Beyond Pearson's Correlation: Modern Nonparametric Independence Tests for Psychological Research.

When examining whether two continuous variables are associated, tests based on Pearson's, Kendall's, and Spearman's correlation coefficients are typically used. This paper explores modern nonparametric independence tests as an alternative, which, unlike traditional tests, have the ability to potentially detect any type of relationship. In addition to existing modern nonparametric independence tests, we developed and considered two novel variants of existing tests, most notably the Heller-Heller-Gorfine-Pearson (HHG-Pearson) test. We conducted a simulation study to compare traditional independence tests, such as Pearson's correlation, and the modern nonparametric independence tests in situations commonly encountered in psychological research. As expected, no test had the highest power across all relationships. However, the distance correlation and the HHG-Pearson tests were found to have substantially greater power than all traditional tests for many relationships and only slightly less power in the worst case. A similar pattern was found in favor of the HHG-Pearson test compared to the distance correlation test. However, given that distance correlation performed better for linear relationships and is more widely accepted, we suggest considering its use in place or additional to traditional methods when there is no prior knowledge of the relationship type, as is often the case in psychological research.

Validation of the Italian Version of the Telepresence in Videoconference Scale (TVS) in a Sample of Psychologists and Psychotherapists During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Telepresence may play a fundamental role in establishing authentic interactions and relationships in online psychological interventions and can be measured by the Telepresence in Videoconference Scale (TVS), which was validated only with patients to date. This post hoc study aimed to validate the Italian version of the TVS with mental health professionals. METHOD: The Italian TVS was included in an online survey, whose primary aim was to assess the experiences of Italian psychologists and psychotherapists with online interventions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and was filled in by 296 participants (83.4% females, mean age = 42 years old). RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis supported the original factor structure only partially because the scale 'Absorption' (i.e., the feeling of losing track of time), as it was formulated, did not measure telepresence. Correlations were also explored between the TVS scales and some survey items pertaining to intimacy and emotional closeness to patients, comfort and positive as well as negative experiences with online interventions. CONCLUSION: The TVS may be a useful tool to measure physical and social telepresence in online interventions, both in patients and in professionals.

A survey of experimental stimulus presentation code sharing in major areas of psychology.

Computer code plays a vital role in modern science, from the conception and design of experiments through to final data analyses. Open sharing of code has been widely discussed as being advantageous to the scientific process, allowing experiments to be more easily replicated, helping with error detection, and reducing wasted effort and resources. In the case of psychology, the code used to present stimuli is a fundamental component of many experiments. It is not known, however, the degree to which researchers are sharing this type of code. To estimate this, we conducted a survey of 400 psychology papers published between 2016 and 2021, identifying those working with the open-source tools Psychtoolbox and PsychoPy that openly share stimulus presentation code. For those that did, we established if it would run following download and also appraised the code's usability in terms of style and documentation. It was found that only 8.4% of papers shared stimulus code, compared to 17.9% sharing analysis code and 31.7% sharing data. Of shared code, 70% ran directly or after minor corrections. For code that did not run, the main error was missing dependencies (66.7%). The usability of the code was moderate, with low levels of code annotation and minimal documentation provided. These results suggest that stimulus presentation code sharing lags behind other forms of code and data sharing, potentially due to less emphasis on such code in open-science discussions and in journal policies. The results also highlight a need for improved documentation to maximize code utility.

Psychology as a Historical Science.

Psychology has traditionally seen itself as the science of universal human cognition, but it has only recently begun seriously grappling with cross-cultural variation. Here we argue that the roots of cross-cultural variation often lie in the past. Therefore, to understand not only how but also why psychology varies, we need to grapple with cross-temporal variation. The traces of past human cognition accessible through historical texts and artifacts can serve as a valuable, and almost completely unutilized, source of psychological data. These data from dead minds open up an untapped and highly diverse subject pool. We review examples of research that may be classified as historical psychology, introduce sources of historical data and methods for analyzing them, explain the critical role of theory, and discuss how psychologists can add historical depth and nuance to their work. Psychology needs to become a historical science if it wants to be a genuinely universal science of human cognition and behavior.

Psychological well-being and worries among pregnant women in the first trimester during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark compared with a historical group: A hospital-based cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: A pandemic may negatively influence psychological well-being in the individual. We aimed to assess the potential influence of the first national lockdown in Denmark (March to June 2020) due to the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being and the content and degree of worries among pregnant women in early pregnancy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study based on self-reported data we compared psychological well-being and worries among women who were pregnant during the first phase of the pandemic (COVID-19 group) (n = 685), with women who were pregnant the year before (Historical group) (n = 787). Psychological well-being was measured by the five-item World Health Organization Well-being Index (WHO-5), using a score ≤50 as indicator of reduced psychological well-being. Differences in WHO-5 mean scores and in the prevalence of women with score ≤50 were assessed using general linear and log-binomial regression analyses. The Cambridge Worry Scale was used to measure the content and degree of major worries. To detect differences between groups, Pearson's Chi-square test was used. RESULTS: We found no differences in mean WHO-5 score between groups (mean difference) 0.1 (95% CI -1.5 to 1.6) or in the prevalence of women with WHO-5 score ≤50 (prevalence ratio 1.04, 95% CI 0.83-1.29) in adjusted analyses. A larger proportion of women in the COVID-19 group reported major worries about Relationship with husband/partner compared with the Historical group (3% [n = 19] vs 1% [n = 6], p = 0.04), and 9.2% in the COVID-19 group worried about the possible negative influence of the COVID-19 restrictions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that national restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not influence the psychological well-being or the content and degree of major worries among pregnant women. However, a larger proportion of women in the COVID-19 group reported major worries concerning Relationship with husband/partner compared with the Historical group and 9.2% in the COVID-19 group worried about the possible negative influence of the COVID-19 restrictions.

Replicator degrees of freedom allow publication of misleading failures to replicate.

In recent years, the field of psychology has begun to conduct replication tests on a large scale. Here, we show that "replicator degrees of freedom" make it far too easy to obtain and publish false-negative replication results, even while appearing to adhere to strict methodological standards. Specifically, using data from an ongoing debate, we show that commonly exercised flexibility at the experimental design and data analysis stages of replication testing can make it appear that a finding was not replicated when, in fact, it was. The debate that we focus on is representative, on key dimensions, of a large number of other replication tests in psychology that have been published in recent years, suggesting that the lessons of this analysis may be far reaching. The problems with current practice in replication science that we uncover here are particularly worrisome because they are not adequately addressed by the field's standard remedies, including preregistration. Implications for how the field could develop more effective methodological standards for replication are discussed.

Development of screening questions for doctor-patient consultation assessing the quality of life and psychosocial burden of glioma patients: an explorative study.

PURPOSE: Psychosocial screening for glioma patients is challenging because many patients suffer from neurocognitive deficits, which may impair assessment. This study's aim was to exploratively develop three screening questions for unmet needs to prospectively be applicable in patient-doctor consultation. METHODS: Patient interviews, a survey for health-care professionals and a weighted scoring procedure were developed for this study. Six main areas were defined according to main areas of validated questionnaires (psyche, cognition, body, role functioning, social support, unmet needs). Patients and health-care professionals rated the importance of these areas and corresponding items, patients additionally stated whether the issues addressed affected them. RESULTS: A total of 50 patients were included, and 36 health-care professionals participated in the online survey. The three areas (psyche, body and cognition) considered to be most relevant by both, health-care professionals and patients, generated three screening questions. If the patient was affected by the issue addressed with a screening question, a subordinate question from that area that our patient sample considered most important could additionally be asked. The elaborated screening questions are the following: (1) main area psyche: "Has your mood worsened?", (2) main area body: "Do physical changes put a strain on you?", and (3) main area cognition: "Has your memory capacity worsened?" CONCLUSION: These questions represent a basis for further research regarding their application in neuro-oncological clinical routine.

The qualitative imagination in counseling psychology: Enhancing methodological rigor across methods.

Fifteen years have passed since the publication of a landmark issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology on qualitative and mixed methods research (Haverkamp et al., 2005), which signaled a methodological shift in counseling psychology and related fields. At the time, qualitative research was certainly less popular in the field and arguably less respected than it is now. This special issue charts advances in qualitative and mixed methods research since the publication of that issue, reflects on how these diverse approaches are conducted today, and points toward new methodological frontiers. The articles in this special issue include a range of methodological tools and theoretical perspectives that extend thinking about the ethics, practice, evaluation, and implications of psychological research. Notably, the articles are linked by a shared commitment to conducting psychological research critically-that is, to both critique dominant norms in the discipline and to sensitize psychological methods to power and inequality-and to advancing social justice. In this introduction, the guest editors survey authors' contributions and synthesize their insights to offer recommendations for future qualitative and mixed methods work in the field, particularly in terms of interdisciplinarity, methodological rigor, critical psychology, and social justice. They propose that counseling psychologists should cultivate a "qualitative imagination" with respect to all forms of empirical research (qualitative and quantitative) and offer specific guidance for enhancing methodological sophistication and sensitivity to power. Accordingly, this special issue is an important opportunity to set an agenda for the next decade-plus of critical inquiry in counseling psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Decolonization as methodological innovation in counseling psychology: Method, power, and process in reclaiming American Indian therapeutic traditions.

Decolonization harbors great potential as a transformative methodological innovation for advancing social justice in counseling psychology. One domain of colonized knowledge with relevance for the field is therapeutic expertise in American Indian communities. In this article, I draw extensively on vignettes from the life narrative of a historical Aaniiih-Gros Ventre medicine man to reveal various facets of his healing practices. I do so as an illustrative case example of a decolonial reclamation of Indigenous therapeutic traditions for the discipline. In discussing method, power, and process in association with decolonization, I first summarize emergent divergences between Indigenous traditional healing and modern counseling based on excerpted vignettes. Then, I observe that method in pursuing decolonization through Indigenous therapeutic reclamation is currently open to various forms of qualitative inquiry, that power in pursuit of Indigenous therapeutic reclamation must appraise the role of therapeutic regimes in the creation of modern subjects, and that process in pursuit of Indigenous therapeutic reclamation must allow for decolonization to extend to the repatriation of Indigenous relationships to land. Finally, I gesture beyond the consideration of Indigenous therapeutic traditions to trace the profound implications of a decolonization agenda for knowledge, practice, and training in counseling psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring human action in counseling psychology: The action-project research method.

Qualitative research in counseling psychology in the last 2 decades has been characterized by the introduction and use of a range of methods and corresponding paradigms and conceptual frameworks. The action-project research method, described and updated in this article, is based on an understanding of human action as goal-directed and enacted in context: contextual action theory. We summarize this framework, prior to describing the method's procedures for conceptualizing research problems and questions, collecting and analyzing data from dyads of participants, and presenting research findings. We also discuss recent adaptations to the procedures and how the method addresses core issues in counseling psychology; that is, methodological integrity, culture, ethics, and power. We proceed to describe how the method relates to other qualitative methods and the kinds of research questions asked by the discipline and how the action-project method connects to professional practice issues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The shape of knowledge: Situational analysis in counseling psychology research.

Situational analysis (SA) is a powerful method for visually mapping qualitative data. As an extension of constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz and others, Clarke's situational analysis encourages researchers to transform qualitative data into various visual maps that can illuminate dynamics that may be obscured by more traditional analytic approaches. Fifteen years since Fassinger's landmark article on grounded theory in counseling psychology research, I make an argument for SA's potential uses in counseling psychology using data from a mixed-methods dissertation on White racial affect. I outline the exigency of SA and its epistemological and methodological underpinnings in detail, with a focus on SA as a critical, structural analysis. Each primary mapping procedure-situational, positional, and social worlds/arenas maps-is introduced and examples are provided that illustrate SA's unique analytic capacities and insights. By way of SA, I argue for a "critical-cartographic" turn in counseling psychology along four axes: promoting systems-level research and advocacy, deepening consideration of intersectionality, cultivating alternative epistemologies beyond post-positivism, and invigorating qualitative research on counseling and psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions of custody: Similarities and disparities among police, judges, social psychologists, and laypeople.

OBJECTIVE: Custody is a legal state that requires police to Mirandize suspects and, in some jurisdictions, to record their interrogation. The present study compared the custody perceptions of police, judges, social psychologists, and laypeople. HYPOTHESES: We predicted that (a) high-custody vignettes would elicit less perceived freedom than low-custody vignettes; (b) police and judges would see these situations as less custodial relative to social psychologists and laypeople; (c) these differences would arise mostly in ambiguous vignettes; and (d) participants in general would perceive suspects as objectively having more freedom to leave than they subjectively feel they have. METHOD: Police officers (n = 223), trial judges (n = 219), social psychologists (n = 228), and laypeople (n = 205) read a vignette of a police-suspect encounter that presented high-, ambiguous, or low-levels of custody and indicated their perceptions of the suspect's freedom to leave. RESULTS: Participants perceived the most freedom in the low-custody vignettes, followed by ambiguous and high-custody vignettes, and all groups differed significantly from each other (ηp2 = .39). Police and judges overestimated how free they thought the suspect would feel compared to social psychologists and laypeople, who did not differ from each other (ηp2 = .085). Participants in general saw the suspect as objectively freer than they thought he felt, and themselves as feeling freer than they believed the suspect did (ηp2 = .35). Police defined a "reasonable person" as someone who is mentally stable, whereas judges were more likely to cite a person of average intelligence. CONCLUSION: Despite the assumption that custody can be defined by the effects of objective circumstances on the reasonable person, results revealed substantial variation of perceptions between police and judges on the one hand, and social psychologists and laypeople on the other. As a result, legal safeguards triggered by custodial interrogation may be inconsistently applied to real suspects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Implementation and Evaluation of a Standardized Nurse-Administered Assessment of Functional and Psychosocial Issues for Patients in Acute Care.

BACKGROUND: Increasingly, adults presenting to healthcare facilities have multiple morbidities that impact medical management and require initial and ongoing assessment. The interRAI Acute Care (AC), one of a suite of instruments used for integrated care, is a nurse-administered standardized assessment of functional and psychosocial domains that contribute to complexity of patients admitted to acute care. AIM: This study aimed to implement and evaluate the interRAI AC assessment system using a multi-strategy approach based on the integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework. METHODS: This nurse-led quality improvement study was piloted in a 200-bed public hospital in Brisbane, Australia, over the period 2017 to 2018. The interRAI AC is a set of clinical observations of functional and psychosocial domains, supported by software to derive diagnostic and risk screeners, scales to measure and monitor severity, and alerts to assist in care planning. Empirical data, surveys, and qualitative feedback were used to measure process and impact outcomes using the RE-AIM evaluation framework (Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance). RESULTS: In comparison to usual practice, the interRAI assessment system and supporting software was able to improve the integrity and compliance of nurse assessments, identifying key risk domains to facilitate management of care. Pre-implementation documentation (630 items in 45 patient admissions) had 39% missing data compared with 1% missing data during the interRAI implementation phase (9,030 items in 645 patient admissions). Qualitative feedback from nurses in relation to staff engagement and behavioral intention to use the new technology was mixed. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: Despite challenges to implementing a system-wide change, evaluation results demonstrated considerable efficiency gains in the nursing assessment system. For successful implementation of the interRAI AC, study findings suggest the need for interoperability with other information systems, access to training, and continued leadership support.

The psychosocial determinants of quality of life in breast cancer survivors: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer care today involves state-of-the-art biomedical treatment but can fail to address the broader psychosocial and quality-of-life (QoL) issues associated with the transition to breast cancer survivorship. This scoping review examines the evidence on the influence of psychosocial determinants on QoL in breast cancer survivors. METHODS: Scoping review methodology was used to: (1) identify the research question(s); (2) identify relevant studies; (3) undertake study selection; (4) extract data; (5) collate, summarise and report the results. RESULTS: A total of 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies were conducted in the US (n = 22, 67%) and were mainly cross-sectional (n = 26, 79%). Sixteen psychosocial determinants of QoL were identified. Social support (n = 14, 42%), depression (n = 7, 21%) and future appraisal and perspective (n = 7, 21%) were the most frequently investigated determinants. Twelve different QoL measures were used. A range of different measurement tools were also used per psychosocial determinant (weighted average = 6). The 14 studies that measured the influence of social support on QoL employed 10 different measures of social support and 7 different measures of QoL. In general, across all 33 studies, a higher level of a positive influence and a lower level of a negative influence of a psychosocial determinant was associated with a better QoL e.g. higher social support and lower levels of depression were associated with a higher/better QoL. For some determinants such as spirituality and coping skills the influence on QoL varied, but these determinants were less commonly investigated. CONCLUSION: Consensus around measures of QoL and psychological determinants would be valuable and would enable research to determine the influence of psychosocial determinants on QoL adequately. Research in other healthcare settings beyond the US is required, in order to understand the influence of organisation and follow-up clinical and supportive care on psychosocial determinants and QoL and to improve the quality of care in breast cancer survivors.

Twenty-five years of diabetes distress research.

The term 'diabetes distress' first entered the psychosocial research vernacular in 1995, and refers to 'the negative emotional or affective experience resulting from the challenge of living with the demands of diabetes'. At first the proponents of the concept were hesitant in advocating that diabetes distress was a major barrier to individuals' self-care and management of diabetes. Since then, a burgeoning body of evidence, now including several systematic reviews of intervention studies, suggests that diabetes distress, in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, across ages and in all countries and cultures where it has been studied, is common and can be a barrier to optimal emotional well-being, self-care and management of diabetes. As a consequence, monitoring diabetes distress as part of routine clinical care is part of many national guidelines. The present narrative review summarizes this research and related literature, to postulate the aetiology of diabetes distress, and thus how it may be prevented. The current evidence base for the management of diabetes distress is summarized, and the next steps in the prevention and management of diabetes distress identified.

Looking back on 25 years of the PSAD study group.

The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Psychosocial Aspects of Diabetes (PSAD) study group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. At the time, psychosocial diabetes research in Europe was steadily growing, but not well recognized. By establishing an official European Association for the Study of Diabetes study group, PSAD, for which purpose some hurdles had to be overcome, diabetes psychology became more visible and accessible to the scientific diabetes community. Over the years the PSAD study group has been successful in promoting the quality of research in the field through scientific meetings, mentoring, postgraduate education and publications. Looking back we can conclude that starting the PSAD study group signified an important moment in time, where researchers were joining forces to further the quality of the science, raise awareness of the importance of psychosocial aspects and promote the dissemination of psychological interventions in diabetes care.

How 25 years of psychosocial research has contributed to a better understanding of the links between depression and diabetes.

This narrative review of the literature provides a summary and discussion of 25 years of research into the complex links between depression and diabetes. Systematic reviews have shown that depression occurs more frequently in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes compared with people without diabetes. Currently, it remains unclear whether depression is also more common in people with impaired glucose metabolism or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes compared with people without diabetes. More prospective epidemiological research into the course of depression and an exploration of mechanisms in individuals with diabetes are needed. Depression in diabetes is associated with less optimal self-care behaviours, suboptimal glycaemic control, impaired quality of life, incident micro- and macrovascular diseases, and elevated mortality rates. Randomized controlled trails concluded that depression in diabetes can be treated with antidepressant medication, cognitive-behavioural therapy (individual, group-based or web-based), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and stepped care. Although big strides forward have been made in the past 25 years, scientific evidence about depression in diabetes remains incomplete. Future studies should investigate mechanisms that link both conditions and test new diabetes-specific web- or app-based interventions for depression in diabetes. It is important to determine whether treatment or prevention of depression prevents future diabetes complications and lowers mortality rates.

25 Years of psychological research investigating disordered eating in people with diabetes: what have we learnt?

Disordered eating is a serious and under-recognized problem in people with diabetes. This narrative review summarizes the research contributions made by psychological science over the past 25 years to the study of disordered eating in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and identifies gaps and future directions relevant to both healthcare professionals and researchers. Key focus areas of psychological research investigating disordered eating in people with diabetes have been: (1) defining and classifying types of disordered eating; (2) identifying demographic, diabetes-specific and psychosocial correlates of disordered eating, and developing theoretical models of disordered eating in people with type 1 diabetes; (3) identifying the physical and psychosocial consequences of disordered eating; and (4) developing screening measures to identify disordered eating in people with type 1 diabetes. Psychological science has made significant contributions over the past 25 years to our understanding of the nature of this problem and the multiple factors which may interrelate with disordered eating in people with diabetes. Key areas for further attention include: (1) a better definition of disordered eating subtypes in people with type 1 diabetes; (2) characterizing disordered eating in people with type 2 diabetes; and (3) developing multidisciplinary, evidence-based prevention and treatment interventions for comorbid disordered eating and diabetes.