The journal article I selected to critique in this week’s discussion post was by Lloyd et al. (2015), that had the purpose of exploring the psychological and existential vulnerability in young women suffering from mental health issues, in Sweden. The participants were randomly selected through survey administered at a specific clinic, to women on a waiting list or receiving treatment at that time, but were not randomly assigned to conditions, making this a quasi-experimental study. A quasi-experimental study is one where the participants can be randomly selected but are not randomly assigned to conditions or groups (Walden university, n.d., Skill builder 13).

The research question in this study that is being addressed is whether women’s high or low-intermediate mental health (independent variable) is linked to psychological and existential vulnerabilities (dependent variable). The independent variable has only two nominal groups and the dependent variable is a range meaning it is interval. The results are also shown graphically

The researchers selected the independent sample t-test, which according to Frankfort-Nachmias et al. (2020, p. 254) allow for a comparison of independent samples. This was the correct t-test, because it performed as comparison between two independent samples of women, one of which scored high on psychological and existential issues and the other group (or sample) that scored lower-intermediate on these issues. The null hypothesis was rejected as indicated by p=.054. The smaller p value the greater the probability the null hypothesis should be rejected in favor of the research hypothesis. (Frankfort-Nachmias et al., 2020, p. 245). The t-test on the other hand is 1.97, which further supports the research hypothesis and rejects the null hypothesis. However, this study has limitations where the population size is limited to one clinic in Sweden and because a survey was sent, there is a possibility that high-achieving women were more dominant within the study. While p value is low, the sample size was also low and limited, making the study not as meaningful to be applicable to the real world.

References

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., Leon-Guerrero, A., & Davis, G. (2020). Social statistics for a diverse society (9th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Lloyd, C. S., af Klinteberg, B., & DeMarinis, V. (2015). Psychological and existential vulnerability among clinical young women: a quantitative comparison of depression-related subgroups. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 18(4), 259–272.

Walden University (n.d). Skill builder 13: Research design and statistical design. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listContentEditable.jsp?content_id=_58682304_1&course_id=_16810844_1