Mixed Methods Research Designs in Counseling Psychology.

With the increased popularity of qualitative research, researchers in counseling psychology are expanding their methodologies to include mixed methods designs. These designs involve the collection, analysis, and integration of quantitative and qualitative data in a single or multiphase study. This article presents an overview of mixed methods research designs. It defines mixed methods research, discusses its origins and philosophical basis, advances steps and procedures used in these designs, and identifies 6 different types of designs. Important design features are illustrated using studies published in the counseling literature. Finally, the article ends with recommendations for designing, implementing, and reporting mixed methods studies in the literature and for discussing their viability and continued usefulness in the field of counseling psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Discrepancy in Analyses of the MSCEIT--Resolving the Mystery and Understanding Its Implications: A Reply to Gignac (2005).

Replies to comments made by G. E. Gignac (see record 2005-06671-010) on the current authors' original article (see record 2003-02341-015). Gignac reanalyzed the factor structure of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and found results that differed from those the authors obtained initially. The authors tracked down the surprising sources of those discrepancies. G. E. Gignac's hierarchical model of emotional intelligence appears promising, and the authors anticipate that further investigations of the MSCEIT factor structure may yield additional information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infidelity in Couples Seeking Marital Therapy.

The revelation of an affair is often an emotionally explosive event for a couple, yet little is known about specific individual and relationship factors that accompany infidelity. The present study examined the qualities of individuals and couples that differentiate couples with (n = 19) and without (n = 115) infidelity using couples from a randomized clinical trial of marital therapy. Findings indicated that couples with infidelity showed greater marital instability, dishonesty, arguments about trust, narcissism, and time spent apart. Gender also proved to be a significant moderator of several effects. Men who had participated in affairs showed increased substance use, were older, and were more sexually dissatisfied. Results offer initial clues to concomitants of affairs for couple therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative Optimism About Health and Nonhealth Events in 8- and 9-Year-Old Children.

Comparative optimism has been studied extensively in adults and is a significant component of social- cognitive models about health. In contrast, little is known about comparative optimism in children or about the wider social- cognitive processes that underpin their health-related behavior. This study investigated comparative optimism for health- and nonhealth-related topics in 101 children 8 or 9 years of age, the youngest ages that have been investigated so far. Children were shown to be unrealistically optimistic for health and nonhealth events. The implications of these findings for understanding comparative optimism in children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Injury risk among children of low-income U.S.-born and immigrant mothers.

The number of immigrants in the United States is at an all time high, yet psychologists have largely ignored the domain of immigrant health. This article considers 1 aspect of immigrant health, risk for pediatric injury. A sample of over 5,000 5-year-old children from impoverished families was studied; approximately 13% had immigrant mothers. Children of immigrants had a significantly lower rate of injury in the prior year. This was particularly true of non-White children of immigrants. Three possible mediators for this finding--assistance with parenting, parenting style, and health care accessibility--were considered, but none explained the difference. The need for further research on the topic and implications of results for injury prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Clinical Exchange.

The Clinical Exchange invites eminent clinicians of diverse persuasions to share, in ordinary language, their clinical formulations and treatment plans of the same psychotherapy patient--who was not selected or nominated by those therapists--and then to discuss points of convergence and contention in their recommendations. This special Exchange focuses on the psychotherapy of borderline personality traits in the case of Ms. S, a female college student in her 20s presenting for treatment because of depression, "flashbacks" of sexual abuse, and poor interpersonal relationships. Amy Wagner, Kathleen Chard and Thomas Widiger, Joel Paris, Kenneth Silk, and Jeffrey Young, all researchers into personality disorders, are the featured commentators. Finally, Sidney Ornduff, the case contributor, provides a few closing comments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anoxic Versus Traumatic Brain Injury: Amount of Tissue Loss, Not Etiology, Alters Cognitive and Emotional Function.

Research in neuropsychology suggests that the etiology of a neurologic injury determines the neuropathological and neuropsychological changes. This study compared neuropsychological outcome in subjects who had traumatic brain injury (TBI) with subjects who had anoxic brain injury (ABI), who were matched for age, gender, and ventricle-to-brain ratio. There were no group differences for morphologic or neuropsychological measures. Both groups exhibited impaired memory, attention, and executive function, as well as slowed mental processing speed. Intelligence correlated with whole brain volume, and measures of memory correlated with hippocampal atrophy. There was no unique contribution of hippocampal atrophy on neuropsychological outcome between the groups. In the absence of localized lesions, the amount of neural tissue loss, rather than etiology, may be the critical factor in neuropsychological outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Olfactory and auditory event-related potentials in Huntington's disease.

The influence of Huntington's disease (HD) on the olfactory event-related potential (OERP), an electrophysiological measure of olfactory information processing, has not been reported to date. In the present study, olfactory and auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded monopolarly from Fz, Cz, and Pz electrode sites in 8 patients with HD and 8 age- and gender-matched control participants. Results demonstrated that individuals with HD were delayed compared with controls on the P3 component of the OERP (p     

Stereotype Threat and Group Differences in Test Performance: A Question of Measurement Invariance.

Studies into the effects of stereotype threat (ST) on test performance have shed new light on race and sex differences in achievement and intelligence test scores. In this article, the authors relate ST theory to the psychometric concept of measurement invariance and show that ST effects may be viewed as a source of measurement bias. As such, ST effects are detectable by means of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. This enables research into the generalizability of ST effects to real-life or high-stakes testing. The modeling approach is described in detail and applied to 3 experiments in which the amount of ST for minorities and women was manipulated. Results indicate that ST results in measurement bias of intelligence and mathematics tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)