Question

Assume that a new intervention has been developed using a new approach to social skills training to help individuals with Asperger’s syndrome. How would you design an experiment to test the intervention? Consider the type of experiment, exposure, measurement, ordering, assignment to condition, and comparison groups.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) The purpose of any intervention is to result in improved behaviour through the courses offered. In this case, the purpose would be to improve the social skills of individuals who are suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.

A test experiment would mostly entail exposing the test subject to extreme conditions in order to evaluate the quality of the subject. For instance, a car might be tested in a factory workshop by putting it in simulated extreme weather conditions, extreme temperatures and even have the car undergo a crash test. Similarly, the intervention for Asperger’s patients would be best texted based on its credibility in extreme conditions.

In order to overwhelm the managers of the intervention through extreme conditions, it would be essential to have several individuals to pretend to have symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome. These individuals could pretend to be fractious and create a ruckus. In doing so, one might be able to evaluate the disaster management skills, the preparedness for an emergency, the counseling offered at difficult moments and the level of control on an extreme situation. Furthermore, the management could be presented with case-studies of an extreme situation with individuals suffering from Asperger’s syndrome. They could each be tested on how they would handle the extreme situations. These members could be later evaluated and scored based on whether or not their response was in line with professional psychiatric intervention for such individuals and situations. These experiments would clearly be classified as exposure and assignment to conditions.

The members could each be scored, evaluated and even categorised based on their level of readiness to these pressure situations. Furthermore, there could be ranks for management, which could lead to the formation of comparison groups. This would be similar to an “employee of the month” model where the others might have a chance to learn from the conduct of the employee with the highest rank. This would probably help create exemplary standards and lead to standardised conduct that can be followed.