Family discord and conduct disorder: Cause, consequence, or correlate?

The inferences to be drawn from statistical associations between family discord and conduct disorder in children are discussed with respect to the need to differentiate between risk indicators and risk mechanisms, the conceptualization of risk mechanisms, measurement issues, and the research strategies needed to test causal hypotheses. Such testing needs to indicate genetic research strategies, as well as to focus on children's effects on parents, person–environment interactions, nonshared environmental effects, causal chain effects, and the need to use natural experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond longitudinal data: Causes, consequences, changes, and continuity.

Longitudinal data have very important advantages for both measurement and the testing of causal hypotheses on the causes or course of psychopathology, but cross-sectional studies should usually be used first. The investigation of causes needs to encompass the several different types of causal question. The study of within-individual change constitutes a most important research strategy to test causal hypotheses, but it is not the only approach. Their testing requires specification of possible mechanisms, together with attention to the differential impact of risk experiences, of the possible role of person-environment interactions and protective mechanisms. This article addresses several strategies needed in using longitudinal data to test cause-and-effect relationships, including natural experiments, testing of competing hypotheses on mechanisms, study of reversal effects, multiple replications in different circumstances, use of designs to dissociate possible mechanisms, testing for dose-response relationships, examination of effect-specificity, considering biological plausibility, and assessing the strength of effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can after-the-fact designs test functional hypotheses, and are they needed in psychology?

While various methodological psychologists have traditionally claimed that ex-post facto or after-the-fact investigational designs cannot test functional hypotheses of "causal" type, it is maintained in the present paper that they can under certain circumstances. To the usual objection that the "treated" groups in after-the-fact studies have not been equated by randomization or matching to the "control" groups, it is argued that where suitable data are available, judicious matching can be done and conceivable regression effects avoided or discounted. While admittedly probable functional determinants ("causes") are preferably investigated by classical experimental designs, there are important fields, such as the study of the effects of physical disorders and investigations of the actual determinants in real-life situations, in which an appropriate series of after-the-fact analyses is essential for the testing of the alleged causal connections. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orientation masks 3-Gabor alignment performance

Although numerous studies have demonstrated an association between PTSD and substance use disorders, little is known about the causal nature of this relationship. In this article, we put forth and test major causal hypotheses. Specific hypotheses to be tested include self-medication of PTSD symptoms, substance users' high risk of exposure to traumatic events, and drug users' increased susceptibility to PTSD following a traumatic exposure. We also examine the possibility of an indirect pathway linking drug use disorders and PTSD via a shared vulnerability. Evidence for these causal hypotheses is evaluated using Hill's criteria for causal inference: strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, gradient, plausibility, coherence, experimental evidence, and analogy. We present data analytic strategies that exploit information about the temporal order of PTSD and drug use disorders to shed light on their causal relationship. Finally, we present findings on the PTSD/drug use disorder association from an epidemiologic study of young adults.     

The influence of the work environment on cardiovascular health: a historical, conceptual, and methodological perspective

The framework of psychosocial epidemiology is used to examine research developments that characterize the accumulation of knowledge regarding the role of the work environment in cardiovascular health and disease. The discussion of current programs of research focuses on the work of T. Theorell and R. Karasek (1996) and J. Siegrist (1996) as exemplars of European and American studies that have contributed the most to the understanding of occupational cardiovascular health. It is argued that researchers need to maintain and nurture relatively broad conceptual models of etiology because cardiovascular disease involves multiple biomedical risk factors and because specific aspects of the work environment are embedded in a large, complex matrix of other psychosocial influences. At the same time, investigators need to push ahead with focused research strategies to clarify the precise nature of the work environmental risk factors that emerge in the broad, somewhat imprecise epidemiologic study designs.     

External validity is more than skin deep: Some answers to criticisms of laboratory experiments.

Discusses some criticisms of laboratory experiments in psychology, emphasizing the claim that these experiments lack external validity. It is suggested that representative designs are inadequate for testing causal hypotheses, that ecological validity may facilitate the formulation of population estimates but is not necessary for causal hypothesis testing, and that experiments are not conducted to establish population estimates. The meaning that Ss assign to the laboratory setting and their actions, rather than the laboratory setting's mundane realism, affects the generalizability of the laboratory results. It is emphasized that whether laboratory results are generalizable to other situations is an empirical question. Research on aggression, especially in regard to the "weapons effect," is employed to illustrate the possible extension of laboratory findings to more natural situations. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetically informed study of the association between harsh punishment and offspring behavioral problems.

Conclusions about the effects of harsh parenting on children have been limited by research designs that cannot control for genetic or shared environmental confounds. The present study used a sample of children of twins and a hierarchical linear modeling statistical approach to analyze the consequences of varying levels of punishment while controlling for many confounding influences. The sample of 887 twin pairs and 2,554 children came from the Australian Twin Registry. Although corporal punishment per se did not have significant associations with negative childhood outcomes, harsher forms of physical punishment did appear to have specific and significant effects. The observed association between harsh physical punishment and negative outcomes in children survived a relatively rigorous test of its causal status, thereby increasing the authors' conviction that harsh physical punishment is a serious risk factor for children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of job stressors to affective, health, and performance outcomes: A comparison of multiple data sources.

It is widely accepted that job conditions are a causal factor in stress outcomes for employees. This conclusion, however, is based almost entirely on single data source, self-report studies, which demonstrate correlations between environmental perceptions and stress outcomes. This study collected stressor data from two sources, the job incumbent and her supervisor. Convergent and discriminant validities were found for four stressors (autonomy, workload, number of hours worked, and number of people worked for) but not for three others (role ambiguity, constraints, and interpersonal conflict). Correlations were found between perception of stressors and outcomes, the latter including both affective and symptoms. Smaller correlations were found between supervisor reports of stressors and outcomes, the latter including both affective and symptoms. Alternative causal models relevant to these results are discussed. The need for causal research including experimental designs, longitudinal designs, and multiple data sources are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Machiavellianism: A synthesis of the evolutionary and psychological literatures.

Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strategies, broadly similar to the "defect" strategy of evolutionary game theory, which is successful in some situations but not in others. In general, human evolutionary psychology and evolutionary game theory provide useful frameworks for thinking about behavioral strategies, such as Machiavellianism, and identify a large number of specific hypotheses that have not yet been tested by personality and social psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective causal scenarios for global environmental change

Two studies are presented that investigate the assumptions that risk evaluation is based on subjective causal scenarios, and that the cognitive representation of global environmental risks is structured according to five causal levels: human attitudes, human activities, emissions or pollutions, environmental changes, and negative consequences. In study 1, 30 subjects listed in free-response format causes, consequences, and remedial measures for 14 environmental risks. Differences between predictive and diagnostic inferences were found: whereas subjects tend to assign immediate rather than mediated causes, they predominantly assign negative consequences for humans, irrespective of the length of the causal chain that leads to these consequences. In study 2, 41 subjects judged the overall similarity between 25 environmental risks. A multidimensional scaling analysis of these similarity judgments replicates the theoretically assumed five causal levels. Results of both studies support the assumptions that risk evaluation is based on implicit causal hypotheses and that the proposed five-level structure adequately describes the cognitive representation of environmental risks.     

The theoretical status of latent variables.

This article examines the theoretical status of latent variables as used in modern test theory models. First, it is argued that a consistent interpretation of such models requires a realist ontology for latent variables. Second, the relation between latent variables and their indicators is discussed. It is maintained that this relation can be interpreted as a causal one but that in measurement models for interindividual differences the relation does not apply to the level of the individual person. To substantiate intraindividual causal conclusions, one must explicitly represent individual level processes in the measurement model. Several research strategies that may be useful in this respect are discussed, and a typology of constructs is proposed on the basis of this analysis. The need to link individual processes to latent variable models for interindividual differences is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Under the Skin: On the Impartial Treatment of Genetic and Environmental Hypotheses of Racial Differences.

Environmental and genetic explanations have been given for Black-White racial differences in intelligence and other traits. In science, viable, alternative hypotheses are ideally given equal Bayesian prior weights; but this has not been true in the study of racial differences. This article advocates testing environmental and genetic hypotheses of racial differences as competing hypotheses. Two methods are described: (a) fitting means within structural equation models and (b) predicting means of interracial children. These methods have limitations that call for improved research designs of racial differences. One improvement capitalizes on biotechnology. Genetic admixture estimates--the percentage of genes of European origin that a Black individual possesses (independent of genes related to skin coloration)--can represent genetic influences. The study of interracial children can be improved by increasing sample size and by choosing family members who are most informative for a research question. Eventually, individual-admixture estimates will be replaced by molecular genetic tests of alleles of those genes that influence traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactional analysis of suicidal behavior.

Analyzes the limitations inherent in 5 empirical research models (pure environmental, pure individual differences, discrete parallel, nonparallel typological, and parallel typological models) that have been used to study suicidal behavior. These extant models are shown to have specific limitations in terms of their ability to reflect an interactional perspective on suicidal behavior. A more adequate research model was then developed and used to test 2 hypotheses derived from a general interactional thesis; approximately 510,400 Ss were studied. Findings support both hypotheses, thus providing considerable support for the general thesis, i.e., that such real-life behaviors cannot adequately be understood by recourse to either individual difference variables alone or environmental variables alone. The implications of these findings and the empirical research model that revealed them are discussed in terms of heuristic value and relevance to students of other forms of human behavior. (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Approximate degrees of freedom tests: A unified perspective on testing for mean equality.

This article presents a statistic for tests of mean equality in between-subjects and within-subjects designs when variances are heterogeneous. The approximate degrees of freedom statistic of S. Johansen (1980) can be used to test main and interaction effects, as well as multiple comparison hypotheses related to these effects. Thus, researchers need only be familiar with a single statistic, rather than the many statistics that have been defined in the literature, to perform these tests of significance. Also included is a computer program to obtain a numerical solution. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Percutaneous blind needle biopsy versus combined laparoscopic excisional and guided needle biopsy in the diagnosis of liver disorders in pediatric patients

A special interest, both in scientific publications and in the mass media, is recently emerged about the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in post-menopausal women. Beside, in fact, the specific indication for the relief of menopausal symptoms, hypotheses are debated about a possible role of HRT in the reduction of risk of osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases, and in the increased risk of breast cancer. This situation emphasizes the need for assessing the benefit/risk profile for HRT in order to ensure that strategies of proven clinical effectiveness, based on large randomized clinical trials, will be adopted in the population.     

Influence of TV on daydreaming and creative imagination: A review of research.

The research literature is reviewed on the influence of TV on daydreaming and creative imagination. The hypotheses proposed to explain why TV might influence children's and adults' daydreaming and creative imagination positively (stimulation hypothesis) or negatively (reduction hypothesis) are discussed. The hypotheses that propose that existing daydreaming patterns result in changes in viewing behavior are also discussed. The weight of the available evidence favors the hypotheses that TV viewing stimulates daydreaming and reduces creative imagination, although decisive evidence of a causal relationship is lacking. The assumptions that underlie the hypotheses about TV's relationship to daydreaming and creative imagination are analyzed, and whether these assumptions have been supported by research is established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of content domain, logic training, and IQ in rule acquisition and transfer.

Four experiments were conducted to examine the hypothesis that when incorrect strategies for solving domain-specific problems were contradicted, a domain-general rule would be induced and would subsequently facilitate transfer to problems outside of the original domain. Experiments involved examining transfer from problems designed to elicit the "permission" and the "causal" schemata described by P. W. Cheng and K. J. Holyoak (1985). Results indicated that (1) training might have led to the construction of a domain-independent rule only when source problems were causal, (2) transfer was more likely when source problems were causal than when source problems were permissions, and (3) transfer from causal problems was weakly related to IQ, whereas transfer from permissions was strongly related to IQ. The facilitative effects of domain-independent rules on spontaneous transfer are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal and associative hypotheses in psychology: Examples from eyewitness testimony research.

Two types of hypotheses interest psychologists: causal hypotheses and associative hypotheses. The conclusions that can be reached from studies examining these hypotheses and the methods that should be used to investigate them differ. Causal hypotheses examine how a manipulation affects future events, whereas associative hypotheses examine how often certain events co-occur. In general, experimental methods with random allocation are well suited for addressing causal hypotheses, whereas random sampling is an asset when examining associative hypotheses. These hypotheses are discussed primarily with reference to 4 topics within eyewitness testimony research: the own-race bias, emotion and memory, event duration estimation, and system variables in lineups. Some other examples in forensic psychology are provided to illustrate difference between causal and associative hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing to fulfill HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) requirements: principles and examples

On-farm HACCP (hazard analysis critical control points) monitoring requires cost-effective, yet accurate and reproducible tests that can determine the status of cows, milk, and the dairy environment. Tests need to be field-validated, and their limitations need to be established so that appropriate screening strategies can be initiated and test results can be rationally interpreted. For infections and residues of low prevalence, tests or testing strategies that are highly specific help to minimize false-positive results and excessive costs to the dairy industry. The determination of the numbers of samples to be tested in HACCP monitoring programs depends on the specific purpose of the test and the likely prevalence of the agent or residue at the critical control point. The absence of positive samples from a herd test should not be interpreted as freedom from a particular agent or residue unless the entire herd has been tested with a test that is 100% sensitive. The current lack of field-validated tests for most of the chemical and infectious agents of concern makes it difficult to ensure that the stated goals of HACCP programs are consistently achieved.