Nonexperimental Designs

1. Nonexperimental Designs “The Effectiveness of Art Therapy in Reducing Depression in Prison Populations” Jennifer Hass

2. What is a nonexperimental Design? • A research design in which random assignment is not used and there is no presence of a control or comparison group. • Observe a phenomenon without manipulating the independent variable • No treatments are given • Naturally occurring • Use qualitative data

4. When to use it • If the dependent or independent variables cannot be subject to experimental manipulation or randomization • If experimental designs are either impossible or unethical • To allow natural occurring phenomena

5. How is it applied? • Single group posttest: X O1 • Single group pretest/posttest: O1 X O2 • Nonequivalent groups posttest only: X O1 O1

6. Advantages • Can obtain a wealth of descriptive information • Good method for generating new hypotheses • Can gain insight into people’s understandings • Easy to implement and less expensive than most experimental designs • Serves as a pilot to help identify important variables related to success in programs

7. Disadvantages • Cannot control threats to internal validity • Cannot provide a strong basis for estimating the size of an effect or for testing causal hypotheses because unable to control: maturation, self-selection, attrition • Often participants are likely to improve over time without intervention and such changes can be mistakenly attributed to the program under evaluation • Can be difficult to interpret

8. “The Effectiveness of Art Therapy in Reducing Depression in Prison Populations”

9. The Case • There has been little research to measure the effectiveness of art therapy in prison. • Uses two quantitative studies in a North Florida prison to measure the effectiveness of art therapy with inmates • Specifically looking at depression symptoms

10. Methods • Pilot Study • 48 inmates • Art therapy 4-week period; 2x a week • Pretest • FEATS • Draw a picture of person picking an apple from a tree • Comprises 14 Likert-type scales to determine change in depression symptoms through looking at the picture • Survey • Developed and performed by the staff by staff • To determine inmates’ interactions and compliance with prison rules and expectations • Art Therapy • Developed from simple to complex • Posttest • Redo of FEATS and Survey

11. Methods (cont.) • Follow-Up Study - Used results of Pilot Survey to study the effectiveness of art therapy for improving mood and social interaction between inmates • Experimental design • Experimental group • 27 inmates • Control group • 17 inmates • FEATS administered as before • In place of survey performed BDI-II • Standardized psychological assessment • To discover current emotional content • Used to help measure outcome • Experimental group exposed to art therapy once a week for 8 weeks (same methods as pilot study)

12. Results • Pilot Study • All 7 items of surveys reflected significant change using simple paired t tests • Improvement in attitude and compliance with staff and rules • 7 of 14 scales of the FEATS reflected significant change • Hypothesis supported

13. Results • Follow-Up Study • BDI-II: Experimental group had significant greater decrease in depression-related emotions • Replaced Survey - Thought to be too biased • FEATS - No significant difference

14. Conclusion • FEATS proved more effective as a measurement tool for the pilot study • Appears depression symptoms decreased as a result of art therapy • However: Cannot determine the true cause of change because each study used different methods (Survey vs. BDI-II) • And some participants were involved in both studies

15. My Thoughts…. • Pilot Study was the only true nonexperimental study • Yielded information that led to follow-up study • Because no control over threats to internal validity, a control group must be created • Good example of how results from a nonexperimental design can create new and more detailed hypotheses that can be tested