Essay Sample on Research Question: the Field of Psychology

I am interested in investigating whether gender differences exist regarding the severity of depression in young adults aged between 18 to 35 years old. Therefore, the following research question will be utilized in the current assignment: Are there gender differences about the severity of depression?

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Background of the Problem

Depression is a mental disorder characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest in activities that a person would usually enjoy. It has a negative impact on an individual’s feeling, thinking, and behavior leading to various emotional and physical problems. According to the World Health Organization (2020), depression is a common condition affecting more than 264 million individuals globally. Wang et al. (2017) reported that women have a higher lifetime prevalence of depression (20% to 25%) compared to men (7% to 12%). Depression is categorized as either recurrent depressive disorder or bipolar affective disorder (The World Health Organization, 2020). The former is characterized by repeated episodes of the illness where the affected individual show decreased energy, loss of interest, and depressed mood. This results in declined activity for more than two weeks. In the latter, a person has episodes of depression (manic and depressive) that are separated by normal moods.

It is crucial to understand whether gender differences exist regarding the severity of depression because of its adverse consequences on the affected individuals. For instance, this illness can cause a person to commit suicide (Oliffe et al., 2019). Similarly, Farabaugh et al. (2012) established that people with greater depression severity are highly likely to endorse suicidal ideation. Additionally, depression has been associated with disability (Friedrich, 2017). Additionally, this illness has been found to lead to decreased productivity in the workplace. The World Health Organization (2019) estimated that the world economy loses $1 trillion annually because of declined productivity and increased turnover attributed to depression. Therefore, by understanding gender differences in the severity of depression, gender-appropriate treatment strategies can be developed to address the problem.

Hypotheses

Null Hypothesis

HO: There is no statistically significant gender difference about the severity of depression.

Statistically:

HO: Males’ Depression Severity = Females’ Depression Severity

Alternative Hypothesis

Ha: There is a statistically significant gender difference about the severity of depression.

Statistically:

Ha: Males’ Depression Severity < Females’ Depression Severity

Statistical Test

To understand whether gender difference exists regarding the severity of depression, an independent samples t-test will be used. The test is the most appropriate for addressing the research question and hypotheses because both the independent and the dependent variables meet the analysis’ fundamental assumptions. The independent variable (gender) is categorical because people can be grouped as either male or female. Bergin (2018) emphasized that an independent-sample t-test is used when there are two groups to be compared. Additionally, the test can only be utilized if the dependent variable is measured at the continuous level of measurement (Bergin, 2018). In the proposed research, the severity of depression is measured on the metric scale. The use of independence samples t-test to determine gender differences in depression is supported by previous empirical studies (e.g., Gaus et al., 2015; Serpytis et al., 2018).

Types of Data to be Collected and Data Collection Techniques

Two types of data will be collected to address the research question and the hypotheses— gender and severity of depression. Participants’ gender data will be collected using a structured questionnaire comprised of two parts. The first section of the survey will be used to gather respondents’ sociodemographic data, especially their gender. Each of the participants will be requested to indicate whether s/he is a male or a female. The following question will help the researcher establish the participants’ gender: What is your gender? The options the respondents will be required to choose from are either male or female. These responses will be numerically coded as 1 for male and 2 for female for ease of statistical analysis. Therefore, the participants will fall in either of the two categorical groups.

The second part of the questionnaire will be used to measure participants’ severity of depression. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) will be utilized in understanding the severity of depression. The PHQ-9 is comprised of 9 questions. In each of the items, the participants are asked to indicate the frequency in which they have been bothered by different problems over the past 2 weeks. Participants will respond to each of the questions on a 4-point scale that ranges from “Not at all” to “Nearly every day” (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2020). The responses are coded 0 to 3. Therefore, respondents’’ overall score range from 0 to 27.

The higher the score, the greater the severity of depression. Specifically, a rating not exceeding 4 shows that an individual has minimal or no depression. A score of 5 to 9 indicates that a person has mild depression level (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2020). Such an individual is required to repeat the PHQ-9 questionnaire at follow-up. Next, if an individual has a score of 10 to 14, s/he has moderate severity of the illness. In such cases, a treatment plan (e.g., pharmacotherapy or counselling) is undertaken. Moderately severe levels of depression are indicated by a composite score of 15 to 19 on the PHQ-9. Like in the mild case of depression, psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy is used to treat individuals with moderate levels of the illness. Lastly, a person with a score of between 20 and 27 on the PHQ-9 is considered to have a severe level of depression. Such a person is required to initiate pharmacotherapy with immediate effect. If the person responds poorly to therapy, s/he is referred to a mental health professional for collaborative management, psychotherapy, or both (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2020). However, in the proposed study, the PHQ-9 will only be used for measuring the severity of depression but not for referring participants for treatment.

The PHQ-9 was chosen for measuring the severity of depression because previous empirical studies have proved it to be valid and reliable. In Dadfar et al.’s (2018) study, the PHQ-9 was found to have an internal consistency of .88 and test-retest reliability 0.79 showing that it is a highly reliable measure. Its construct and criterion validity ranged from .64 to .70 when correlated with similar questionnaires of depression showing that it has a good validity (Dadfar et al., 2018). In another study, PHQ-9 was found to have a Cronbach’s alpha of .89 and high inter-rater reliability of between .86 and .95 (Indu et al., 2018). Based on these studies, the PHQ-9 is the most suitable instrument for measuring the severity of depression in the proposed research.

References

Bergin, T. (2018). An introduction to data analysis: Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. SAGE Publications.

Dadfar, M., Kalibatseva, Z., & Lester, D. (2018). Reliability and validity of the Farsi version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) with Iranian psychiatric outpatients. Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 40(2), 144–151. https://doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2017-0116

Farabaugh, A., Bitran, S., Nyer, M., Holt, D. J., Pedrelli, P., Shyu, I., Hollon, S. D., Zisook, S., Baer, L., Busse, W., Petersen, T. J., Pender, M., Tucker, D. D., & Fava, M. (2012). Depression and suicidal ideation in college students. Psychopathology, 45(4), 228–234. https://doi.org/10.1159/000331598

Friedrich, M. J. (2017). Depression is the leading cause of disability around the world. JAMA, 317(15), 1517–1517. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.3826

Gaus, V., Kiep, H., Holtkamp, M., Burkert, S., & Kendel, F. (2015). Gender differences in depression, but not in anxiety in people with epilepsy. Seizure, 32, 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2015.07.012

Indu, P. S., Anilkumar, T. V., Vijayakumar, K., Kumar, K. A., Sarma, P. S., Remadevi, S., & Andrade, C. (2018). Reliability and validity of PHQ-9 when administered by health workers for depression screening among women in primary care. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 37, 10–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2018.07.021

Oliffe, J. L., Rossnagel, E., Seidler, Z. E., Kealy, D., Ogrodniczuk, J. S., & Rice, S. M. (2019). Men’s depression and suicide. Current Psychiatry Reports, 21(10), 103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-019-1088-y

Serpytis, P., Navickas, P., Lukaviciute, L., Navickas, A., Aranauskas, R., Serpytis, R., Deksnyte, A., Glaveckaite, S., Petrulioniene, Z., Samalavicius, R., Serpytis, P., Navickas, P., Lukaviciute, L., Navickas, A., Aranauskas, R., Serpytis, R., Deksnyte, A., Glaveckaite, S., Petrulioniene, Z., & Samalavicius, R. (2018). Gender-based differences in anxiety and depression following acute myocardial infarction. Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia, 111(5), 676–683. https://doi.org/10.5935/abc.20180161

The University of Alabama at Birmingham. (2020, January 1). Patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)—Mental disorders screening—National HIV curriculum. https://www.hiv.uw.edu/page/mental-health-screening/phq-9

The World Health Organization. (2019, May 1). WHO | Mental health in the workplace. http://www.who.int/mental_health/in_the_workplace/en/

The World Health Organization. (2020, January 30). Depression. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression

Wang, J., Wu, X., Lai, W., Long, E., Zhang, X., Li, W., Zhu, Y., Chen, C., Zhong, X., Liu, Z., Wang, D., & Lin, H. (2017). Prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms among outpatients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 7(8). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017173