Purpose Statement, Research Questions, and Hypotheses

Bipolar dis is a medical and psychological condition , it requires treatment and it is an illness that does not only affect the person who is suffering from the disease but also their social environment and their relationships with other people . Bipolar dis is characterized by severe mood swings , from depression to euphoria , from silence to violence and it is often difficult to live with a bipolar person (Jefferson , 2003 . The treatment for the condition includes the use of pharmacological preparations and psychotherapy , while studies are underway to determine the effectiveness of existing treatment

options (Van Kammen , 2007 . The researches on bipolar dis have been focused on new drugs , new therapies , and compliance to the treatment , cause and rate of recurrence , hospital visits , well-being , social support and stress (Rich , Schmajuk , Perez-Edgar , Fox , Pine Leibenluft , 2007 Most researches have adopted quantitative approaches , often using clinical assessment instruments others also make use of the longitudinal design as it seemed to provide more information on the behavior of the patients (Folsom , Gilmer , Barrio ,Moore , Bucardo Lindamer et .al ,2007 . Very few used qualitative approaches especially with the fact that bipolar patients may not be in the proper state to answer interview questions truthfully , and the ethical considerations often make it almost impossible . Some have adopted a mixed methods approach , using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in to triangulate the gathering of data . Based on the literature on bipolar dis , the can be examined in several ways of which my interests include

To determine how the bipolar patient 's perception of social support affects his /her well-being

Ho : Bipolar patient 's sense of well-being is not affected by social support

Ha : Bipolar patient 's sense of well-being is affected by social support .To compare the rates of recurrence of episodes in bipolar individuals who are using Lithium only and those who are undergoing psychotherapy only

Ho : There is no significant difference in episode recurrence between bipolar individuals who are using Lithium with those who are in psychotherapy

Ha : There is a significant difference in episode recurrence between bipolar individuals who are using Lithium with those who are in psychotherapy

To explore the bipolar patient 's sense of self-efficacy in dealing with his /her illness

To explore how the family members deal and cope with the bipolar patient 's episodes and symptoms

To describe the components of social support as perceived by the bipolar person

Research questions 1 and 2 will be quantitative , the purpose statement to determine and to compare denote the use of quantitative methods determining involves finding out what it is , it 's level or degree and how it affects the other variable while to compare means to examine two conditions and the rate of occurrence denote a quantity . On the other hand questions 3 to 5 will be qualitative since the purpose is to explore and to describe , this implies a sort of exploration of the variables considered and how it defined and understood by the participants . The quantitative questions...