Abstract
Background
Empathy is pivotal to effective clinical care. Yet, the art of nurturing and assessing empathy in medical schools is rarely consistent and poorly studied. To inform future design ...of programs aimed at nurturing empathy in medical students and doctors, a review is proposed.
Methods
This systematic scoping review (SSR) employs a novel approach called the Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA) to enhance the reproducibility and transparency of the process. This 6-stage SSR in SEBA involved three teams of independent researchers who reviewed eight bibliographic and grey literature databases and performed concurrent thematic and content analysis to evaluate the data.
Results
In total, 24429 abstracts were identified, 1188 reviewed, and 136 included for analysis. Thematic and content analysis revealed five similar themes/categories. These comprised the 1) definition of empathy, 2) approaches to nurturing empathy, 3) methods to assessing empathy, 4) outcome measures, and 5) enablers/barriers to a successful curriculum.
Conclusions
Nurturing empathy in medicine occurs in stages, thus underlining the need for it to be integrated into a formal program built around a spiralled curriculum. We forward a framework built upon these stages and focus attention on effective assessments at each stage of the program. Tellingly, there is also a clear need to consider the link between nurturing empathy and one’s professional identity formation. This foregrounds the need for more effective tools to assess empathy and to better understand their role in longitudinal and portfolio based learning programs.
This brief communication conveys a critical assessment of the benefits, challenges, and potential of Open Access Institutional Repositories (OAIRs) for knowledge sharing in South Africa. The review ...identifies best practices and recommendations to promote and improve their usage. Researchers need training and support to understand guidelines and best practices for depositing their work. Limited funding for OAIRs can be addressed by government funding or exploring alternative models. Legal and policy frameworks must support OAIRs and ensure they comply with international standards. Proper management and indexing policies enhance institutional visibility and information retrieval. OAIRs promote collaboration and cooperation among researchers and provide a platform for knowledge sharing and feedback. Standardized platforms and frameworks ensure digital outputs are accessible and usable for the academic community. Sharing knowledge on self‐archiving encourages researchers to deposit their works. Formal reviews must focus on metadata and ensure that articles are from DHET‐accredited journals and that theses and dissertations meet institutional requirements. These efforts promote open access and preserve scholarly works for future generations.
Political science, like many disciplines, has a “leaky-pipeline” problem. Women are more likely to leave the profession than men. Those who stay are promoted at lower rates. Recent work has pointed ...toward a likely culprit: women are less likely to submit work to journals. Why? One answer is that women do not believe their work will be published. This article asks whether women systematically study different topics than men and whether these topics may be less likely to appear in top political science journals. To answer this question, we analyzed the content of dissertation abstracts. We found evidence that some topics are indeed gendered. We also found differences in the representation of “women’s” and “men’s” topics in the pages of the top journals. This suggests that research agendas may indeed be gendered and that variation in research topic might be to blame for the submission gap.
Objective:
The authors conducted a meta-analysis of empirical studies investigating associations between indices of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intimate relationship problems to ...empirically synthesize this literature.
Method:
A literature search using PsycINFO, Medline, Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (PILOTS), and Dissertation Abstracts was performed. The authors identified 31 studies meeting inclusion criteria.
Results:
True score correlations (ρ) revealed medium-sized associations between PTSD and intimate relationship discord (ρ = .38,
N
= 7,973,
K
= 21), intimate relationship physical aggression perpetration (ρ = .42,
N
= 4,630,
K
= 19), and intimate relationship psychological aggression perpetration (ρ = .36,
N
= 1,501,
K
= 10). The strength of the association between PTSD and relationship discord was higher in military (vs. civilian) samples, and when the study was conducted in the United States (vs. other country), and the study represented a doctoral dissertation (vs. published article). The strength of the association between PTSD and physical aggression was higher in military (vs. civilian) samples, males (vs. females), community (vs. clinical) samples, studies examining PTSD symptom severity (vs. diagnosis), when the physical aggression measure focused exclusively on severe violence (vs. a more inclusive measure), and the study was published (vs. dissertation). For the PTSD-psychological aggression association, 98% of the variance was accounted for by methodological artifacts such as sampling and measurement error; consequently, no moderators were examined in this relationship.
Conclusions:
Findings highlight a need for the examination of models explaining the relationship difficulties associated with PTSD symptomatology and interventions designed to treat problems in both areas.
Writing a faulty literature review is one of many ways to derail a dissertation. This article summarizes some pivotal information on how to write a high-quality dissertation literature review. It ...begins with a discussion of the purposes of a review, presents taxonomy of literature reviews, and then discusses the steps in conducting a quantitative or qualitative literature review. The article concludes with a discussion of common mistakes and a framework for the self-evaluation of a literature review. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)
Wraparound is a common method for coordinating care for children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders (SED), with nearly 100,000 youths served annually in the United States. The current ...systematic review and meta-analysis estimated effects on youth outcomes (symptoms, functioning, school, juvenile justice, and residential placement) and costs.
A literature search identified 17 peer-reviewed and gray literature studies meeting criteria, which were coded on characteristics of sample, design, implementation, and outcomes. Random effects modeling was conducted using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 3.0. Effect sizes were calculated using Hedges g. Homogeneity of effects were assessed using Q statistics.
Medium-sized effects favored Wraparound-enrolled youths for costs (g = 0.391, CI = 0.282−0.500, p < .001), residential outcomes (g = 0.413, CI = 0.176−0.650, p = .001), and school functioning (g = 0.397, CI = 0.106−0.688, p = .007); small effects were found for mental health symptoms (g = 0.358, CI = 0.030−0.687, p = .033) and functioning (g = 0.315, CI = 0.086−0.545, p = .007). Larger effects were found for peer-reviewed studies, quasi-experimental designs, samples with a larger percentage of youths of color, and Wraparound conditions with higher fidelity.
Results indicate positive effects for Wraparound, especially for maintaining youths with SED in the home and community. However, many studies showed methodological weaknesses, and fidelity measurement was largely absent, suggesting a need for additional research. Nonetheless, the results should aid decisions around resource allocation, referral practices, and system partnerships among child psychiatrists and other behavioral health professionals.
The file drawer problem rests on the assumption that statistically non‐significant results are less likely to be published in primary‐level studies and less likely to be included in meta‐analytic ...reviews, thereby resulting in upwardly biased meta‐analytically derived effect sizes. We conducted 5 studies to assess the extent of the file drawer problem in nonexperimental research. In Study 1, we examined 37,970 correlations included in 403 matrices published in Academy of Management Journal (AMJ), Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP), and Personnel Psychology (PPsych) between 1985 and 2009 and found that 46.81% of those correlations are not statistically significant. In Study 2, we examined 6,935 correlations used as input in 51 meta‐analyses published in AMJ, JAP, PPsych, and elsewhere between 1982 and 2009 and found that 44.31% of those correlations are not statistically significant. In Study 3, we examined 13,943 correlations reported in 167 matrices in nonpublished manuscripts and found that 45.45% of those correlations are not statistically significant. In Study 4, we examined 20,860 correlations reported in 217 matrices in doctoral dissertations and found that 50.78% of those correlations are not statistically significant. In Study 5, we compared the average magnitude of a sample of 1,002 correlations from Study 1 (published articles) versus 1,224 from Study 4 (dissertations) and found that they were virtually identical (i.e., .2270 and .2279, respectively). In sum, our 5 studies provide consistent empirical evidence that the file drawer problem does not produce an inflation bias and does not pose a serious threat to the validity of meta‐analytically derived conclusions as is currently believed.
Our purpose in this article is to achieve a shift of focus away from a view of research methods as objectified procedures to be learnt by researchers, and towards the development of researchers who ...craft procedures integral to the environments in which they operate - environments of which they are also a functioning constituent. A key element in such a perspective is the conceptualisation (and practice) of the relationship between development and reflexivity. Reflexivity involves a process of on-going mutual shaping between researcher and research. Development involves an increase in awareness of such processes of interaction between organism and context. Rather than see development only as a welcome side-effect of reflexive research, we treat development of the researcher as central, with reflexivity in an instrumental relationship to this on-going process. With regard to the pragmatic implementation of these concepts, we emphasise the importance of the researcher consciously stepping back from action in order to theorise what is taking place, and also stepping up to be an active part of that contextualised action. We exemplify the processes involved using research data taken from a doctoral study into the role of technology in the teaching of Arabic. The first section of this article explores the idea of a developmental approach. The second unpacks our sense of reflexivity. The third section exemplifies our discussion through the experiences of a researcher in the field. The concluding section summarises and restates our argument regarding the potential usefulness of adopting a developmental approach to the conduct of research.
This meta‐analysis investigated the relationships between person–job (PJ), person–organization (PO), person–group, and person–supervisor fit with preentry (applicant attraction, job acceptance, ...intent to hire, job offer) and postentry individual‐level criteria (attitudes, performance, withdrawal behaviors, strain, tenure). A search of published articles, conference presentations, dissertations, and working papers yielded 172 usable studies with 836 effect sizes. Nearly all of the credibility intervals did not include 0, indicating the broad generalizability of the relationships across situations. Various ways in which fit was conceptualized and measured, as well as issues of study design, were examined as moderators to these relationships in studies of PJ and PO fit. Interrelationships between the various types of fit are also meta‐analyzed. 25 studies using polynomial regression as an analytic technique are reviewed separately, because of their unique approach to assessing fit. Broad themes emerging from the results are discussed to generate the implications for future research on fit.
This study reports on a meta‐analysis on the effectiveness of corrective feedback in second language acquisition. By establishing a different set of inclusion/exclusion criteria than previous ...meta‐analyses and performing a series of methodological moves, it is intended to be an update and complement to previous meta‐analyses. Altogether 33 primary studies were retrieved, including 22 published studies and 11 Ph.D. dissertations. These studies were coded for 17 substantive and methodological features, 14 of which were identified as independent and moderator variables. It was found that (a) there was a medium overall effect for corrective feedback and the effect was maintained over time, (b) the effect of implicit feedback was better maintained than that of explicit feedback, (c) published studies did not show larger effects than dissertations, (d) lab‐based studies showed a larger effect than classroom‐based studies, (e) shorter treatments generated a larger effect size than longer treatments, and (f) studies conducted in foreign language contexts produced larger effect sizes than those in second language contexts. Possible explanations for the results were sought through data cross‐tabulation and with reference to the theoretical constructs of SLA.
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