Motivation as an Early Drop out

Summary

The purpose of the Motivation as a Predictor of Early Dropout From Drug Abuse Treatment study is to test if motivation plays a key factor in drug addicts by using three different types of motivation scales without dropping out early. The hypothesis of the study was social stability, previous treatment experience, expectations for reducing future drug use, higher methadone dose level, and higher motivation were the predictions of treatment over the 60 day period (Joe & Simpson (1993)). The participants are tested by using different types of scales, and observing how motivated they are to get treated. The study was conducted by the three different types of scales called a DP scale, DH scale, and a TR scale.

The DP scale is drug use problems, the DH scale is their desire for help, and the TR scale is their readiness of treatment. Each of the scales have 7 to 9 different types of problems, general interest, or commitment level questions. Their scores were calculated from each of their motivation scale scores. Simpson and Joe found their studies from testing different ethnicities, and different ages from Corpus Christi and Dallas. The average age of the clients was 36 years and 68% were males (Joe & Simpson (1993)). They would also be studied by interviewing each of them, and asking them a series of important questions.

Their expectations was for the participants to leave the drugs forever, being encouraged by others, and to see if they accept the chances they have to quit. The results of the study depicted that the DP scale had the highest scores. Also, 24% of the participants dropped out of treatment within 60 days (Joe & Simpson (1993)). They believe that motivation plays an important role in the treatment of addictive behaviors (Joe & Simpson (1993)). Overall the researchers also believed that the study of the motivation scales were reliable because they tested and compared the results with different people from different cities.

Method

I think the method did appropriately test the research question because the researchers accurately tested and used the motivation scales on different people. The author's conclusion was also supported by their research findings because they did meet some of their goals. Not all of the participants dropped out, but only some did. Which means that they were able to receive scores, and test the treatment on different individuals by using their methods.

There are most of the times always alternative interpretations for every type of research study. They maybe could have done something different than scales, and test even more people rather than just from two different cities. The only inappropriate conclusions would probably have to be the questions for the motivation scales. I think that they could have gone more in depth with the interviews or the question.

Critical Reflection

Assumptions: The researchers' assumptions were based off of 3 different types of variables. The first one is their goal for making drug addicts quit their addiction, the second one is their expected chances of quitting drugs, and the final variable is receiving encouragement from others (Joe & Simpson (1993)).

Diversity: I do not think that the researchers' diversity was not good enough for this type of research. The study could have been more accurate if the percentage of ethnic groups were almost equal, and if the number of men and women were around the same. This study had more males than women, and it lacked in the amount of races for this study. Although this research is not necessarily sensitive to exactly how diverse it is, it maybe could have been more diverse.

This whole world has so many different ethnic groups, and men and women for a study to have too little of a specific race. It also could have been more accurate if they would have gotten a chunk of people from every state in the US rather than just two different cities in one state.

Implications: I think the implications of this study was that too many people dropped out earlier than expected from the research study. This means that there were less scores since there was less people. This also interferes with the diversity of this study. Another implication is that they were trying to also make a study at Houston, but there was not enough people. This interfered with their study because that also means that they would have less people to study on.

Results

DP Scale: The results from the Dallas DP scale was higher than the results for the Corpus Christi DP scale. The researchers quoted, suggested limited support for two separate factors, based on the emergence of two eigenvalues greater than 1.0 (Joe & Simpson (1993)).
DH Scale: The results of the DH scale was that the principal components analysis for the total sample yielded only one eigenvalue above 1.0 (3.08) (Joe & Simpson (1993)).
TR Scale: The results for the TR scale provided limited support for a two-factor solution in the total sample based on eigenvalues above 1.0 (2.78 and 1.38) (Joe & Simpson (1993)).

References

• Joe, G.W., Simpson D. D. (1993). Motivation As a Predictor of Early Dropout From Drug Abuse Treatment. Psychotherapy. Volume (30), pp. 357-368

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