Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications

Tutorial J

Clinical Psychology: Making Decisions about Best Therapy for a Client

Using Data Mining to Explore the Structure of a Depression Instrument

David P. Armentrout, Ph.D. and Linda A. Miner, Ph.D.

The original data set for this example had 359 cases. The intent of the instrument was to measure various components of depression as an aid to practitioners as they organize the therapy of a client. It was important that the instrument did, in fact, measure depression and that it did so reliably. There were 164 questions in the original survey.

To determine the structure, we followed these procedures. A factor analysis first grouped the questions into meaningful groups. We thought that people suffering from depression would appreciate a smaller ...