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Part 2: Primary Source Data

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Book cover Sociocultural Roots of Mental Illness

Part of the book series: Topics in General Psychiatry ((TGPS))

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Abstract

In Part 2 of this chapter we will look at methods that have been used to gather primary source data for measuring the extent of mental illness and carrying out other epidemiologic investigations in communities and larger areas. These methods include various types of survey research and require accurate sampling procedures, the development of interview instruments, and the handling of the data. We will present some of the problems confronting investigators who have been conducting such studies. Finally, we will discuss essential problems with case-finding, the use of tests and scales, validity, reliability, and both interviewer- and response-bias that complicate researchers’ efforts to obtain the quality of primary source data that will shed light on fundamental research questions in psychiatric epidemiology.

Epidemiology at any given time is something more than the total of its established facts. It includes their orderly arrangement into chains of inference which extend more or less beyond the bounds of direct observation. Such of these chains as are well and truly laid guide investigation to the facts of the future. —W. H. Frost 31

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA

    John J. Schwab M.D.

  2. Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Mary E. Schwab M.D.

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  1. John J. Schwab M.D.
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  2. Mary E. Schwab M.D.
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© 1978 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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Schwab, J.J., Schwab, M.E. (1978). Part 2: Primary Source Data. In: Sociocultural Roots of Mental Illness. Topics in General Psychiatry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2433-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2433-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-2435-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-2433-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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