The purpose of this project is to examine the use of two new methodologies in the context of mental health research broadly conceived, including research related to mental health administration, planning and evaluation. Concept mapping is a structured process used with small groups (10-20 persons) who wish to lay out and prioritize a conceptual framework for some topic. The group brainstorms a large (up to 100) set of statements relevant to the focus topic; each person sorts these into piles of similar statements and rates them for importance; and the data are analyzed using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis to yield pictures (concept maps) of the statements and broader clusters of statements in two dimensions which the group then interprets and utilizes. Pattern matching is a methodology that attempts to assess the correspondence between stakeholder's implicit perceptions or theories about some topic and the patterns in relevant data. It can be used to assess program or treatment implementation (correspondence between ideal and operational program), the construct validity of measures (correspondence between theoretical conceptual framework and patterns of variable intercorrelations), the outcomes of programs (correspondence between hypothesized and observed effect sizes across variables), or the generalizability of results (correspondence between hypothesized and observed pattern of effects across individual research participants). In this project these methodologies will be examined in a wide variety of mental health contexts including (but not limited to): outcome studies of supported employment programs for persons with severe mental illness; measurement construction for studies of adolescents with severe mental illness; strategic planning and evaluation efforts; studies to involve consumers and providers in developing a conceptual framework for comprehensive community-based care for persons with severe mental illness; and, the development of a state-level database for the measurement of mental health outcome variables. Instruments will be designed to assess the performance of these methodologies in these and other mental health contexts in an attempt to assess where such methods have potential and where they may be inappropriate. Important methodological questions involve the potential for such methods in helping consumers of mental health services to articulate their implicit ideas about such service, and the relative advantages of alternative processes for implementing these two methodologies.
| Trochim, W M; Cook, J A; Setze, R J (1994) Using concept mapping to develop a conceptual framework of staff's views of a supported employment program for individuals with severe mental illness. J Consult Clin Psychol 62:766-75 |
