Lins Article Critique

Lins Article Critique

This paper presents the critique on the article “Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Anger, Mood, and Vulnerability to Substance Use Among Inpatient Substance-Dependent Clients” written by Wei Fen Lin. Percentages are very widely reported in research reports in academic journals. A researcher depends on numbers to validate their hypotheses. When a researcher does not supply the underlying number of cases for each percentage the numbers could be misleading. At the beginning of the study there were 40 participants but by the end of the study the number of participants had dropped to 14 participants. The post-tests scored 14 participants total, seven in the experimental group and seven in the control group. At the four-month follow-up, only six from the experimental group were available for testing and four from the control group. The researchers did notate that the sample size varied at different times during the research process. The researchers did not distinguish between the original test scores and the post-test scores regarding the number of participants who started the treatment but did not continue it (Pyrczak, 2008).

The lack of consistent data could lead to data that could be misleading. The percentages reported without underlying number of cases could be potentially misleading (Pyrczak, 103-104).To determine whether a study is skewed either to the left or the right, the readers need to have the raw scores, the mean, and the standard deviation. Because the researchers did not supply the raw data it is impossible to determine if the study is skewed to the left or the right. The researchers section that analyzed the results of the test was very short and did not contain many details. They noted that the FT group demonstrated major improvements from pretest to posttest in all areas but state anger. When the results were analyzed in the table, there was only a 3.29 difference in the experimental group and the control group. The results section was very brief and only two paragraphs long. They did not restate the hypothesis or purpose of the research. They did notate a significance improvement from pretest to post-test in all the areas tested except state anger. The researchers did not do a good job of providing a cohesive essay of the results. They also failed to restate the research hypotheses or purpose of the research. There authors/researchers provided two tables in the research article (Lin & Baskin, 2004).

The first table did not deal with statistics but presented the topics used in the therapy procedures. The second table provided the means and standard deviations of both the experimental and control groups. Test scores were documented before and after the experimental research. The researchers also provided data from a four-month follow-up with only 10 participants. The chart gave test score son the following areas: forgiveness, anxiety (state and trait), depression, anger (state and trait),self-esteem, and vulnerability to drug abuse. In long articles, researchers briefly summarize the purpose and results at the beginning of the discussion ...