Week 7 Assignment
Applied Single Subject Research Design in the Counseling Profession
Linda H. Foster, Ph.D., NCC, NCSC, LPC
Core Faculty
Walden University
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Today’s Presentation
Single subject research design
Is there a need?
Why haven’t we been using research?
Ethical concerns
Multicultural aspects
Advantages & Challenges
Using SSRD
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Single subject research design (SSRD)
Any research involving one subject or one group treated as a single entity
By using repeated observations effect of an intervention is established
Other names include:
small-N designs
within subject comparisons
single-case experimental designs
time series designs
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Single subject research design (SSRD)
Single-subject research is a type of quantitative research that involves studying in detail the behaviour [sic] of each of a small number of participants.
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Single subject research design (SSRD)
Applied researchers, in particular, are interested in treatments that have substantial effects on important behaviors and that can be implemented reliably in the real-world contexts in which they occur.
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Is there a need for research?
Professional literature has confirmed a lack of research documenting the work of school counselors.
The community desires to know how public education funds are spent.
The debate over public education funding is documented daily in the media.
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The need continues and expands
Ethical duty
Scientist-practitioners approach
Evidence for managed care organizations
Accountability to clients and other stakeholders (i.e. funding sources)
Validation of our existence!
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Reasons for lack of research?
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Knowledge of research methods
Only one research & assessment course
Ethical concerns
Time constraints
Funding
Confidence
Why aren’t we conducting more research?
Lack of familiarity
Uncertainty about procedures
Length of time for baselines (i.e. 5, 10 25 observations)
Confusion about data analysis and rigor
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Demystifying research?
It has been noted that counselors are uncomfortable with becoming “researchers”…
So we need to “reframe” research.
Outcome research is gathering information regarding changes in a client occurring after an intervention by the counselor.
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Cultural considerations
Recognizes individuality and cultural context of client
Behavioral approaches value & focus on the client’s cultural & social dimensions by analyzing an individual’s specific environmental situation and honing the interventions to address specific therapeutic goals and personalized outcomes (Erford, 2020).
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Advantages
Low cost of gathering data
Lack of complicated statistics
Interventions can be individualized for each client or group of client(s)
Recognizes the individuality of client(s)
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More advantages
Single case designs reveal more accurate individual findings & provides a clear view of the unique effects of a counseling intervention
Immediate evaluation of interventions allowing quicker changes to treatment plan
The ultimate barometer of success is whether an individual or individual’s behavior changed
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Counselors help clients…
…understand connection of personal life circumstances to difficulties and examine whether changes are possible
…accomplish changes meeting their sociocultural, developmental and environmental contexts
We need to do more to provide outcome research and promote our efficacy!
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A-B Design
“A” phase
No intervention is applied to client;
Frequency, intensity and/or duration is measured;
How many minutes a client is out of his/her seat during a 20 minute period
“B” phase
Intervention is applied to client;
Baseline and intervention periods are compared to assess improvement in some aspect of client’s functioning.
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Ethical caution using A-B Design
Causation or a functional relationship is not demonstrated so no “proof” that intervention caused the change.
Possibility of other extraneous variables contributing to a change in the behavior.
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Client’s level of distress
Number of Sessions with Counselor
Figure 1. Visual representation of A-B Research Design
Baseline Treatment
Phase A = Sessions 1-5 Phase B = Sessions 6-12
Visual representation of an A-B Research Design. Client presented with high levels of distress measured through self-report for approximately 5 weeks.
Interventions were begun in week 6 and as reported client levels of distress decreased over the next 6 week period.
A-B-A-B Design
A = baseline
B – intervention applied to student
A = removal of intervention; return to baseline
B = intervention again applied to student
During the next A phase – intervention is removed – remembering ethical considerations.
If the intervention is responsible for changes, then behavior is expected to return to levels seen in the first baseline.
Intervention is again repeated to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.
Ethical caution using A-B-A-B
Strength: demonstration of a functional relationship between the intervention and a positive outcome
Strength: confidence that the intervention caused the change
Caveat: if removal of intervention may cause harm to client – remember our ethical duty
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Visual representation of A-B-A-B Research Design
The percentage of time student spent studying (the dependent variable) was low during the first baseline phase, increased during the first treatment phase until it leveled off, decreased during the second baseline phase, and again increased during the second treatment phase.
Multiple Baseline Design
Defined: a series of A-B designs that are replicated in one of three ways:
With the same individual across different behaviors
With the same individual across different settings
With the same behavior across different individuals
The intervention effects may generalize across all behaviors allowing for concurrent decreases in all problematic behaviors.
Multiple baseline strengthens the hypothesis that an intervention caused a behavior change.
Multiple baseline design:
Results of a Generic Multiple-Baseline Study. The multiple baselines can be for different participants, dependent variables, or settings. The treatment is introduced at a different time on each baseline.
Changing Criterion Design
Changing Criterion is an A-B design that is replicated wherein the intervention remains the same but the criterion for success is sequentially changed
Caution: be realistic… design an intervention with reachable goals (e.g. not from 30% to 100% overnight!)
Don’t set goals too low either… but allow time!
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Changing Criterion Design:
Increasing the amount of completed classwork is the goal. Baseline data collected to determine the % of work presently being completed. Progressively increase % of work to be completed – slowly, if needed, until 100% is reached.
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Changing Criterion Design – Smoking Cessation
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Stop Smoking
Baseline 20 23 19 25 21 goal1 19 18 18 19 18 goal 2 14 15 14 14 14 goal 3 11 10 10 11 10 goal 4 6 6 7 6 6 goal 5 2 2 2 2 2 goal 6 0 0 0 0 0
Days
Number of Cigs
Data Analysis
Visual inspection
Trend
Latency
Means & standard deviation
Percent of non-overlapping data
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Implications
Issues of counselor effectiveness and accountability will continue to be important!
Counselors are challenged to take on the responsibility of “proving their worth”.
The use of single subject research design methods can help all counselors provide outcome research.
Benefits
Single-subject research design (SSRD) provides a sound rigorous research methodology.
SSRD is effective for individual clients or small groups of clients.
SSRD provides documentation for the effectiveness of professional counseling.
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Conclusion
The most common types of single subject research designs that can be easily used by all counselors.
Intentionality must be used: informed consent; ethical & legal guidelines; cultural values and influences.
Single subject research is a viable option for all counselors!