Prominent consequences of role stress: A meta-analytic review.

Role stress has received a lot of research attention in psychological, sociological, and organizational studies over the last several decades. Based on a literature review of about 300 journal articles, this article examines prominent consequences of role stress. Specific focus is on researching differences in relationships between facets of role stress (i.e., role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload) and frequently cited consequences using techniques of meta-analysis. Findings indicate that each role stress facet has a different relationship with the eight consequences studied. Role stress research can benefit from looking at each facet individually in addition to role stress generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of Perceived Importance in Intergroup Contact.

Furthering G. W. Allport's (1954) contentions for optimal contact, the authors introduce a new construct: the perceived importance of contact. They propose that perceived importance is the best proximal predictor of contact's reduction of prejudice. If individuals have opportunities for contact at work or in the neighborhood, their chances to have intergroup acquaintances and friends increase. Intergroup contact among acquaintances and friends can be perceived as more or less important, which in turn determines intergroup evaluations. A 1st study shows that the new measure of perceived importance is indeed distinct from established quantity and quality indicators. The results are cross-validated in a 2nd study that also sheds light on the meaning of importance. In 3rd and 4th studies, structural equation analyses and a meta-analysis support the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderators of nonverbal indicators of deception: A meta-analytic synthesis.

In many legal proceedings, fact finders scrutinize the demeanor of a defendant or witness, particularly his or her nonverbal behavior, for indicators of deception. This meta-analysis investigated directly observable nonverbal correlates of deception as a function of different moderator variables. Although lay people and professionals alike assume that many nonverbal behaviors are displayed more frequently while lying, of 11 different behaviors observable in the head and body area, only 3 were reliably associated with deception. Nodding, foot and leg movements, and hand movements were negatively related to deception in the overall analyses weighted by sample size. Most people assume that nonverbal behaviors increase while lying; however, these behaviors decreased, whereas others showed no change. There was no evidence that people avoid eye contact while lying, although around the world, gaze aversion is deemed the most important signal of deception. Most effect sizes were found to be heterogeneous. Analyses of moderator variables revealed that many of the observed relationships varied as a function of content, motivation, preparation, sanctioning of the lie, experimental design, and operationalization. Existing theories cannot readily account for the heterogeneity in findings. Thus, practitioners are cautioned against using these indicators in assessing the truthfulness of oral reports. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of attrition on baseline comparability in randomized experiments in education: A meta-analysis.

Using meta-analysis, randomized experiments in education that either clearly did or clearly did not experience student attrition were examined for the baseline comparability of groups. Results from 35 studies suggested that after attrition, the observed measures of baseline comparability of groups did not differ more than would be expected given sampling error. The degree of either overall or differential attrition did not relate to baseline comparability, a finding that held under sensitivity analyses. Also, both overall and differential attrition rates were unrelated to posttest effect sizes. All of these analyses, however, lacked sufficient statistical power to detect small but potentially meaningful effects. Results suggest caution is warranted when applying quality scales and other blanket rules pertaining to attrition that are meant to either serve as inclusion-exclusion criteria or in scoring study quality. Much greater attention is needed to both the reporting of attrition in primary studies and to the development of conceptual and empirical models of the attrition process. These developments would aid further investigation of the relation between attrition and study outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect-Size Indices for Dichotomized Outcomes in Meta-Analysis.

It is very common to find meta-analyses in which some of the studies compare 2 groups on continuous dependent variables and others compare groups on dichotomized variables. Integrating all of them in a meta-analysis requires an effect-size index in the same metric that can be applied to both types of outcomes. In this article, the performance in terms of bias and sampling variance of 7 different effect-size indices for estimating the population standardized mean difference from a 2 × 2 table is examined by Monte Carlo simulation, assuming normal and nonnormal distributions. The results show good performance for 2 indices, one based on the probit transformation and the other based on the logistic distribution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child negative emotionality and parenting from infancy to preschool: A meta-analytic review.

This meta-analytic review (k = 62 studies; N = 7,613 mother-child dyads) shows that effect sizes for the association between child negative emotionality and parenting were generally small and were moderated by sample and measurement characteristics. The association between more child negative emotionality and less supportive parenting was relatively strong in lower socioeconomic status families, reversed in higher socioeconomic status families, and limited to studies with relatively high percentages of participants from ethnic minorities and studies using parent report to assess negative emotionality. Higher levels of child negative emotionality were associated with more restrictive control in samples with less than 75% 1st-born children, as well as in infants and preschoolers, and in studies using parent report or composite measures to assess both negative emotionality and restrictive parenting. Finally, more child negative emotionality was associated with less inductive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于元分析的差异表达基因识别

针对传统差异表达基因分析方法使用单一数据集,不能处理异质性特性数据集、分析结果偏差大的问题,提出了联合驱动排除的概念,设计实现一种使用多研究数据集的元分析算法。应用公共数据库GEO中GDS2490和GDS2491数据集对设计的算法与微芯片显著性分析方法进行了对比。实验结果表明:设计的算法可以对数据集实行联合驱动排除,与微芯片显著性分析方法相比,可以有效分析异质性特性的数据集,准确找到差异表达的基因,验证了算法的有效性。该方法为差异表达基因识别提供了新思路。     

Meta-analysis研究方法述评

整合分析是一种用效应值对某一问题的定量研究进行综合、整合和解释的研究方法。介绍了整合分析的概念、历史、研究步骤和心理学中常见的数据报告形式的效应值的计算以及在我国的应用现状。并对整合分析这种研究方法进行了简要的评价。     

Models to predict milk fat concentration and yield of lactating dairy cows: A meta-analysis

Few models have attempted to predict total milk fat because of its high variation among and within herds. The objective of this meta-analysis was to develop models to predict milk fat concentration and yield of lactating dairy cows. Data from 158 studies consisting of 658 treatments from 2,843 animals were used. Data from several feed databases were used to calculate dietary nutrients when dietary nutrient composition was not reported. Digested intake (DI, g/d) of each fatty acid (FA; C12:0, C14:0, C16:0, C16:1, C18:0, C18:1 cis, C18:1 trans C18:2, C18:3) and absorbed amounts (g/d) of each AA (Arg, His, Ile, Leu, Lys, Met, Phe, Thr, Trp, Val) were calculated and used as candidate variables in the models. A multi-model inference method was used to fit a large set of mixed models with study as the random effect, and the best models were selected based on Akaike's information criterion corrected for sample size and evaluated further. Observed milk fat concentration (MFC) ranged from 2.26 to 4.78%, and milk fat yield (MFY) ranged from 0.488 to 1.787 kg/d among studies. Dietary levels of forage, starch, and total FA (dry matter basis) averaged 50.8 ± 10.3% (mean ± standard deviation), 27.5 ± 7.0%, and 3.4 ± 1.3%, respectively. The MFC was positively correlated with dietary forage (0.294) and negatively associated with dietary starch (?0.286). The DI of C18:2 (g/d) was more negatively correlated with MFC (?0.313) than that of the other FA. The best variables for predicting MFC were days in milk, FA-free dry matter intake, forage, starch, DI of C18:2, DI of C18:3, and absorbed Met, His, and Trp. The best predictor variables for MFY were FA-free dry matter intake, days in milk, absorbed Met and Ile, and intakes of digested C16:0 and C18:3. This model had a root mean square error of 14.1% and concordance correlation coefficient of 0.81. Surprisingly, DI of C18:3 was positively related to milk fat, and this relationship was consistently observed among models. The models developed can be used as a practical tool for predicting milk fat of dairy cows, while recognizing that additional factors are likely to also affect fat yield.