{"title":"Paul Meehl and the evolution of statistical methods in psychology","authors":"James H Steiger","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In his landmark 1978 paper, Paul Meehl delineated, with remarkable clarity, some fundamental challenges facing soft psychology as it attempts to test theory with data. In the quarter century that followed, Meehl’s views stimulated much debate and progress, while continually evolving to keep pace with that progress. This paper pays homage to Meehl’s prescience, and traces the impact of his ideas on the recent shift of emphasis away from hypothesis testing and toward confidence interval estimates of effect size.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 69-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"92011660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The myth of open concepts: Meehl’s analysis of construct meaning versus black box essentialism","authors":"Jerome C. Wakefield","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Two views of theoretical concepts in psychology are compared. Meehl’s “open concept” account holds that theoretical concepts are implicitly defined by theories but that empirical criteria can be changed over time (e.g., added or dropped, weightings changed, exchanged for theoretical reductions). This account confuses concepts and theories, does not reflect how diagnostic concepts actually work in medicine and psychology, leads to theory incommensurability, and is unclear about when concepts are the same or different. I propose that an alternative “black box essentialist” account of theoretical concepts, drawn from recent philosophical work on natural kind concepts, better explains how we manage to refer to the same construct even as our theories and criteria change. One implication is that Meehl is incorrect to claim that a reason for psychology’s lack of progress is that its concepts are inherently different from those in the hard sciences.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 77-82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"92011663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tabular asterisks, Paul Meehl, and looking at the data","authors":"Brendan A Maher","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Three of Meehl’s major concerns are examined in this summary. They are the problem of null-hypothesis testing as a strategy, the central significance of heterogeneity in human behavior, and the over-dependence on rating scales with their inherent lack of precision.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 57-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137348609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Paul Everett Meehl","authors":"David Lykken","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>A brilliant thinker and a gifted teacher, Paul Meehl’s love for and dedication to the philosophy of science did not lead him, as it seems to have led others, to assume that all minds have the same structure and differ only parametrically. One of Meehl’s main interests in the latter part of his career was in taxometric methods for identifying psychological types or taxa. Another taxonomic method seeks traits that are very similar, for genetic reasons, in monozygotic twins, but not in other sib pairs. These </span><em>emergenic</em> traits may be more common than previously realized. Two examples are briefly discussed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 53-56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137262381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constructs, operational definition, and operational analysis","authors":"Arthur C. Houts , Scott Baldwin","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We argue that a certain picture of the relationship between language and the world informed Meehl’s outlook on how science worked. That picture authorized talk about constructs and has led to construct proliferation and other problems. Operational analysis offers an alternative view and suggests that a major shortcoming of soft psychology is its lack of disciplined limits on acceptable verbal behavior.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 45-46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137348611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Falsification and the protective belt surrounding entity-postulating theories","authors":"Steven C Hayes","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Meehl’s article is a contradiction. In every area, he recognizes some of what is wrong and then advocates a course that will produce more of the same. He sees the problem with falsification and in essence advocates for its alternative, verification, but falsely claims this strategy is still falsification and is useful when there is a loose link between theories and their auxiliaries and conditions. He acknowledges the proven value of tightening the link between theories and their auxiliaries and conditions, but rejects that course because it does not apply to his preferred theories. Twenty-five years later there is even more “slow progress” to ponder. It is time to dismantle the protective belt surrounding entity-postulating theories that Meehl’s reasoning has helped to create.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 35-37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"92091506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A few dissents from a magnificent piece of work","authors":"Robert R Holt","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>Despite enthusiastic agreement with most of Meehl’s paper, I dissent on “the idiographic problem” (as based on false premises), and on the goal of refuting theoretical propositions in soft psychology with any useful certainty (its generalizations are inescapably statistical, and Popper’s paradigm does not apply). Some implications for research, especially on </span>psychoanalytic theory, are briefly outlined.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Pages 43-44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137262380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Theoretical risks and tabular asterisks: Sir Karl, Sir Ronald, and the slow progress of soft psychology","authors":"Paul E Meehl","doi":"10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Theories in “soft” areas of psychology lack the cumulative character of scientific knowledge. They tend neither to be refuted nor corroborated, but instead merely fade away as people lose interest. Even though intrinsic subject matter difficulties (20 listed) contribute to this, the excessive reliance on significance testing is partly responsible, being a poor way of doing science. Karl Popper’s approach, with modifications, would be prophylactic. Since the null hypothesis is quasi-always false, tables summarizing research in terms of patterns of “significant differences” are little more than complex, causally uninterpretable outcomes of statistical power functions. Multiple paths to estimating numerical point values (“consistency tests”) are better, even if approximate with rough tolerances; and lacking this, ranges, orderings, second-order differences, curve peaks and valleys, and function forms should be used. Such methods are usual in developed sciences that seldom report statistical significance. Consistency tests of a conjectural taxometric model yielded 94% success with zero false negatives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"11 1","pages":"Page 1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2004-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.appsy.2004.02.001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"92011658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Claudia J. Clayton, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Melanie D. Hunsaker
{"title":"Preventing violence and teaching peace: A review of promising and effective antiviolence, conflict-resolution, and peace programs for elementary school children","authors":"Claudia J. Clayton, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Melanie D. Hunsaker","doi":"10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80030-7","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80030-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>As the prevalence and severity of youth violence have risen, so have programs aimed at preventing such violence. We review 30 programs categorized as antiviolence, conflict-resolution, or peace programs, based on goals, target skills, and theoretical constructs. Through empirical evaluations, we designate programs as either promising or effective. After considering the unique aspects of each program, we outline five criteria to guide selection of the best violence-prevention programs for addressing theoretical foundations, comprehensive skills, diverse populations, teacher training, and children's self-worth.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"10 1","pages":"Pages 1-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80030-7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56782749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The working alliance and the transference/countertransference relationship: Their manifestation with racial/ethnic and sexual orientation minority clients and therapists","authors":"Charles J. Gelso, Jonathan J. Mohr","doi":"10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80032-0","DOIUrl":"10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80032-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Theoretical propositions are offered about the interrelations of three key concepts in psychotherapy: specifically, the working alliance, on the one hand, and both transference and countertransference, on the other. The role these concepts play, including the interactions between them, is extended to the areas of race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. We examine working alliance, transference, and countertransference considerations for therapy dyads in which at least one of the participants is a member of a racial/ethnic or sexual orientation minority group. Our hope is that this theoretical examination will generate further research and theory development on working alliance, transference, and countertransference where cultural factors such as race/ethnicity and sexual orientation are implicated in the therapeutic relationship.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":84177,"journal":{"name":"Applied & preventive psychology : journal of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology","volume":"10 1","pages":"Pages 51-68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80032-0","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56783070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}