Psychotherapy outcome and quality improvement: Introduction to the special section on patient-focused research.

This article introduces the special section of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology on patient-focused research for improving the outcome of psychological therapies. After a discussion of the context, promise, and problems associated with this research domain, an overview of the contributions is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New approaches to missing data in psychological research: Introduction to the special section.

Traditional approaches to missing data (e.g., listwise deletion) can lead to less than optimal results in terms of bias, statistical power, or both. This article introduces the 3 articles in the special section of Psychological Methods, which consider multiple imputation and maximum-likelihood methods, new approaches to missing data that can often yield improved results. Computer software is now available to implement these new methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Understanding psychological research: An introduction to methods.

Reviews the book, Understanding psychological research: An introduction to methods by Richard St. Jean (2001). Richard St. Jean's book has the stated goal to be a brief text that presents essential concepts in a concise but interesting format. In this the author succeeds admirably. The nine short chapters and three appendices present the basic content that any method course needs to cover. The chapters are centred around lively research examples, often from the author's own work. Each chapter is followed by a brief summary and a glossary of key terms. The examples are used to introduce the methodological question and to illustrate various solutions. If the book suffers from a drawback, it is that it is too good at what it wants to be: an easily accessible, succinct introduction. The author visibly aims to make the issues as clear and understandable as possible, even if this implies glossing over details and leaving out more difficult aspects. The book does not want to be, nor is it, a manual for people who actual want to do research. In sum, this book will be most useful for those who teach introductory methods courses aimed at students who want to "consume" research rather than pursue it themselves. For these students, the book will be a valuable resource to better understand pertinent issues and to be alert towards methodological problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using deception ethically: Practical research guidelines for researchers and reviewers.

This article reviews highlights in the literature on existing recommendations for ethical use of deception in psychological research. We conclude that ethical guidelines and aspirational statements set out by research policies and advisory panels on ethics must eventually be operationalized into concrete terms when introducing deception into a research design. Specific directives for using deception are especially important for new researchers developing projects and also for university/departmental reviewers who are being asked to evaluate the ethical standing of proposed research. We offer a checklist designed to cultivate the understanding of junior researchers and to facilitate the review process by instantiating the relevant general guidelines into a set of Y/N questions about intended research. Finally, the article presents empirical data from researchers and ethics reviewers who provided end-user evaluations of the tool. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conducting Psychological Research in Medical Settings: Challenges, Limitations, and Recommendations for Effectiveness Research.

Efficacy research is insufficient and ineffective in changing practice, despite a large supporting psychotherapy efficacy literature. Concurrently, demand for supporting data and the burden on everyday practice for generating these data is increasing. The disconnect between efficacy and effectiveness is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological tools for testing efficacious procedures in real-world settings, particularly medical contexts. This article articulates the position that effectiveness studies pose more complex questions that require an alteration of conceptual and methodological frames of reference in order to make behavioral services available to the broadest patient base. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social isolation: A case for interdisciplinary research.

Psychological research on the effects of social isolation on human beings has been relatively sparse, and has been hampered by artificiality, cultural one-sidedness, and some unstated and untested assumptions. Cross-cultural and biographical sources indicate that while isolation may be initially stressful, adaptation does occur; that cultural norms, roles and expectancies are important in determining individual responses to solitude; and that isolation may in fact have beneficial effects in some circumstances. Multidisciplinary efforts among psychologists, anthropologists, historians and biographers would help to shed light on these phenomena, which are important to a variety of theoretical as well as applied areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence-based treatment and practice: New opportunities to bridge clinical research and practice, enhance the knowledge base, and improve patient care.

The long-standing divide between research and practice in clinical psychology has received increased attention in view of the development of evidence-based interventions and practice and public interest, oversight, and management of psychological services. The gap has been reflected in concerns from those in practice about the applicability of findings from psychotherapy research as a guide to clinical work and concerns from those in research about how clinical work is conducted. Research and practice are united in their commitment to providing the best of psychological knowledge and methods to improve the quality of patient care. This article highlights issues in the research- practice debate as a backdrop for rapprochement. Suggestions are made for changes and shifts in emphases in psychotherapy research and clinical practice. The changes are designed to ensure that both research and practice contribute to our knowledge base and provide information that can be used more readily to improve patient care and, in the process, reduce the perceived and real hiatus between research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological treatment of late-life anxiety: An empirical review.

This study provides a meta-analytic review of nonpharmacological interventions for late-life anxiety, focusing on treatment efficacy. Included in the analysis are studies in which a comparison was made either to a control condition or to another treatment. A total of 15 outcome studies, published or reported between January 1975 and January 2002, were identified involving 495 participants (mean age exceeding 55.0 years and a grand mean of 69.5 years) and providing 20 separate treatment interventions. The analysis indicated that psychological interventions were reliably more effective than no treatment on self-rated and clinician-rated measures of anxiety, yielding an effect size of .55. Maintenance of treatment gains (a minimum of 6 months follow-up) was insufficiently reported across studies to allow for a reliable demonstration of an overall estimate of long-term efficacy. It is concluded that psychological interventions produce significant improvements, but the analyses must be qualified by data limitations in the research synthesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Government support of psychological research: fiscal year 1954.

A second annual summary of government support of research in psychology showing sums spent by government bureaus, fields of psychology, and geographic regions. Data for 1953 and 1954 are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using qualitative research to strengthen clinical practice.

Does qualitative research have the potential to be useful to practitioners? How might it improve the practice of professional psychology for clients and for practitioners? This article describes the qualitative research paradigm, discusses how it can be adapted to clinical practice, and provides an example of a qualitative study that practitioners can easily accomplish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The causal generalization paradox: The case of treatment outcome research.

Data from psychological experiments pose a causal generalization paradox. Unless the experimental results have some generality, they contribute little to scientific knowledge. Yet, because most experiments use convenience samples rather than probability-based samples, there is almost never a formal justification, or set of rigorous guidelines, for generalizing the study's findings to other populations. This article discusses the causal generalization paradox in the context of outcome findings from experimental evaluations of psychological treatment programs and services. In grappling with the generalization paradox, researchers often make misleading (or at least oversimplified) assumptions. The article analyzes 10 such assumptions, including the belief that a significant experimental treatment effect is likely to be causally generalizable and the belief that the magnitude of a significant experimental effect provides a sound effect size estimate for causal generalization. The article then outlines 10 constructive strategies for assessing and enhancing causal generality. They include strategies involving the scaling level of outcome measures, variable treatment dosages, effectiveness designs, multiple measures, corroboration from observational designs, and the synthesis of multiple studies. Finally, the article's discussion section reviews the conditions under which causal generalizations are justified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of method in treatment effectiveness research: Evidence from meta-analysis.

A synthesis of 319 meta-analyses of psychological, behavioral, and educational treatment research was conducted to assess the influence of study method on observed effect sizes relative to that of substantive features of the interventions. An index was used to estimate the proportion of effect size variance associated with various study features. Study methods accounted for nearly as much variability in study outcomes as characteristics of the interventions. Type of research design and operationalization of the dependent variable were the method features associated with the largest proportion of variance. The variance as a result of sampling error was about as large as that associated with the features of the interventions studied. These results underscore the difficulty of detecting treatment outcomes, the importance of cautiously interpreting findings from a single study, and the importance of meta-analysis in summarizing results across studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Challenges to engaging Black male victims of community violence in healthcare research: Lessons learned from two studies.

A dearth of literature exists on barriers to conducting research with Black male victims of community violence, despite the need for evidence-based postinjury interventions. This study used qualitative data from a cross-sectional interview study (n = 16) and a pilot intervention study (n = 11) conducted in Boston, MA to identify challenges and facilitators to conducting research with Black male victims of community violence, particularly with regard to recruitment and maintenance of a study sample. Qualitative methods, including Grounded Theory and ethnography, were used to analyze the data. Challenges included a fear of police involvement, an impression of “snitching” when disclosing personal information, mistrust of research motives, suspicion of the informed consent process, the emotional impact of the trauma itself, and logistical issues. Facilitators to research included monetary incentives and motivation to help oneself and others. Participant recommendations on recruitment methods relating to approach and timing are provided. Findings from this study may assist in the planning of research studies for Black male victims of community violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The California F scale in psychological research: 1950-1955.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of those studies using the F scale in substantially its original form which appeared in the literature between 1950 and 1955. The studies were grouped into five major categories: (a) ideology; (b) personality correlates; (c) interpersonal behavior; (d) cultural and sub-cultural variations; and (e) studies of the instrument. It was concluded that "many questions still remain to be answered before its (the F scale) use would have much meaning in terms of predicting human behavior." 64-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male and female subjects in personality research.

Though studies have consistently demonstrated psychological differences between males and females, a review of published research indicated how little this finding influenced the selection of Ss for studies or the interpretation of results. A plea is made to include as easy a measure to obtain as the sex variable in the design. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2AF82C. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Government support of extramural psychological research: fiscal year 1955.

"This is the third in a series of annual reports on the Federal Government's support of research in psychology and closely related areas by means of contracts and grants with colleges, universities, and other nongovernment agencies." It endeavors "… to provide systematic information on the amount and sources of funds which are available from the Federal Government for the support of psychological research." Four tables summarizing expenditures are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Government support of psychological research: Fiscal year 1958.

"In fiscal year 1958 (ending June 30, 1958), approximately $23,900,000 were obligated by some 12 departments and subdivisions of the federal government for the conduct of research in psychology and closely related areas. This is an increase of about $8,000,000 over the support reported for fiscal year 1957, and about $13,000,000 over that for fiscal year 1956." 4 tables indicate: (a) expenditure by agency, (b) research areas in psychology supported, (c) expenditure by geographic region, (d) obligations of federal government for research by scientific fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The state of psychological ownership: Integrating and extending a century of research.

People develop feelings of ownership for a variety of objects, material and immaterial in nature. We refer to this state as psychological ownership. Building on and extending previous scholarship, the authors offer a conceptual examination of this construct. After defining psychological ownership, they address "why" it exists and "how" it comes into being. They propose that this state finds its roots in a set of intraindividual motives (efficacy and effectance, self-identity, and having a place to dwell). In addition, they discuss the experiences that give rise to psychological ownership and propose several positive and negative consequences of this state. The authors' work provides a foundation for the development of a comprehensive theory of psychological ownership and the conceptual underpinnings for empirical testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)