Young (Psychological problems)
Young (2007) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with Internet Addicts: Treatment Outcomes and Implications (textbook pg.74-75)
“Understand the aims, procedures and findings (results and conclusions), strengths and weaknesses of”
Background: Internet addiction is a “new” mental health disorder, which has only been recognised in recent years. This means there is not much knowledge about treatments for internet addiction. Young wanted to see if CBT (which had been used to treat many other kinds of addictions) could be effective at treating internet addiction.
CBT: Cognitive behavioural therapy is treatment that involves a series of sessions with a therapist – it can be face to face or online. Stage 1 involves functional analysis, which identifies triggers for the addiction. Stage 2 is skills training, which involves teaching the individual techniques to deal with their cravings and reduce/end their addiction.
| A | Young aimed to investigate whether CBT would be effective for treating patients with internet addiction. Young wanted to see if their addicted behaviours would reduce both during the CBT course, and after the course had ended (is there long-term effectiveness?) |
| P | SAMPLE: A sample of 114 participants were recruited from the Centre for Online Addiction: a website for people with internet addiction in the USA. They all were shown to have an internet addiction by using the “Internet Addiction Test” (IAT). If they had any other psychological problems such as depression, anxiety etc. they were not used as participants. They were addicted to various aspects of the internet, such as pornography and chat rooms. CBT: The participants were given a 12week course of online CBT. Stage 1 (functional analysis) involved finding out about the patient, what symptoms they had, what triggers their addiction and when their addiction had begun. Stage 2 (skills training) involved helping the patient develop skills such as how to stop using online apps, how to reduce time spent online, and how to deal with triggers such as problems at home, work and school. QUESTIONNAIRES: To test the effectiveness of CBT, participants completed the “Client Outcome Questionnaire” at 4 points: 3rd session, 8th session, 12th session and 6 months after the last session. It included 12 questions where participants rated their behaviour or feelings on 5-point Likert scales from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely good). For example: rate your ability to control your computer use. |
| R | Participants showed improvements in managing their internet addiction based on their client outcome questionnaires. For example, on average, confidence staying off apps went from 3.45 after session 3 to 4.55 after session 12. The effectiveness seemed to maintain at the 6month follow-up stage. |
| C | Young concluded CBT is an effective treatment for internet addiction as participants improved their confidence in controlling their addiction. The study also suggests that CBT has a long-term benefit when treating internet addiction, as improvements were maintained 6 months later. |
| G | (+) The sample size of 114 is quite large, with male and female participants, with varied types of internet addictions. This makes the conclusion about CBT being effective generalisable to many types of internet addictions. |
| R | (+) The client outcome questionnaire given to the participants (e.g. 12 5-point Likert scale questions) could easily be replicated to see if the results were consistent over time and therefore reliable. |
| A | (+) The results indicate that online CBT is an effective treatment for internet addiction, therefore this can be used in the future for this purpose. Online CBT is cheaper and more readily available than face-to-face CBT, so this means patients can get support easier. |
| V | (-) Patients were rating their own confidence in dealing with their addiction, for example 4/5 confidence for staying off apps. However, participants may have lied or not been accurate about their ability to deal with their addiction. This means we may not have been measuring their addiction in a valid way. |
| E | (-) The participants may have found CBT sessions distressing, if they had to talk about their home life and stressful situations that led to their addictions… (+) …However, as a result of the sessions, patients made improvements in managing their symptoms, therefore it could be argued that the potential psychological harm is outweighed by the benefits of the therapy. |
Young’s Study Key Term Glossary
| Closed question | A question that has set answers for the participant to choose from |
| Likert scale | A numbered scale of agreement, e.g. 1 not at all to 10 definitely |
| CBT | The extent to which a study represents behaviours seen in everyday life (is it realistic?) |
| Internet Addiction Test | A questionnaire used to determine if somebody has an addiction to the internet |
| Client Outcome Questionnaire | A questionnaire designed to see if CBT was an effective treatment for internet addiction |
| Need more help? Want to stretch your understanding? Need a video example? |
| https://tuxfordpsychology91.wordpress.com/2-clinical-psychology/ |
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