The psychological reality of the learned "p < .05" boundary.

The .05 boundary within Null Hypothesis Statistical Testing (NHST) "has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move" (to quote Douglas Adams). Here, we move past meta-scientific arguments and ask an empirical question: What is the psychological standing of the .05 boundary for statistical significance? We find that graduate students in the psychological sciences show a boundary effect when relating p-values across .05. We propose this psychological boundary is learned through statistical training in NHST and reading a scientific literature replete with "statistical significance". Consistent with this proposal, undergraduates do not show the same sensitivity to the .05 boundary. Additionally, the size of a graduate student's boundary effect is not associated with their explicit endorsement of questionable research practices. These findings suggest that training creates distortions in initial processing of p-values, but these might be dampened through scientific processes operating over longer timescales.

Diversity Is Diverse: Social Justice Reparations and Science.

Because the term "diversity" has two related but different meanings, what authors mean when they use the term is inherently unclear. In its broad form, it refers to vast variety. In its narrow form, it refers to human demographic categories deemed deserving of special attention by social justice-oriented activists. In this article, I review Hommel's critique of Roberts et al. (2020), which, I suggest, essentially constitutes two claims: that Roberts et al.'s (2020) call for diversity in psychological science focuses exclusively on the latter narrow form of diversity and ignores the scientific importance of diversity in the broader sense, and ignoring diversity in the broader sense is scientifically unjustified. Although Hommel's critique is mostly justified, this is not because Roberts et al. (2020) are wrong to call for greater social justice-oriented demographic diversity in psychology but because Hommel's call for the broader form of diversity subsumes that of Roberts et al. (2020) and has other aspects critical to creating a valid, generalizable, rigorous, and inclusive psychological science. In doing so, I also highlight omissions, limitations, and potential downsides to the narrow manner in which psychology and the broader academy are currently implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Dealing With Diversity in Psychology: Science and Ideology.

In the spirit of America's Shakespeare, August Wilson (1997), I have written this article as a testimony to the conditions under which I, and too many others, engage in scholarly discourse. I hope to make clear from the beginning that although the ideas presented here are not entirely my own-as they have been inherited from the minority of scholars who dared and managed to bring the most necessary, unpalatable, and unsettling truths about our discipline to the broader scientific community-I do not write for anyone but myself and those scholars who have felt similarly marginalized, oppressed, and silenced. And I write as a race scholar, meaning simply that I believe that race-and racism-affects the sociopolitical conditions in which humans, and scholars, develop their thoughts, feelings, and actions. I believe that it is important for all scholars to have a basic understanding of these conditions, as well as the landmines and pitfalls that define them, as they shape how research is conducted, reviewed, and disseminated. I also believe that to evolve one's discipline into one that is truly robust and objective, it must first become diverse and self-aware. Any effort to suggest otherwise, no matter how scholarly it might present itself, is intellectually unsound.

Toward a Psychology of Ideas Rather Than Demographics: Commentary on Hommel (2024).

The public will rightly not value a science that is more concerned with demographic population matching than with ideas. Taking further steps in the direction of identity politics will reduce public confidence in psychology's conclusions and reduce trust and respect. If psychology embraces demographic quotas, there will be self-selection out of the discipline, and that self-selection will harm our science.

Dealing With Diversity in Psychology: Science or Ideology?

The increasing use of political activist arguments and reasoning in scientific communication about diversity is criticized. Based on an article of Roberts et al. (2020) on "racial inequality in psychological research," three hallmarks of the intrusion of activist thinking into science are described: blindness to the multidimensional nature of diversity, the failure to distinguish psychological mechanisms from the impact of moderators, and a blindness to agency as an explanation for psychological observations. It is argued that uncritically accepting and introducing political activist arguments into science is likely to damage scientific freedom and independence.

The Myth of the Need for Diversity Among Subjects in Theory-Testing Research: Comments on "Racial Inequality in Psychological Research" by Roberts et al. (2020).

Roberts and colleagues focus on two aspects of racial inequality in psychological research, namely an alleged underrepresentation of racial minorities and the effects attributed to this state of affairs. My comment focuses only on one aspect, namely the assumed consequences of the lack of diversity in subject populations. Representativeness of samples is essential in survey research or applied research that examines whether a particular intervention will work for a particular population. Representativeness or diversity is not necessary in theory-testing research, where we attempt to establish laws of causality. Because theories typically apply to all of humanity, all members of humanity (even American undergraduates) are suitable for assessing the validity of theoretical hypotheses. Admittedly, the assumption that a theory applies to all of humanity is also a hypothesis that can be tested. However, to test it, we need theoretical hypotheses about specific moderating variables. Supporting a theory with a racially diverse sample does not make conclusions more valid than support from a nondiverse sample. In fact, cause-effect conclusions based on a diverse sample might not be valid for any member of that sample.

Research note: Virtual historical archive of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This article describes the organization, operation, and contents of the Virtual Historical Archive of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The organization of this archive started in 2008, as part of the activities planned by the Chair II of History of Psychology, and gained the support of the Faculty of Psychology. From its beginnings to the present, several documentary sources and materials related to the history of psychology in Argentina have been incorporated. It currently contains six thematic sections and three special collections, and it is expected that in the future it will be extended to other thematic areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Society for the History of Psychology news and notes.

This historical note describes the book Primer in critical personalism: A framework for reviving psychological inquiry and for grounding a socio-cultural ethos by James T. Lamiell. The overriding purpose of this book is to introduce psychologists, other social scientists, and thoughtful laypersons to that comprehensive system of thought developed by the German philosopher and psychologist William Stern (1871-1938) under the name "critical personalism." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring the Views, Perspectives, and Current Practices of Educational Speech-Language Pathologists and Psychologists in Canada: How Childhood Developmental Language Disorders Are Identified and Diagnosed.

PURPOSE: Across Canada, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and educational psychologists (EPs) work in schools to identify and diagnose childhood learning difficulties, including language disorders; however, both professional groups use different terms to identify and diagnose them. Using the term developmental language disorder (DLD), developed by the CATALISE consortium, would provide consistency across fields. To effectively implement the use of DLD, it is crucial to understand how EPs and SLPs currently identify childhood language disorders and to investigate the potential impact of a practice change in this area. METHOD: The study conducted 13 moderated focus groups and one one-on-one semistructured interview across six Canadian provinces in English and French. RESULTS: We found some social and structural barriers that impact SLPs' and EPs' current practice of identifying and diagnosing language disorders generally (e.g., the belief that children should not be labeled "too early," institutions that prioritize certain professional diagnoses over others, board policies that do not allocate funds for language disorders, professionals' reticence to convey difficult information such as a diagnosis to collaborators) and DLD specifically (e.g., different professional taxonomies, lack of familiarity with or uncertainty about the label, not recognized as a condition in schools that may or may not even identify language disorder as a category of exceptionality). Nevertheless, the focus groups also revealed the extent to which DLD could be useful in their current practice. CONCLUSION: Both EPs and SLPs acknowledged the importance of working together; therefore, DLD could inspire more collaborative practice between SLPs and EPs around language disorders.

Psychologists as Pivotal Members of the Pediatric Palliative Care Team.

CONTEXT: Pediatric psychologists possess unique expertise to positively impact the care provided to children with serious illness and their families. Despite increasing recognition regarding the value of psychology in palliative care, psychologists are not yet routinely integrated into pediatric palliative care (PPC) teams. OBJECTIVES: This special paper seeks to demonstrate distinctive contributions psychologists can offer to PPC teams, patients, and families, as well as highlight how psychologists enhance the work of their interdisciplinary PPC colleagues. METHODS: Existing literature, consensus and policy statements, and recently developed competencies inform and provide evidence for the value of incorporating psychologists into PPC. RESULTS: As children with serious illness are at risk for mental and physical health symptoms, psychologists' specialized training in evidence-based assessment and intervention allows them to assess areas of concern, create treatment plans, and implement nonpharmacological therapies targeting symptom management and promotion of quality of life. By improving patient and family outcomes, psychology involvement saves money. In addition to clinical care, psychologists are skilled researchers, which can help to advance PPC interdisciplinary research. Lastly, psychologists can play a valuable role in contributing to PPC team education, dynamics, and well-being. CONCLUSIONS: With strong skills in research, clinical care, education, and advocacy, pediatric psychologists are exceptionally equipped to provide care to children with serious illness and their families. Given their unique contributions, it is critical future efforts are directed towards advocating for the inclusion of psychologists into PPC, with the ultimate goal of improving care for children with serious illness and their families.

Footprint of publication selection bias on meta-analyses in medicine, environmental sciences, psychology, and economics.

Publication selection bias undermines the systematic accumulation of evidence. To assess the extent of this problem, we survey over 68,000 meta-analyses containing over 700,000 effect size estimates from medicine (67,386/597,699), environmental sciences (199/12,707), psychology (605/23,563), and economics (327/91,421). Our results indicate that meta-analyses in economics are the most severely contaminated by publication selection bias, closely followed by meta-analyses in environmental sciences and psychology, whereas meta-analyses in medicine are contaminated the least. After adjusting for publication selection bias, the median probability of the presence of an effect decreased from 99.9% to 29.7% in economics, from 98.9% to 55.7% in psychology, from 99.8% to 70.7% in environmental sciences, and from 38.0% to 29.7% in medicine. The median absolute effect sizes (in terms of standardized mean differences) decreased from d = 0.20 to d = 0.07 in economics, from d = 0.37 to d = 0.26 in psychology, from d = 0.62 to d = 0.43 in environmental sciences, and from d = 0.24 to d = 0.13 in medicine.

Between conformity and individuality: Psychologists in Czechoslovakia during normalization (1968-1989).

The study examines the development of psychology in former Czechoslovakia during the period of "normalization" (1968-1989) and the challenges it faced under the communist regime. The restricted connection to Western psychology and the regime's control over all aspects of human activity negatively influenced the continuity of development in psychology. The regime demanded conformity, leaving individuals, including psychologists, in recurring states of internal conflict and intellectual discomfort when deciding how much to compromise in their personal and professional lives. The study identifies three groups of psychologists based on their adaptability to regime demands. The first group consists of those who aligned themselves with the regime, allowing them to hold positions of leadership and shape the conceptualization of the field. The second group comprises individuals who actively opposed the regime, facing significant limitations in their educational and career opportunities, and mostly being forced to leave the profession. The third group of psychologists belongs to the apolitical gray zone. A significant portion of individuals in this largest group passively complied with established norms and constraints, accepting the restrictions imposed on the development of Czechoslovak psychology. Fortunately, thanks to the persistent efforts of the proactive members of the gray zone and their willingness to endure significant discomfort, an even deeper decline of psychology during the normalization period was prevented. The study provides insights into the topics of education, research, Western influences, and adaptation to the communist regime within Czechoslovak psychology, illuminating the intricacies of living in that historical period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Eliminativist induction cannot be a solution to psychology's crisis.

Integrative experiment design assumes that we can effectively design a space of factors that cause contextual variation. However, this is impossible to do so in a sufficiently objective way, resulting inevitably in observations laden with surrogate models. Consequently, integrative experiment design may even deepen the problem of incommensurability. In comparison, one-at-a-time approaches make much more tentative assumptions about the factors excluded from experiment design, hence still seem better suited to deal with incommensurability.

Is generalization decay a fundamental law of psychology?

Generalizations strengthen in traditional sciences, but in psychology (and social and behavioral sciences, more generally) they decay. This is usually viewed as a problem requiring solution. It could be viewed instead as a law-like phenomenon. Generalization decay cannot be squelched because human behavior is metastable and all behavioral data collected thus far have resulted from a thin sliver of human time.

Pediatric Mental Health Care and Scope-of-Practice Expansions.

To examine the association between psychologist and nurse practitioner scope-of-practice (SoP) regulations and pediatric mental health service access. A nationally representative sample of children with mental health needs was identified using 5 years of National Survey of Children's Health (2016-2020). Utilization was measured in two ways: (1) unmet mental health care needs and (2) receipt of mental health medication. Expanded SoP for psychologists and nurse practitioners was measured based on the child's state of residence and the year of the survey. The associations between both SoP expansion and both outcomes were assessed using logistic regression models adjusted for multiple covariates. The probability of having unmet mental health needs was 5.4 percentage points lower (95% CI - 0.102, - 0.006) for children living in a state with psychologist SoP expansion; however, there was no significant difference in unmet mental health needs between states with and without NP SoP expansion. The probability of receiving a mental health medication was 2.0 percentage points higher (95% CI 0.007, 0.034) for children living in a state with psychologist SoP expansion. Conversely, the probability of receiving a mental health medication was 1.5 percentage points lower (95% CI - 0.023, - 0.007) for children living in a state with NP SoP expansion. Expanded SoP for psychologists is associated with improved access to pediatric mental health care in terms of both unmet need and receiving medication. Expanded SoP for NPs, however, was not associated with unmet need and lower receipt of medication.

Society for the History of Psychology News and Notes.

Cheiron's Young Scholar Award Committee is pleased to announce that Matthew Soleiman, a PhD candidate in the Department of History and Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, has been chosen to receive the 2023 award for his paper "Recerebrated: The rise of the clinic in the twentieth-century science of pain." Using published and archival sources, Soleiman's paper examines two key developments in early- to mid-20th-century pain research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Integration as the goal of indigenization: The cross-cultural psychology of Durganand Sinha.

Durganand Sinha (1922-1998) was an important Indian cross-cultural psychologist whose research spanned half a century. In commemoration of Sinha's passing 25 years ago, I explore in this essay his vision of the integration of Hindu religious psychology and Western scientific psychology. In the first part of the discussion, I consider a brief history of the interaction between Indian cultures and Western scientific psychology. In the second part, I next consider the proposal of Sinha that outlines various approaches that researchers might take with respect to the indigenization of scientific psychology. In the third part, I consider Sinha's discussion of integration as the expected outcome of the process of indigenization. Sinha indicates that when a researcher establishes a successful integrated cultural research paradigm in this way, it can serve as a framework for future researchers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).