Research Design:
The experiment will examine the effect of two factors on improving self-esteem. The duration of the experiment will be six month, during which time partipants will receive a number of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment sessions aimed at improving their self-esteem. The DV will be the improvement in self-esteem scores on a self-esteem measure taken before treatment and after.
The first factor is the type of delivery method for the treatment. There are three levels in the first factor: Internet, Phone and Face-to-face.
The second factor is the number of treatments sessions per month. Again there are three levels: Once, Twice and Four times per month.
There will be 9 groups each with 10 participants, making the total number of participants 90.
The rationale of the experiment is to assess whether or not telephone and internet methods are appropriate modalities for delivery of CBT. This is of particular importance in a country like Australia where some people withlow self-esteem might live in extremely remote areas. New methods of delivery for treatment need to devised and tested in order to effectively support these people.
The number of delivery methods per month factor is important because it allows the experimenter to ask questions like e.g. Is the effect of receiving 4 treatment sessions per month via telephone the same as receiving 1 face-to-face? Knowing the difference between these effect sizes has implications for clinicians needing to make informed decisions about how much more treatments non face-to-face delivery modes require.
n=10 J=3 K=3 N=90
a1: Internet Telephone
a2: Telephone
a3: Face-to-face
b1: Once per month
b2: Twice per month
b3: Four times per month
For the purposes of interpretation a difference of 5 or more points between groups will be considered clinically important
Contrast Rationale
There will be 8 planned contrasts (2 A main efftects, 2 B main effects and 4 AB...