Recent attempts to improve on the quality of psychological research focus on good practices required for statistical significance testing. The scrutiny of theoretical reasoning, though superordinate, ...is largely neglected, as exemplified here in a common misunderstanding of mediation analysis. Although a test of a mediation model X➔Z➔Y is conditional on the premise that the model applies, alternative mediators Z′, Z″, Z‴ etc. remain untested, and other causal models could underlie the correlation between X, Y, Z, researchers infer from a single significant mediation test that they have identified the true mediator. A literature search of all mediation analyses published in 2015 in Sciencedirect shows that the vast majority of studies neither consider alternative causal models nor alternative mediator candidates. Ignoring that mediation analysis is conditional on the truth of the focal mediation model, they pretend to have demonstrated that Z mediates the influence of X on Y. Recommendations are provided for how to overcome this dissatisfying state of affairs.
In this comment to Trope, Liberman and Makslak's lead article, I refrain from any attempt to review or recapitulate the growing body of research in social psychology in general and in consumer ...science in particular that is explicitly devoted to construal level theory (CLT). Rather, granting the status of CLT as a leading contemporary theory, with rich implications and applications in consumer science, I concentrate on recent phenomena in judgment and decision making for which CLT provides an implicit account. Specifically, CLT affords an integrative framework for understanding a whole variety of preference reversals—a major challenge for students of consumer behavior.
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is the most serious complication of controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) as part of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). While the safety and efficacy of ...ART is well established, physicians should always be aware of the risk of OHSS in patients undergoing COS, as it can be fatal. This article will briefly present the pathophysiology of OHSS, including the key role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), to provide the foundation for an overview of current techniques for the prevention of OHSS. Risk factors and predictive factors for OHSS will be presented, as recognizing these risk factors and individualizing the COS protocol appropriately is the key to the primary prevention of OHSS, as the benefits and risks of each COS strategy vary among individuals. Individualized COS (iCOS) could effectively eradicate OHSS, and the identification of hormonal, functional and genetic markers of ovarian response will facilitate iCOS. However, if iCOS is not properly applied, various preventive measures can be instituted once COS has begun, including cancelling the cycle, coasting, individualizing the human chorionic gonadotropin trigger dose or using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist (for those using a GnRH antagonist protocol), the use of intravenous fluids at the time of oocyte retrieval, and cryopreserving/vitrifying all embryos for subsequent transfer in an unstimulated cycle. Some of these techniques have been widely adopted, despite the scarcity of data from randomized clinical trials to support their use.
In this comment to Doliński’s (2018, this issue) challenging paper, I express my agreement with his basic ideas and with his concerns about the alienation of social psychology. However, I also ...present some critical thoughts that amount to a slightly different diagnosis of the present situation. Rather than concluding that our discipline has ceased to study real behaviors, I provide positive counter-examples of substantial behavioral science and argue that the major problem is not to distinguish between measures of “real” and “non-real” behaviors. The problem core, rather, lies in the widespread tendency to mistake statistical and technical indices (latencies, model parameters, fMRI indices, etc.) for measures of meaningful behavior. When technical means become ends in themselves, Doliński’s metaphor applies that “the tail wags the dog”.
This book explores what social psychology can contribute to our understanding of real-life problems and how it can inform rational interventions in any area of social life. By reviewing some of the ...most recent achievements in applying social psychology to pressing contemporary problems, Forgas, Crano, and Fiedler convey a fundamentally optimistic message about social psychology’s achievements and prospects.
The book is organized into four sections. Part I focuses on the basic issues and methods of applying social psychology to real-life problems, discussing evolutionary influences on human sociability, the role of psychological ‘mindsets’ in interpreting reality, and the use of attitude change techniques to promote adaptive behaviors. Part II explores the applications of social psychology to improve individual health and well-being, including managing aggression, eating disorders, and improving therapeutic interactions. Part III turns to the application of social psychology to improve interpersonal relations and communication, including attachment processes in social relationships, the role of parent-child interaction in preventing adolescent suicide, and analyzing social relations in legal settings and online social networks. Finally, Part IV addresses the question of how social psychology may improve our understanding of public affairs and political behavior.
The book will be of interest to students and academics in social psychology, and professionals working in applied settings.
Hudson Taylor (1832 – 1905) war nicht nur Gründer der bekannten China Inland Mission, sondern er rief, ohne es zu beabsichtien, eine ganz neue Missionsbewegung ins Leben, die neue Kräfe für die ...Weltmission gewann. Weil er nie um Geld bat, sondern sich im Glauben auf Got verließ, nannte man diese Missionen Glaubensmissionen. Im deutschsprachigen Raum werden sie of als Evangelikale Missionen bezeichnet, im englischsprachigen Raum als Interdenominational Missionen. Sie stellen heute weltweit einen beträchtlichen Anteil der evangelischen Missionare. Ihre Rolle als eigenständiger Zweig der weltweiten Missionsbewegung wird of unterschätzt. Klaus Fiedler stellt die ersten Jahrzehnte der Geschichte der Glaubensmissionen dar und ihr Kirchenverständnis, wie interdenominationlle Missionen denominationlle Kirchen gründen, die heute weit über zehn Millionen Mitglieder haben. Dieses Buch ist eine revidierte und erweiterte Neuausgabe von Ganz auf Vertrauen. Geschichte und Kirchenverständnis der Glaubensmissionen (Brunnen Verlag, 1992) und immer noch das Standardwerk zum Thema.
Beware of Samples Fiedler, Klaus
Psychological review
107, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
A cognitive-ecological approach to judgment biases is presented and substantiated by recent empirical evidence. Latent properties of the environment are not amenable to direct assessment but have to ...be inferred from empirical samples that provide the interface between cognition and the environment. The sampling process may draw on the external world or on internal memories. For systematic reasons (proximity, salience, and focus of attention), the resulting samples tend to be biased (selective, skewed, or conditional on information search strategies). Because people lack the metacognitive ability to understand and control for sampling constraints (predictor sampling, criterion sampling, selective-outcome sampling, etc.), the sampling biases carry over to subsequent judgments. Within this framework, alternative accounts are offered for a number of judgment biases, such as base-rate neglect, confirmation bias, illusory correlation, pseudocontingency, Simpson's paradox, outgroup devaluation, and pragmatic-confusion effects.
Why Positive Information Is Processed Faster Unkelbach, Christian; Fiedler, Klaus; Bayer, Myriam ...
Journal of personality and social psychology,
07/2008, Letnik:
95, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The authors postulate and show a speed advantage in the processing of positive information and hypothesize that this advantage is caused by the higher density of positive information in memory: ...Positive information is more similar to other positive information, in comparison with the similarity of negative information to other negative information. This "density" hypothesis is supported by multidimensional scaling of evaluative stimuli and response latency experiments. The relevance and explanatory power of the hypothesis is demonstrated by secondary data analyses of prior research in the evaluative priming paradigm. The final discussion is concerned with further theoretical implications of the density hypothesis, its generality and limitations, and its relation to other theoretical conceptions and applications.
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