A research team uses an anonymous postal questionnaire based on ICD-11 symptoms to estimate rates of depression among adults in one town. The answers are scored to decide whether each respondent reaches the questionnaire threshold. The following features occur during the study.
| Group | Feature of the study |
|---|---|
| Men | An unanswered symptom item is scored as ‘symptom absent’. Men leave the item about low mood unanswered more often than women. |
| Adults aged 70 and over | Selected adults who are staying in hospital are removed from the list of people sent a questionnaire. |
| Black and minority ethnic residents | The invitation and questionnaire are available only in English. Some selected residents request translated copies, but none are provided. |
Explain why the way unanswered items were scored could make the estimated rate of depression among men lower than the true rate.
Explain why removing people in hospital could make the estimated rate for adults aged 70 and over inaccurate.
Explain why providing the questionnaire only in English could make the comparison between ethnic groups misleading.
144 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 3.2 Theories/Explanations, covering 3.2.1 Clinical characteristics of schizophrenia, 3.2.2 Key statistics of schizophrenia, 3.2.3 Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, 3.2.4 Brain structure and function in schizophrenia; criticisms, 3.2.5 Social drift theory of schizophrenia, 3.2.6 Schizophrenia research study: Daniel et al. (1991), 3.2.7 Clinical characteristics of clinical depression, 3.2.8 Key statistics of clinical depression, 3.2.9 Social rank theory of clinical depression, 3.2.10 ABC Model of clinical depression, and 3.2.11 Clinical Depression research study: Tandoc et al. (2015). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.