In this video I explain how moments are used in statistics in order to describe the characteristics of a distribution. The first four moments help to tell us about the mean, variance, skew, and kurtosis of a distribution and allow … Read More
What is Kurtosis?
In this video I explain the concept of kurtosis. I explain the terminology for kurtosis coined by Karl Pearson, a number of common misconceptions related to kurtosis, how kurtosis is calculated for a sample, and how kurtosis is interpreted for … Read More
How to Calculate Skew
In this video I explain two formulas for calculating skew: Pearson’s Median Skewness or Pearson’s 2nd equation for skew, and the Adjusted Fisher-Pearson Standardized 3rd Moment Coefficient for skew. I also explain some general guidelines for interpreting skew values, as … Read More
Comparing Effectiveness & Lifestyle Factors
In this video I discuss comparing effectiveness of treatments as well as comparison with placebo, wait-list, and no treatment conditions. I also describe how lifestyle factors may play a role in mental illness and how positive lifestyle changes can help … Read More
Effectiveness of Treatment
In this video I discuss the difficulties of assessing the effectiveness of treatment. These include spontaneous remission, regression to the mean, nonspecific treatment effects, and biases which can influence patient and clinician perspectives on improvement. Disclaimer: This channel is for … Read More
Evaluating Medications & Other Biomedical Interventions
In this video I consider the questions that are raised when evaluating pharmaceutical interventions and what they mean for our understanding of mental illness. Next I describe other biomedical interventions for psychological disorders which are not as commonly used and … Read More
Biomedical Approaches: Psychopharmacology
In this video I begin describing biomedical approaches to mental illness in more detail and focus on psychopharmacology. I describe some of the main mechanisms of antipsychotic, anti-anxiety, and antidepressant medications, along with the uses and potential side effects of … Read More
Cognitive Therapy, CBT, & Group Approaches
In this video I describe cognitive therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and group approaches to treatment. I describe the general principles of these approaches and some of the key terms associated with each, along with examples of how these might be applied … Read More
Treatment of Mental Illness
In this video I provide a brief overview of some of the general issues surrounding the treatment of mental illness. These include the goal of treatment, who provides treatment, who receives treatment, and ethical considerations related to treatment. Disclaimer: This … Read More
Personality Disorders, Psychopathy, & Sociopathy
In this video I describe the symptoms and prevalence of several disorders in the DSM-5 category of Personality Disorders. I also briefly discuss differences between antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy and the Psychopathy Checklist created by Robert Hare. The … Read More