A psychologist treating moderate depression compares two distinct therapeutic approaches. Treatment X requires clients to complete a 12-week course of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), while Treatment Y requires a matched sample of clients to complete a 12-week course of standard Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). The clients are all male university students aged 18 to 22.
At the start and end of the 12-week period, each client completes a self-report 'depressive symptom severity' questionnaire, yielding a score out of 50, where a higher score indicates greater symptom severity.
Explain why collecting qualitative data in this study might have been a more useful way of assessing the effectiveness of the two treatments.
235 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Psychology Data handling and analysis. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.