1A. Because both the therapist and the parents have different conclusions about whether Jerome’s fears dissipated, it is difficult to determine who is correct. There are many factors that go into it, but I primarily believe that the parents are correct. Jerome may be acting differently in therapy because it is not his own room that they are doing the tests in, but a random room where there may be no closet to be afraid of. In addition, if he knows that all he has to do is press a button and the lights and therapist will come back, his fear may be significantly less than if he was just alone in his room at home. I believe that the parents are correct mainly because they are with him when he is home in his own room and in the environment that matters and if he still seems to be afraid of the dark then the fear clearly has not dissipated. I think this diagnosis has less to do with his heart rate and more to do with his behavior at home.
1B. I am basing my conclusions on the fact that the testing done by the therapist had more to do with heart rate and less to do with addressing the behavior and possible causes of his fear. His heart rate alone could not be used to determine if his fear is still there and the rate could be affected by many other things, such as the fact that he was in a new environment or left alone in the room, which does not necessarily have to do with his fear of the dark alone.
1C. I think a better choice of test would be something like cognitive behavioral therapy. I think exposure therapy and doing the behavioral avoidance test is valid to determine how one acts while in the state of their fear, but cognitive behavioral therapy would more effectively target the causes of his behavior, as well as learning how to cope with his fear differently. While some exposure at first is valuable to determine his fear level, I don’t think just putting him in a dark room and seeing how long he can last would be effective in the long run. I think the therapist would be correct if they administered therapy that was more cognitive and not as much exposure.
2. I do not think fear is just measured by heart rate. While someone’s heart rate will inevitably rise when they are put in a fearful situation, it is not enough to address fear itself. Someone could be on a jog and that makes their heart rate rise but that does not mean that they are afraid. Being that the BAT only measures the heart rate, I think it is a valid form of measurement to measure a factor of what goes into fear, but not enough to be 100% valid and the only test used.
3. You could determine if the BAT was a valid indicator of his fear if it did more than just measure his heart rate and the number of minutes he spent in the room. I think the BAT stressed that the fear was there, so in terms of acknowledging if he had a fear of the dark I think the BAT was a valid indicator already.
4. The first tests I would administer are brain imaging tests, such as MRI’s or a CAT scan. I would want to check for a cause for his amnesia so these scans would show if there is any brain damage or abnormalities. Brain damage would be a reasonable explanation for the man forgetting who he was and how he got to the hospital. In addition, I would do a blood test in order to determine if there is any abnormality in his blood which could explain why the amnesia is occurring. The blood test could also show any drugs that were taken prior to him arriving at the hospital, which may have affected his memory.
5. If common IQ tests were available to the public, the tests validity would be reduced because now people are able to look to outside resources for answers, which disrupts the credibility of the test because people could essentially cheat which would lead to a false measurement of someone’s IQ. The whole point of questions on an IQ test is for them to be a surprise leading to a person thinking critically about the question, but if they were able to read the questions beforehand there would be no surprise or challenge to the test.
6. As a researcher, you could administer an “experiment” to a group of people who’s recent search history has proven that they had not watched the video and have them take a different IQ test than the one in the video. Then, you can show them the video for that IQ test being administered and then have the same people take that test. If their IQ is drastically higher from the first IQ test after watching the video then it shows how the validity of the test has been compromised.
7. There are many reasons to test the validity of the online inkblot test. The main one for me was the nature of the answers; they did not seem very legitimate and half the time had nothing to do with the actual image. In addition, after I got the results back they were all very negative and almost seemed to be a joke. The test did not seem very serious and I feel like the inkblots themselves were not enough to determine someone’s “sickness.”
8. 3 major criticisms of projective tests are its lack of standardization, the poor diagnostic measures (such as an inkblot test measuring your personality), and lastly it is criticized because they test the most recent experiences and not the deepest subconscious.
9. Being able to administer more than one form of a test would increase the reliability because although they are different tests, they are all addressing or measuring the same thing. By having multiple ways to do so, the credibility would increase.
10. I do not think that test was much more different than the previous. I thought that some of the answers on this test were more relatable to what I was seeing than the other, but I also think that the results were even more ridiculous than the first test.
11. I think the main reason why the results may be different depends on the type of test and what exactly the tests were measuring. In addition, 5 weeks is a pretty long time, so depending on what was being measured there might have been a change in the diagnosis and that is why the results were so different. 5 weeks is a lot of time for many things to happen in a person’s life which may change their outlook and their results as well. It would help to know which type of test they were being administered.