Lesson 5.6.1

5.6.1 Issues and debates in clinical psychology Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 5

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson 5.6.1, Issues and debates in clinical psychology: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 5: Clinical psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. Which of these is an example of an ethical issue in clinical psychology research?

    • Calculating the mean of a set of scores collected in a pilot study with a small group
    • Selecting a standard font for the written report submitted to the research ethics panel
    • Obtaining informed consent from participants who have a mental health condition
    • Choosing a colour scheme for the poster presentation that will be shown at the conference

  2. Balancing validity with reliability in research design is an example of which issue or debate?

    • Nature-nurture debates about whether genes or environment cause mental disorders in adults
    • Practical issues in the design and implementation of research
    • Culture and gender differences in how disorders are diagnosed across different populations
    • Reductionism in explanations that reduce complex disorders to a single biological cause

  3. Which approach is an example of reductionism in clinical psychology?

    • Comparing how two manuals classify the same disorder, noting differences in criteria used
    • Considering biological and social factors together in one model that is tested as a whole
    • Isolating a single cause of a disorder and ignoring other biological, psychological and social factors
    • Using an interview to explore a person's experiences in depth, including their history and goals

  4. What does the comparison between ICD and DSM illustrate as an issue in clinical psychology?

    • That classification systems never change over time, once they have been published in print
    • That diagnosis is unrelated to the clinician's training, experience and professional judgement
    • Different systems can classify and define the same disorders in different ways
    • That all disorders are identical in every classification system used by clinicians worldwide

  5. Which example illustrates the debate about psychology as a science in clinical research?

    • Writing an essay on the history of asylums and how they were run across the country
    • Discussing a patient's life history in a therapy session with a trained practitioner present
    • Asking participants to describe their feelings in a diary over several weeks of the study
    • Using laboratory experiments and biological methods to study mental disorders

  6. Which issue relates to culture in clinical psychology?

    • The colour of diagnostic forms
    • The length of a standard therapy session in minutes
    • The number of chairs in a waiting room
    • Cultural differences in diagnostic practice

  7. What contrast does the nature-nurture debate draw in explaining mental disorders?

    • Short-term treatment compared with long-term treatment only, measured over the same period
    • Research using men compared with research using women only, across all studies in the field
    • Biological explanations compared with social or learning explanations of what causes disorders
    • Laboratory studies compared with questionnaire studies only, with no other kinds of research

  8. A researcher uses qualitative interviews to explore patients' experiences. Which statement best captures the trade-off?

    • Qualitative data always contain exact numerical measurements
    • Qualitative data can never be analysed scientifically
    • Qualitative data are always more reliable than quantitative data
    • Qualitative data give rich detail but are harder to standardise and generalise

  9. A diagnostic measure gives highly consistent results but does not measure the disorder it claims to. Which issue is shown?

    • Reliability without validity
    • High sensitivity without specificity
    • Validity without reliability
    • Generalisability without ethics

  10. A revised diagnostic manual changes the criteria for a disorder. Which debate does this illustrate?

    • Ethical use of animals in research that involves invasive procedures on laboratory animals
    • Sampling by opportunity in field studies that recruit participants from a single location
    • How psychological understanding has developed over time
    • Gender bias in laboratory experiments that use mainly male participants in their samples

  11. A treatment focused only on drugs is criticised because it treats distress as a chemical problem. Which debate does this raise most directly?

    • Nature-nurture alone, since drugs are always biological in origin and so have no social side
    • Sampling bias, since drugs are tested on volunteers who may differ from the general population
    • Gender bias, since drugs are tested only on women in most of the large clinical trials done
    • Reductionism, because complex distress is reduced to a single biological cause

  12. Mental disorders are diagnosed more often in men than women in one study. Which debate does this most directly raise?

    • Ethics of animal testing in research that uses invasive procedures on laboratory animals
    • Reliability of the test-retest method when the same measure is used on two separate occasions
    • Use of case studies in therapy to illustrate treatment approaches with individual clients
    • Gender, where differences may reflect diagnostic bias rather than a true difference in prevalence

  13. Policies for treating detained patients are criticised as a form of social control. What is the key point of this critique?

    • Treatment is always delivered by untrained staff who lack any clinical training or supervision
    • Treatment has no effect on the patient at all, whatever the setting or type of therapy used
    • Treatment is always too expensive to deliver in any healthcare system or secure setting at all
    • Treatment may be used to enforce conformity rather than to meet the individual's needs

  14. Clinicians use diagnostic labels that are later criticised for affecting how patients are treated. Which ethical issue is this?

    • The speed of an internet connection in the clinic that is used for records and scheduling
    • The use of colour in clinic signage to help patients find their way around the building
    • The cost of printing diagnostic manuals in several languages for clinics across the country
    • The risk of labelling and its effects on patients' self-image and treatment

  15. Researchers in a mental health service cannot randomly allocate patients to treatments. Which issue does this describe?

    • Ethical and practical constraints that limit random allocation in real clinical settings
    • A problem only in animal research where random allocation is rarely used in any study
    • A benefit that ensures perfect validity so that results can be applied to every patient
    • A problem that never affects field studies because they always use random allocation

  16. In an audit, 36 of 120 diagnoses changed on review. What percentage of diagnoses changed?

    • 3 per cent
    • 36 per cent
    • 30 per cent
    • 70 per cent

  17. Which is the strongest evaluation of relying on a single classification manual alone?

    • It may encourage a categorical view that overlooks individual and cultural context
    • It guarantees that all disorders are identical across countries
    • It makes diagnosis fully accurate for every patient in every culture
    • It removes all ethical concerns from clinical practice

  18. Is every psychological treatment a form of social control?

    • No, but treatments can serve social control when they prioritise conformity over the person's wellbeing
    • Yes, because all clinicians must follow the same rules set down by the government each year
    • Yes, because every treatment is designed by the state to regulate the behaviour of its citizens
    • No, because treatments never affect social behaviour in any group, community or institution

  19. Which argument shows that a reductionist approach can be useful in clinical research?

    • It allows single variables to be tested precisely, building clear causal models that can be checked
    • It shows that complex disorders always have a single simple cause that can be found easily
    • It removes the need for any ethical review of research because it deals only with single variables
    • It guarantees that patients will respond identically to treatment whatever their history or context

  20. A test has sensitivity of 0.9. If 50 people have the disorder, how many are false negatives?

    • 45
    • 50
    • 5
    • 10

All Pearson Edexcel Psychology quizzes