Final answer:
The four steps to identify, obtain, and evaluate an existing instrument are: determine the purpose, conduct literature review, obtain the instrument, and evaluate its reliability and validity. Examples of validated existing instruments for depression, prolonged grief disorder, and nutrition include the Beck Depression Inventory, Inventory of Complicated Grief, and Dietary Assessment Tools such as the Food Frequency Questionnaire.
Step-by-step explanation:
Four Steps to Identify, Obtain, and Evaluate an Existing Instrument:
Determine the purpose of the study and the specific research questions that the instrument will help answer.
Conduct a literature review to identify existing instruments that have been validated and used in similar studies.
Obtain the instrument by contacting the original authors or publishers, ensuring proper permissions are obtained.
Evaluate the instrument's reliability and validity by testing it on a sample population and analyzing the data.
Example of a Validated Existing Instrument:
An example of a validated existing survey instrument for depression is the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). This self-report questionnaire measures the severity of depressive symptoms in individuals. For prolonged grief disorder, the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) is a validated instrument that assesses the symptoms of prolonged grief. To evaluate nutrition, the Dietary Assessment Tools, such as the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) or the 24-hour dietary recall, are commonly used validated instruments.