CSAM Measurement & Treatment Outcomes 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which self-report instrument specifically assesses both trait anger and state anger as distinct constructs?
- Beck Anxiety Inventory
- State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2) (Correct answer)
- Anger Disorders Scale
- Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire
Correct answer: State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-2)
The STAXI-2 was designed by Spielberger to measure state anger (current intensity) and trait anger (general disposition) as separate dimensions.
Question 2: In treatment outcome research, 'effect size' is primarily used to:
- Determine sample size needed for significance
- Measure the magnitude of therapeutic change independent of sample size (Correct answer)
- Calculate the probability of a Type I error
- Identify outliers in pre-post data
Correct answer: Measure the magnitude of therapeutic change independent of sample size
Effect size quantifies how much change occurred due to treatment, allowing meaningful comparison across studies regardless of sample size.
Question 3: A clinician notices a client's anger scores improve dramatically at post-test but return to baseline at 3-month follow-up. This pattern most likely indicates:
- Regression to the mean at follow-up
- Reactive coping skills without durable skill integration (Correct answer)
- Assessment reactivity contaminating post-test scores
- Demand characteristics inflating follow-up scores
Correct answer: Reactive coping skills without durable skill integration
Short-term gains that fade at follow-up typically suggest clients learned skills but did not integrate them into habitual coping patterns.
Question 4: When assessing anger-related physiological arousal as a treatment outcome, which measure is most directly relevant?
- Heart rate variability during provocation tasks (Correct answer)
- Blood pressure at rest
- Galvanic skin response to neutral stimuli
- EEG alpha wave amplitude
Correct answer: Heart rate variability during provocation tasks
Heart rate variability during provocation tasks directly captures the autonomic regulation relevant to anger arousal and recovery.
Question 5: The Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI) measures anger across which three domains?
- Frequency, intensity, and duration
- Cognitive, arousal, and behavioral (Correct answer)
- Trait, state, and expression
- Physical, verbal, and passive aggression
Correct answer: Cognitive, arousal, and behavioral
The NAS-PI assesses the cognitive (hostile appraisals), arousal (physiological reactivity), and behavioral (action tendencies) components of anger.
Question 6: In group anger management treatment research, an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis is preferred because it:
- Only analyzes completers, reducing attrition bias
- Includes all randomized participants regardless of completion, preserving randomization (Correct answer)
- Weights outcomes by session attendance
- Excludes outliers with extreme baseline anger scores
Correct answer: Includes all randomized participants regardless of completion, preserving randomization
ITT preserves the integrity of randomization by analyzing all assigned participants, reducing bias from selective dropout.
Question 7: A clinician wants to determine whether a client's post-treatment anger score represents a real clinical change rather than random fluctuation. They should calculate the:
- Cohen's d for the group
- Reliable Change Index (RCI) (Correct answer)
- Standard error of measurement for the group mean
- Pearson correlation between pre and post scores
Correct answer: Reliable Change Index (RCI)
The Reliable Change Index uses the instrument's reliability to determine whether individual score change exceeds measurement error.
CSAM Measurement & Treatment Outcomes 2
Which self-report instrument specifically assesses both trait anger and state anger as distinct constructs?