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UNIVERSITY OF SURREY and CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY

PSYCHD IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

SELECTION 2013 - WRITTEN TEST

QUESTION PAPER

CANDIDATE INSTRUCTIONS

There are TWO parts to this test: Part 1 and Part 2

Candidates have 45 MINUTES to complete the test

Candidates should answer the questions in PART 1 first and are advised that they should do

as best as they can on these questions before moving on to Part 2 of the test

All answers MUST be written in the answer booklet provided

Loose sheets of paper are provided for notes. They will be collected at the end of the test but

will NOT be marked

Candidates are permitted to make notes on this test paper. It will be collected at the end of

the test but will NOT be marked

WHEN THE INVIGILATOR INSTRUCTS YOU TO DO SO, TURN THE PAGE

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PART 1: SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER THINKING [15 Marks]

This part of the test assesses your ability to think critically about research designs that may be

used by applied psychologists to investigate practice-based healthcare questions.

Read the Research Synopsis below and then answer the questions for Part 1 in your

answer booklet.

Research Synopsis

A research team was interested in whether high self-esteem helped athletes perform better in

competition. To investigate this, they collaborated with the organizers of an international

athletics competition, occurring in the UK.

One week before the start of this competition, all the competitors were required to complete a

measure of self-esteem. Higher scores on the measure were taken to indicate higher self-

esteem. The measure was chosen because it had shown good reliability and validity in a

previous study using a UK sample. At the same time, the researchers recorded the

competitors’ age and weight.

At the end of the competition, the competitors in each event were ranked based on their

relative performance in that event. The winner in each event was given the lowest ranking

(i.e. 1) and the competitor in last place was given the highest ranking. The researchers then

calculated the correlations between this ranking and the data collected one week earlier. Their

findings are summarized in the table below.

Self-esteem Age Weight

Correlation with

performance

ranking

-.46* -.08 .15

*p<.01

Following this, the researchers developed a psychological intervention aimed at improving

athletes’ self-esteem prior to competition. They conducted a small-scale randomized

controlled trial (RCT) to explore the effectiveness of their new intervention. The sample in

each group was 15 UK–based athletes and the control group received no-intervention. At a

subsequent athletics competition, the intervention group had a median performance rank of 4

and the control group a median rank of 8.5. A Mann-Whitney U-test on the performance data

produced a p-value of 0.07.

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PART 2: WRITTEN COMMUNICATION [15 Marks]

This part of the test assesses your ability to extract, interpret and summarise information in an

appropriate written form.

In Part 2 of your answer booklet, write a succinct structured Abstract (i.e. using

subheadings) of the study described below. Your Abstract must finish with a

Conclusion.

Study Description

The prevalence of negative attitudes towards mental illness has been recognised as a

major public health problem (Putnam, 2008) because it can result in stigma, prejudice and

discrimination. In order to understand and reduce prejudice and discrimination, a significant

amount of research has examined the intergroup contact hypothesis proposed by Allport

(1954). This research indicates that direct contact between members of different social

groups is an effective way of reducing stigmatizing attitudes, prejudice and discrimination

towards minority out-groups. Education is also a method by which stigmatizing attitudes

might be changed. Research evidence suggests that general information about mental

illnesses can be sufficient to reduce stigmatizing attitudes towards people with, for example,

a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The aim of the current study was to compare the relative effectiveness of two different

education interventions on college students’ attitudes towards people with a diagnosis of

schizophrenia.

120 college students (101 women and 19 men; 86.3% White British) aged between 16

and 18 (M = 17.50 years, SD = 2.73) were randomly allocated to one of three conditions:

direct contact education (this involved a 6-week series of lectures on schizophrenia

that were delivered by a college lecturer and a person with a diagnosis of

schizophrenia);

education without contact (this involved a 6-week series of lectures on schizophrenia

delivered by two college lecturers);

control condition (no education about schizophrenia was given in the 6-week period).

Prior to the start of the 6-week period, students completed three measures:

(1) general knowledge about schizophrenia;

(2) attitudes about whether people with schizophrenia are to blame for their condition;

(3) desired social distance from people with schizophrenia (i.e. how much one would

be unwilling to socialise with, work with or have a member of the family with

schizophrenia).

These measures were completed again at the end of the 6-week lecture period. The

researchers calculated the change in scores across the two time points on these measures for

each participant. The results are shown in the graph on the next page.

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The p-value for the one-way ANOVA comparing change in blame scores was

p=.96.

The p-value for the one-way ANOVA comparing change in knowledge scores was

p=.02. Post hoc tests showed that both education groups differed significantly

from the control group but not from each other.

The p-value for the one-way ANOVA comparing change in desired social

distance was p=.004. Post-hoc tests showed that the direct contact education

group differed significantly from both the education without contact group and the

control group. The education without contact group and the control group did not

differ significantly from each other.

END OF QUESTION PAPER

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Direct contact education Education no contact No education

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UNIVERSITY OF SURREY and CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY

PSYCHD IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

SELECTION 2013 - WRITTEN TEST

ANSWER BOOKLET

This answer booklet is divided into TWO sections:

Questions for Part 1 of the test and space to write your answers;

Instructions for Part 2 of the test and space to write your Abstract.

Candidates should answer the questions in Part 1 first before moving on to the rest of the

test.

PLEASE PRINT YOUR FULL NAME CLEARLY IN THE BOX BELOW:

PLEASE WRITE YOUR DATE OF BIRTH IN THE BOX BELOW:

PLEASE TICK THIS BOX ONLY IF YOU HAVE APPLIED TO BOTH THE SURREY

AND THE SALOMONS COURSES

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QUESTIONS: PART 1: SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER THINKING

Questions 1 to 9 concern the correlational part of the study.

Question 1: Why was it important that the measure of self-esteem showed good reliability

and validity? [1 mark]

Question 2: Why might there be doubts as to the reliability and validity of the measure of

self-esteem in this study? [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 3: What was the main advantage of requiring all the competitors to complete the

measure of self-esteem? [1 mark]

Question 4: What was the most important problem with requiring all competitors to complete

the measure of self-esteem? [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 5: What was the main research reason for measuring self-esteem some time before

the competition? [1 mark]

Question 6: What disadvantage might measuring self-esteem in advance have when it comes

to trying to interpret the findings? [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 7: Some athletes took part in more than one event in the competition. In such cases,

the researchers only included in the analysis the athlete’s data from their first event. Why do

you think the researchers did this? [1 mark]

Question 8: Without repeating the numbers, briefly summarize the key findings of the

correlational part of the study. [2 marks]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 9: What is it possible to conclude from the correlational part of the study in relation

to the researchers’ hypothesis that high self-esteem helps athletes perform better in

competition? [1 mark]

Questions 10 to 13 concern the RCT part of the study

Question 10: In an RCT, why is a control group included and why are participants randomly

allocated to the intervention and control groups? [2 marks]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 11: What might be a better control group than the no intervention control group and

why? [1 mark]

Question 12: From the RCT data, the researchers concluded that the intervention did not

improve competition performance and so was not worth studying further. Is this a reasonable

conclusion? Please explain your answer. [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question 13: How generalizable are the RCTs findings? Please explain your answer.

[1 mark]

END OF PART 1 QUESTIONS. TURN OVER FOR PART 2

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PART 2: WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Please write your Abstract in the space below. Continue over as many pages as you need but

bear in mind we are looking for a succinct Abstract. Please remember to structure your

Abstract (i.e. use sub-headings) and to provide a Conclusion to it.

You should pay attention to readability, spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Turn over for continuation sheets

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Turn over for continuation sheets

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