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UNIVERSITY OF SURREY and CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY

PSYCHD IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

SELECTION 2012 - WRITTEN TEST

QUESTION PAPER

CANDIDATE INSTRUCTIONS

There are TWO parts to this test: Part 1 (which has two sections – A & B) and Part 2

Candidates have 45 MINUTES to complete the test

Candidates should answer the questions in PART 1- SECTION A first and are advised that

they should do as best as they can on these questions before moving on to the rest of the test

All answers MUST be written in the answer booklet provided

Loose sheets of paper are provided for notes. They will be collected at the end of the test but

will NOT be marked

Candidates are permitted to make notes on this test paper. It will be collected at the end of

the test but will NOT be marked

WHEN THE INVIGILATOR INSTRUCTS YOU TO DO SO, TURN THE PAGE

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PART 1: SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER THINKING

This part of the test assesses your ability to think critically about research designs that may be

used by applied psychologists to investigate practice-based healthcare questions.

There are 20 marks available on this part of the test.

Part 1is divided into two sections: SECTION A (worth 10 marks) and SECTION B (worth

10 marks). Please ensure you answer the questions in SECTION A first.

Part 1 - SECTION A

Read the Abstract below and then answer the questions for Part 1- SECTION A in your

answer booklet.

Abstract

Background: In November 2011, the Care Quality Commission reported that too many

hospitals in England were failing to give basic care to the elderly. Of particular concern was

the failure of staff to meet the basic hygiene needs of elderly patients. The government and

the public called for a review of elderly care training and standards in hospitals in England.

The current study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to understand the attitudes

and beliefs of healthcare students to helping elderly patients in need. The TPB proposes three

factors predict a person’s intention to help: (1) the person’s attitude towards helping, (2) the

extent to which the person perceives that significant others (e.g. friends, family) would expect

them to help, and (3) the extent to which the person believes they have the ability to help the

person in need. Also measured was the extent to which healthcare students felt they would

regret not helping an elderly person who needed help.

Method: An opportunity sample of 70 undergraduate nursing students (58 female, 12 male)

with a mean age of 24.98 (SD 2.81) from a University in the South of England participated.

Participants read a vignette (a short story) describing a fictitious elderly female hospital

patient who was asking for help with going to the bathroom. Participants then completed

questions measuring their intention to help the patient if they were in the situation described,

the three TPB factors, and their anticipated regret if they did not help.

Results: Regression analysis showed that the variables measured in this study explained 58%

of the variability in intention to help. Attitude towards helping, perceived ability to help and

regret at not helping were all significant predictors of intention to help.

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Part 1 - SECTION B

Read the study description below and then answer the questions for Part 1- SECTION B in

your answer booklet.

Study Description

Researchers have found that intention to perform a particular behaviour does not necessarily

result in the actual behaviour occurring. This is known as the ‘intention-behaviour gap’. A

group of researchers conducted a study to assess the extent to which intention to adhere to

clinical guidelines regarding the provision of hygiene care to elderly patients is related to

actual adherence in nurses. They recruited a volunteer sample of 20 nurses. Nurses’

intention to adhere to clinical guidelines was measured using a single percentage scale

ranging from 0 (no intention to adhere to the guidelines) to 100 (intention to adhere to the

guidelines completely). Nurses’ attitude towards the clinical guidelines were also measured

using a single Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (do not agree with the content of the

guidelines at all) to 7 (agree completely with the content of the guidelines). Two weeks later,

the researchers measured adherence by using structured observation of the nurses’ behaviour

on the ward. Each nurse was observed by a single rater who assessed them on the extent to

which they met 6 specific guidelines for hygiene care with every patient between 11am and

2pm on three consecutive days. The rating scale was two-point: the guideline was met or was

not met.

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PART 2: DATA INTERPRETATION AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

This part of the test assesses your ability to extract and interpret information and summarise it

in an appropriate written form. You will be marked on presentation as well as content.

Please ensure your writing can be read.

Read the Description of data below and then write your answer in Part 2 of your answer

booklet following the instructions given in the answer booklet.

There are 10 marks available on this part of the test.

Description of data

The senior management of an NHS mental health trust is considering whether to invest in

video conferencing (VC) technology. The mental health trust covers a wide geographical

area and clinical staff members sometimes have to travel between 30 and 60 minutes to

attend staff meetings. The managers hope that introducing VC technology will reduce the

need for their staff to travel and so increase the time staff can spend on clinical work.

To help their decision-making, the managers have asked you to review the literature on the

effectiveness of VC and then provide some summaries of this. You conduct a literature

search and find three relevant papers. The main results of these papers are presented in the

table below. You should use the information in this table to complete the tasks provided in

Part 2 of your answer booklet. When considering the data in the table, it would be best to give

consideration to the implications of the design and sample used in each study.

Study Participants Design Intervention

Group

Control

Group

Results: average

staff attendance

Results:

percentage of staff

satisfied with

meetings

1 10 mental

health

clinicians

Baseline then

intervention

Remote staff

join staff

meetings

using VC

- Before VC =

65%

With VC = 80%

p=.25

Before VC = 50%

With VC =80%

p=.15

2 50 physical

health

teams per

group

Randomised

Controlled

Trial

(RCT)

Remote staff

join staff

meetings

using VC

Remote

staff

attend

meetings

in person

Intervention =

90%

Control = 87%

p=.55

Intervention =

81%

Control =80%;

p=.91

3 50 mental

health

teams per

group

RCT Remote staff

join staff

meetings

using VC

Remote

staff

attend

meetings

in person

Intervention =

79%

Control = 64%

p=.02

Intervention =

83%

Control =56%

p=.04

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UNIVERSITY OF SURREY and CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY

PSYCHD IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

SELECTION 2012 - WRITTEN TEST

ANSWER BOOKLET

This answer booklet is divided into three sections:

Questions for Part 1–Section A of the test and space to write your answers;

Questions for Part 1–Section B of the test and space to write your answers; and,

Instructions for Part 2 of the test and space to write your data summaries.

Candidates should answer the questions in Part 1 – Section A before moving on to the rest of

the test.

PLEASE PRINT YOUR FULL NAME CLEARLY IN THE BOX BELOW:

PLEASE WRITE YOUR DATE OF BIRTH IN THE BOX BELOW:

PLEASE TICK THIS BOX ONLY IF YOU HAVE APPLIED TO BOTH THE SURREY

AND THE SALOMONS COURSES

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QUESTIONS: PART 1 – SECTION A (page 2 of the question paper)

Question (a): Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using a vignette in this research.

[2 marks]

Question (b): Correlations between intention to help and the other variables were as follows:

attitude towards helping r=.53 (p<.001), perceived ability to help r=.63 (p<.001), and regret at

not helping r=.41 (p=.005).

Which variable has the strongest correlation with intention to help and what does the

correlation tell you about the nature of the relationship between these two variables? You

must give both parts of the answer in order to score the mark. [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question (c): How much variability in intention to help was not explained by the variables in

this study? [1 mark]

Question (d): State one variable not measured in this study that you think might predict

intention to help and explain why you think this variable would predict it. You must give

both parts of the answer in order to score the mark. [1 mark]

Question (e): List five different reasons why the findings from this study cannot be

generalised to all cases of poor care in hospitals in England. [5 marks]

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Turn over for the next set of questions

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QUESTIONS: PART 1 – SECTION B (page 3 of the question paper)

Question (a): Why do you think the researchers measured nurses’ attitude towards the

guidelines? [2 marks]

Question (b): Give one limitation of measuring adherence two weeks after measuring

intention [1 mark]

Turn over for the next question

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Question (c): If you were doing this study, how would you maximise the reliability of the

measurement of adherence? [2 marks]

Question (d): What is one design weakness of observing nurses between 11am and 2pm each

day? What would you propose as an alternative and specifically why would this be an

improvement? [3 marks]

Turn over for the next question

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Question (e): Give two separate dimensions upon which volunteer nurses might differ from

nurses who do not volunteer to take part that would be relevant to the meaning that could be

made of the findings of this study [2marks]

END OF PART 1 QUESTIONS. TURN OVER FOR PART 2

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PART 2: WRITTEN SUMMARIES (page 4 of the question paper)

There are two written summary tasks to complete. Note: task 2 begins on page 10 of this

booklet

Task 1:

Write a summary of the findings in the table concerning the impact of using video

conferencing to help remote staff join staff meetings. The summary should focus on

providing interpretation and synthesis of the findings, a recommendation to the trust

management and a brief rationale for this recommendation. Re-statement of the findings

without interpretation will not be awarded marks. You may assume that the readers of this

summary can understand common academic/scientific language. You should write in prose

and not note form. [7 marks]

Turn over for continuation sheets

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Turn over for continuation sheets

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Turn over for Task 2

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Task 2

The senior management of the trust also wants you to provide information to an adult service-

users group to support a consultation process. Therefore, you need to write a new version of

your response to Task 1 that covers the same content but uses language that will be accessible

to NHS adult mental health service-users. You should write in prose and not note form. [3

marks]

Turn over for continuation sheets

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Turn over for continuation sheets

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