year.” PTSD symptoms come from experiencing or witnessing dramatic, terrifying events. According to the Department of Veterans Affair, “about 11-20% of Veterans who have served in recent Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF) have PTSD in a given year.” Military Veterans are the more common victims who are diagnosed with PTSD due to the significant amount of exposure to violence during war, flashbacks are inherited, and anxiety, nightmares and depression with mood swings are amongst some of the common symptoms.

A research hypothesis that I would like to compare are between two essential therapies: Virtual Reality (VT) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for Military Veterans/Affiliates vs. Civilians. The Combat Exposure Scale will be used to measure the PTSD symptoms effective level and would need approximately a minimum of 12 weeks to test the impact efficiency. My hypothesis would be to choose Virtual Reality (VR) for a better method for PTSD treatment. Newer technologies are more available to effectively deliver better effective treatments due to having computer-based simulations conducted during exposure exercises to enhance real-life commencement of trauma memories and related emotional events during the studies. This can be helpful for some who have difficulty seeing or emotionally engaging with the trauma memory from prior history. This can help towards reducing or eradicating PTSD symptoms but there are still advance studies necessary on newer technologies to confirm 100%.

According to scenario, VR would be Group 1 and CPT will be Group 2. VR’s average based upon the data set results was 5.61 and 7.32 for CPT. My research hypothesis would notice that the patients could possibly react more positive to VR than CPT. This would be a two-tail test because it’s a two sided test to see which group has a greater sample than the other, which in this case, CPT has a slight increase in less effectiveness by approximately 23% difference. My null hypothesis is that both therapies will balance out in the effective treatment of PTSD and clinics won’t view the therapies to have significant differences in the testing methods coming for Military Affiliates vs. Citizens.

The sample that I would use would be random cluster sampling because all participants will be assigned to one group and it will be easier to narrow down or process of elimination through the 30 population size. Using random cluster sampling is a simple technique in picking patients from a large group randomly and will allow for each chosen patient to conduct the VR therapy.

Gender, age, years of service, time at war, etc are amongst some of the essential descriptive data that be ensured to collect for my testing. There are certain levels and criteria to have to consider in testing. This will help analyze the big picture more vividly and while gaining a better understanding of the test results more effectively. Comparing Veterans who actually served boots on ground versus ones who didn’t but still may have been injured in some capacity during their service. There are different therapies for certain situations that may be simply necessary.

References

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/ptsd-overview/basics/how-common-is-ptsd.asp

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/treating-ptsd-virtual-reality-therapy-heal-trauma/story?id=38742665