Lin Article Critique: Part 11
Tabitha Orr
Phone: 404-472-7914
Liberty University
COUN 503
Dr. Heckler
February 17, 2013

Summary
This particular article Effect of Forgiveness Therapy on Anger, Mood, and Vulnerability to Substance Use among Inpatient Substance-Dependent Clients looks deeper into the effects of Forgiveness Therapy on anger, mood, and vulnerability to substance abuse among impatient substance-dependent clients. The group of researchers consisted of Wei-Fen Lin, David Mack, Robert Enright, Dean Krahn, and Thomas Baskin came together to gather more information in forgiveness therapy focusing on certain targets such as anger, anxiety, and depression. The group of researchers gathered 14 patients with substance dependence and began weekly alternative individual treatment sessions with each client. After the time frame for the study had ended there was a four month period that showed the positive effects of forgiveness therapy. As stated within the article, “Forgiveness therapy may prove effective in the future because it moves to the heart of the matter of some clients. Deep hurts borne out of unfair treatment seem to play a part in substance use and abuse,” (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, Baskin, 1119). The group of researchers recruited the population for this study from a drug rehabilitation center that offers intense, structured, residential treatment to individual suffering from alcohol and other drug dependencies. There were forty-three potential participants who were referred for this study based on the opinion of their therapist and then participants were provided with details regarding the study to determine if the patients would participant (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, Baskin, 1115). After the participants were determined the researchers began with the procedures, which included many inventory and surveys to get a better grasp of the participant’s vulnerability to drug use. When the participants completed the inventory and surveys the forgiveness therapy began which included 12 individual therapy sessions administered by the same therapist who provided the drug and alcohol counseling as well (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, Baskin, 1116). This paper will look deeper into the critique of population and sampling, critique of procedures, and lastly the type of measurement used in this study.
Population and Sampling The population for this study was chosen based on convenience random sampling in a residential treatment center. According to Pyrzcak’s (2008) description of samplings, the sample is not considered truly random; however, it could be considered convenience sampling which is a highly suspect method for drawing samples from which to generalize (p. 57). All participants were recruited from a drug rehabilitation center that offers intense, structured, residential treatment to individuals suffering from alcohol and other drug dependencies. The potential participants were given informed consent forms and information regarding to the studies so the clients have a better understanding of the study before they give their consent to participate. The researchers decided using a residential treatment center would be more effective because the clients are in the facility for substance abuse. Each of the forty-three potential participants was referred for this study on the basis of their therapist’s opinion (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, Baskin, 1116). From this population, the sample of forty participants was randomly selected, which is not considered sufficiently large which causes it to be inadequate because the sample size does not accurately represent the data or finding in the population study. The sampling that took place began with forty patients, after three of the patients were eliminated from the study on the basis of their forgiveness and anger scores. With random sampling used, it was not stratified because the group of researchers gathered all the participants in one rehabilitation area and did not divide them into groups according to their amount of abuse, their location outside of the facility or the types of drug abuse but rather random groupings. The generalization would be low because the study was intended for a specific population that was struggling with a similar issue. However, the response rate would be higher because out of the 43 participants 40 of them participated in the study. In each subgroup the number of participants is low because the group was divided into two group which broke it down into 14 participants per group. In addition the dropout rate was equal in both groups, which results in a 35% completion of the study, which is well within the normal range (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, Baskin, 1119). Please note the authors have done a good job in providing the demographics of the sample that was involved in the study such as age, gender, race, education, religion and marital status. Overall, this particular same was appropriate for generalization because the authors were very thorough in maintaining their focus throughout the study.
Procedures
As stated previously, the authors were very clear and thorough in reporting the demographics of the participants which included their gender, age, race, education, marital status and religion. In addition the researchers discuss the basis for selecting the participants. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups which focused on receiving Forgiveness Therapy (FT) or Alcohol and Drug Counseling (ADA). If this study has only used a single group the results would have been altered because the researchers would not be able to compare the difference in Forgiveness Therapy and Alcohol and Drug Counseling like the study set out to do. Therefore, the participants had to be broken into the two different groups to get the best results possible for this particular study. The authors did a good job to describe both FT and ADC in sufficient detail throughout this article. The researcher began by giving a few references into the study for the experimental task and then described how it was used in their study which is described as “tests were administered in random order” (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, & Baskin, 1116). However, the treatments were administered by therapist and it was closely monitored to make sure the results were accurate. With the FT procedure the clients had to read one chapter in Forgiveness is a Choice by Enright before the sessions and they spent on session on each topic; however, the treatment was self-paces to the extent that participants could spend extra sessions on topics that the therapist-participant dyad believed were deserving of further work (Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, & Baskin, 1116). With the ADC Procedure provided the same format from the FT sessions because this particular format has been used it was consistently used over several years. The researchers used the exact same format for both groups because if the researchers chose different outlines then the study would be much harder to be able to compare the progress of each client. During this study the researchers tried to make both clients have the same treatment so the clients didn’t get better treatment than other clients. While the researchers gave both groups the same format the researchers wanted to make sure the sessions resembled a more natural setting. The environment of the experiment may not be found in more natural setting because the finding may not be valid in a more natural setting (Pyrczak, 2008). The procedures the researchers decided to use were the appropriate experiments because the participants were randomly selected and also randomly assigned into the different groups. Since the clients were not purposely assigned to the groups the results are more accurate.
Instrumentation
Although the author does not provide a list of instruments used to measure the score of the participants. For example, the authors did not give a list of questions used or even an outline for the sessions. There are specialized formats, setting, and restrictions the researchers had to use in order for the study to be accurate. The researchers stated that within the Forgiveness Therapy and Alcohol and Drug Counseling the same format was used because it was used over several years in the study facility and was very effective. When the study first began the potential clients were given information regarding the study as well as an informed consent before starting the experiment. The methods used to collect the data were stated clearly in the article such as the 12-step-based overall program for both sessions. The researchers did a good job providing other examples of citations related to the finding of this particular study. Lin, Mack, Enright, Krahn, and Baskin provided the development and statistical properties of the instruments used as well as other instruments published by commercial publishers that are usually have accompanying manuals that describe technical information of the instruments (Pyrczak, 2008). The researchers had both content and empirical validity throughout the entire study such as collecting data using an instrument to determine the extent to which the data would “make sense.” During the study the researchers are comparing the difference in therapy sessions and the progress of each client. Overall the researchers used the best instruments to measure the progress of the clients throughout the entire study. With the researchers randomly selecting the participants and randomly placing them into two different therapy sessions this makes the study even more accurate than others recently performed.

References
Lin, W., Mack, D., Enright, R., Krahn, D., & Baskin, T. (2004). Effects of forgiveness therapy on anger , mood, and vulnerability to substance use among inpatient substance-dependent clients. 72(6), 1114-1121.
Pyrczak, F., & Bruce, R. R. (2008). Evaluating research in academic journals, a practical guide to realistic evaluation. (4 ed.). czak Pub.