Sometimes, the world can be a very dangerous place. Since the prehistoric times, people all over the world have been confronted by rather overwhelming events. Nevertheless, humans have balanced this through coping successfully with catastrophes that they encounter. As a result, a crucial role has been played by the evolution process with regards to the selection, preservation, and fine-tuning of a number of adaptive mechanisms that are psychological, thus promoting human species survival.
Post-Traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a condition whereby a human being develops anxiety disorder after experiencing, seeing or living through events that threaten or cause serious harm or even death of loved ones. PTSD is a problem that is talked about often among the catastrophic events, and in the war news. It is also a well known phrase as well as a household name which has many causes. However, through research, lives have been improved due to the possibility of tracking problems such as PTSD. Research greatly helps in understanding the problem as well as possible effects, development and testing of treatment in order to ease or even fix the problem. Consequently, mankind has been able to prevent a number of problems. From veterans to civilians, there is more and more that people are learning about the causes of PTSD and other trauma reactions in the process of trying to come up with new and better methods of treating and preventing PTSD.
The scientific method like the one used in the following PTSD case study develops and tests the theories on how the observable events or facts have a relationship so as to explain them. For example, the goal of the scientific method is explanation. By using this method, researchers begin by observation and classification of things. The main goal though is not just description but rather explanation. Social science gives an explanation as to why humans behave the way they do.
The PTSD study was conducted so that the researchers could examine the ways of preventing onset of the PTSD after traumatic events. There were several hypotheses that had been developed with some researchers ascertaining that prolonged exposure therapy that involves breath control training because the trauma victims have an imagination that the trauma which they have experienced will help in combating onset of the PTSD symptoms. There has also been other studies that advocate for cognitive training that is designed specifically to teach or train those individuals who have had a trauma experience in order to reduce the negative thoughts. Further, there are some researchers that hypothesize that trauma victims need to undergo rather prolonged exposure therapy - if only they continue to show the signs of the stress disorder problems after a period of five months. Others still advocate for PTSD prevention through use of the antidepressant medications.
In determining the best action, Hadassah University hospital researchers in Jerusalem, Israel made a selection of 242 patients that had suffered from traumatic events in recent past(average of almost 10 days prior),and who had subsequently experienced acute stress in the case study participation. Participants got divided into four groups with each group receiving one of the five treatments; prolonged exposure therapy, the cognitive training, prolonged exposure therapy(with a five month delay),antidepressant medication Lexapro* and placebo(control group). After treatment and a follow up for nine months, effectiveness of the various treatments was assessed by the researchers; essential assessment was on hypothesis validity.
Researchers found out from the study that between 21% and 23% of participants in the first three categories that received psychotherapy developed PTSD (including the ones who had delayed treatment five months after traumatic event),whereas 42% of those in the antidepressant medication group and 42% of the ones that took placebo, developed symptoms. In the evaluation of the methods of treatment, researchers made a conclusion that chronic PTSD was effectively prevented in recent survivors by prolonged exposure, the cognitive therapy and the delayed prolonged exposure. They stated also that lack of treatment improving condition while using the antidepressant medication, required further evaluations to be carried out. The conclusions can however be evaluated further by other researchers, and the practitioners can have formulation of new hypotheses in regard to best PTSD preventive avenues, including therapies which combine treatments.
PTSD being a relatively new diagnosis, and scientists and researchers developing elegant techniques of assessment there are numerous thoughtful controversies that have emerged which include the question as to whether a traumatic event memory can be forgotten and also whether there is need for an additional diagnosis besides PTSD in doing justice to the larger problem of PTSD. Operationalizing classic scientific research designs is confronted also by several controversies that include, presenting of obstacles to sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, economics and historians due to the design difficulties which include random sample availability. Researchers are also not able to control variables as in other neither research methods nor can they are able to determine if at all the persons being studied represent other people or even society
Other controversies include control group altered behavior. The above case study is useful in-depth of PTSD investigation which has helped in fully understanding it as possible .As such the study help the future researchers in analyzing similar situations and in some ways the case study could be thought to be using the historical analysis in informing about future expectations.
In social science, power is not really a central concern to social science though case studies such as the PTSD one helps us in understanding the forces which modify individuals’ conduct, their behavior control as well as a way of shaping their lives. The above controlled experiment that the researchers used is often used in psychology and such survey is employed frequently in the political science as well as in sociology; participant observation or field research is a major anthropology data whereas in all social sciences, there is employment of the secondary data analysis.
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Reference
Callahan, H. B. (2012). Social Science and the Scientific Method. In Power &
society:Introduction to the Social Sciences (pp. 20-33). Cengage Learning.
