Making Sense of Meta-Analysis: A Critique of “Effectiveness of Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy”

Evidence-based practice depends in part on knowledge derived from relevant research. For any given topic, there are likely to be many, potentially relevant studies; a careful appraisal and synthesis of the results of these studies is needed to understand the state of the empirical evidence. Meta-analysis is widely used to combine results of quantitative studies; yet this method is unfamiliar to many people and, as a result, meta-analyses are often uncritically accepted. In this article, we argue that meta-analysis is only one component of a good research synthesis. We critique a recent metaanalysis on the effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, showing that this metaanalysis failed to meet current standards for the conduct and reporting of systematic research reviews and meta-analyses. We demonstrate the use of AMSTAR, a straightforward tool for assessing the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.     

Internationale Mobilit?t und soziale Selektivit?t: Ausma?, Mechanismen und Entwicklung herkunftsspezifischer Unterschiede zwischen 1990 und 2005

In the course of educational expansion social inequalities in access to upper secondary education declined, while the differences in transition to tertiary education increased. In the light of these changes the assumption arises, that the patterns of social selectivity in access to higher education have changed. While in the past status maintenance was mainly due to differences in access to higher education, today it is to a greater extent a question of kind and place of study. Because of the growing importance of international experience for labour market success, students of privileged classes might increasingly opt to study abroad in order to preserve their privileged position. Drawing on a series of panel-datasets of upper secondary graduates in Germany, we estimate the extent and development of social differences in international mobility behaviour between 1990 and 2005, and apply a decomposition method in order to single out the underlying processes and mechanisms. We find remarkable social differences in the intention as well as in the decision to study at a foreign university. Students from privileged classes more often decide to study abroad, while students from underprivileged classes stay close to their hometown. These differences can partly be explained by school performance, language skills, social costs and institutional differences. Furthermore we find that these differences have rather increased than decreased.     

Neurobiology and the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalytic Play Therapy with Children

This paper presents neurobiological aspects of the therapeutic action of psychoanalytic play therapy. The author contends that play integrates diverse modes of neural processing because of its inherently enactive and verbal nature. Admixtures of new and familiar self/other configurations emerge, simultaneously shaping and fostering integration of procedural and declarative modes of experience. Complex self-other configurations develop in play therapy because of its intrinsic integration of multiple experiential modes. The paper includes an illustration of play treatment with a boy who presented with a disorganized attachment pattern, an attendant deficit in affect regulation, and who manifested frank psychotic symptomatology.     

Evaluating systems change in a juvenile justice reform initiative

Evaluating comprehensive, interagency initiatives to reform human services systems presents substantial challenges to traditional research models. Outcomes are observed at the system level rather than the individual level, and the validity of study results may be challenged on a variety of dimensions, particularly small sample sizes and measurement error. We report the results of a cross-site evaluation of the first phase of Reclaiming Futures, a five-year effort to improve services and interventions for justice-involved youth in 10 communities across the United States. We present the evaluation findings and discuss implications for similar research endeavors. The methods used in this study may be useful for other system-level evaluation efforts. A social network analysis analyzes changes in the size, density, and cohesiveness of stakeholder networks. Bivariate models test for associations between Reclaiming Futures implementation and key stakeholder perceptions of effective system change. Multivariate models are used to explore selection effects on item response. In general, we find positive correlations between successful implementation of Reclaiming Futures and indicators of effective and efficient system change.     

Age-Related Changes in Emotion Recognition: How,Why, and How Much of a Problem?

Isaacowitz and Stanley review age differences in facial emotion recognition, an ability tied to effective socioemotional functioning but often marked by age-related decline. They highlight major findings from the past decade and conclude that age-related declines exist but are least pronounced for positive relative to negative emotions. They discuss possible motivational and structural explanations for this positivity effect, and they describe future research avenues for evaluating age-related differences in more ecologically valid contexts. In this commentary, we discuss each of these topics. We state that many complexities that arise when interpreting age differences are similar to issues raised by emotion scholars who have studied intrapersonal and interpersonal processes outside of the developmental literature. We argue that theoretical and methodological lessons gained from these emotion scholars would provide insight to interpret current findings and direct future research in life-span development.     

Strategic versus non-strategic voting power in the EU Council of Ministers: the consultation procedure

This article evaluates the distribution of power within the Council of the European Union from the a priori perspective of constitutional design using two distinct approaches: (1) applying traditional voting power indices; (2) carrying out strategic equilibrium analysis of the EU’s consultation procedure. It clarifies why both approaches lead to different power indications, and investigates the determinants of the differences’ magnitudes. Depending on one’s assumptions about behavior of the consultation procedure’s agenda setter, the European Commission, traditional indices turn out to deliver a good approximation also of relative strategic power in the Council.     

Where Did All the Pathological Gamblers Go? Gambling Symptomatology and Stage of Change Predict Attrition in Longitudinal Research

Attrition can introduce a systematic bias that can negatively affect validity (Cook and Campbell, Quasi-experimentation: design and analysis issues for field settings. Rand McNally, Chicago, 1979). Current longitudinal research in gambling, however, has generally overlooked the reasons for attrition. The current research examined the relationship between pathological gambling symptomatology, stage of change and attrition. Three hundred and seventy-nine participants were contacted 12 months after initially participating in a study on gambling for a follow-up session. Logistic regression revealed those in the contemplation and preparation stages of change reported higher levels of pathological gambling symptomatology and were more likely to drop out of the study compared to those in the precontemplation stage. As predicted, gambling symptomatology mediated the relationship between stages of change and attrition. The implication for longitudinal research on gambling as well as extant findings that have used this methodological approach is discussed.     

The Cost of Not Knowing the Score: Self-Estimated Credit Scores and Financial Outcomes

This study analyzes consumers’ knowledge of their own credit situation and tests whether a lack of knowledge affects financial outcomes. The unique dataset from survey and credit report data includes self-estimates of credit scores and actual scores from a low-to-moderate income sample. We argue and show empirically that many respondents don’t know their credit score and generally underestimate their creditworthiness. Furthermore, our evidence suggests that this biased self-assessment may explain differences in perceived credit constraints and credit contracts, specifically credit card interest rates. Our research suggests that an important aspect of financial literacy is self-assessment, and that it is important to encourage consumers to regularly check their credit reports and scores so as to better understand their actual creditworthiness.     

Baby booming inequality? Demographic change and earnings inequality in Norway, 1967�C2000

In this paper, we demonstrate how age-adjusted inequality measures can be used to evaluate whether changes in inequality over time are due to changes in the age-structure. To this end, we use administrative data on earnings for every male Norwegian over the period 1967–2000. We find that the substantial rise in earnings inequality over the 1980s and into the early 1990s, is to some extent driven by the fact that the large baby boom cohorts are approaching the peak of the age–earnings profile. We further demonstrate that the impact of age-adjustments on the trend in inequality during the period 1993–2000 is highly sensitive to the method used: While the most widely used age-adjusted inequality measure indicates little change in inequality over this period, a new and improved age-adjusted measure suggests a decline in inequality.