Recommendations for Increasing Replicability in Psychology

Replicability of findings is at the heart of any empirical science. The aim of this article is to move the current replicability debate in psychology towards concrete recommendations for improvement. We focus on research practices but also offer guidelines for reviewers, editors, journal management, teachers, granting institutions, and university promotion committees, highlighting some of the emerging and existing practical solutions that can facilitate implementation of these recommendations. The challenges for improving replicability in psychological science are systemic. Improvement can occur only if changes are made at many levels of practice, evaluation, and reward. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of social cognition models in predicting attendance at health checks

Abstract

The present study sought to apply the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour to the prediction of attendance at health checks. In addition, the way in which patients were invited to the health checks and the effect this had on both the uptake of the service and the role of cognitive factors in predicting attendance was analysed. Based in a single general practice, 818 patients were either sent an invitation letter which included an appointment time or they were sent an open invitation to contact the practice to make their own appointment time. Prior to the commencement of the programme health belief questionnaires were sent to patients. The results of the study firstly showed that letters offering patients an appointment produced a much higher attendance rate (70%) than letters containing an open invitation (37%). Secondly, through stepwise discriminant function analyses, the predictors of attendance behaviour were found to vary according to how patients were invited. For patients sent an appointment, attenders were found to be more likely than non-attenders to place a high value on their health, to believe that their health is influenced by powerful others, that certain referent groups would advise them to attend, that attending would lead to positive outcomes and that motivational barriers would not prevent them from attending. For patients sent an open invitation, intention to attend and perceived control were found to be independent predictors of attendance behaviour. These results suggest that attendance at health checks may not be a homogeneous behaviour such that the beliefs which distinguish attenders and non-attenders may be seen to vary according to the way in which the service is offered.     

Automatic activation of individual differences: A test of the gatekeeper model in the domain of spontaneous helping

The influence of stable individual differences on behaviour need not solely rely upon deliberative processes but can also be exerted through automatic associative processes. In this contribution, three studies that illustrate the role of individual differences in automaticity are presented in the domain of helping behaviour. The first study provides evidence both for a double dissociation and for an additive pattern of implicit and explicit measures in predicting relevant altruistic behaviours. The subsequent two studies show that when the concept of altruism is subliminally primed, individual differences in implicit attitudes significantly predict behaviour. The results are in line with the gatekeeper model, and their implications are discussed focusing on the key role of individual differences in modulating automaticity effects. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child Behavior Checklist Scores for School-Aged Children with Autism: Preliminary Evidence of Patterns Suggesting the Need for Referral

The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a widely used questionnaire to assess behavioral and emotional problems. It is often used as a diagnostic screener, but autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are not included in the CBCL for school-aged children. This study investigated patterns of CBCL scores in 108 children with high-functioning ASD from two independent samples, and 67 IQ- and age-matched controls. Scores on the CBCL Thought and Social Problems scales significantly differentiated children with ASD from controls. Both independent ASD samples had the same pattern of elevations, with mean scores over two standard deviations above the mean for Social, Thought, and Attention Problems. The Withdrawn/Depressed scale was elevated to at least the borderline clinical range for half of the ASD sample. This pattern of elevations is consistent with two prior studies of the CBCL with school-aged children with ASD, and therefore may warrant follow-up assessment to rule out an ASD.     

The next generation of psychological autopsy studies: part 2. Interview procedures

The psychological autopsy (PA) is a systematic method of assessing the psychological and contextual circumstances preceding suicide. The method requires interviews with one or more proxy respondents (i.e., informants) of suicide decedents. Procedural challenges that need to be addressed to conduct PA interviews are described in this article and recommendations for meeting these challenges in future PA investigations are made. Procedures addressed include determining the timing of PA interviews after suicide, designing the structure and flow of interviews, selection of proxy respondents, integrating interview data with information gathered from records, and selecting and training interviewers. This methodological article is the second in a two-part series-the first article focused on interview content.     

Emotions and suicidal ideation among depressed women with childhood sexual abuse histories

Depressed women with sexual abuse histories have a heightened risk of suicidal ideation (SI), which may be only in part attributable to psychiatric symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Emotions and SI were studied among 106 women with histories of childhood sexual abuse enrolled in treatment trials for major depression. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 10, 24, and 36 weeks. Sadness, guilt, and shame-proneness were associated with self-reported and observer-rated SI across time after adjusting for depressive and PTSD symptoms, suicide attempt history, and sociodemographic characteristics associated with SI. These findings highlight the need for clinical attention to self-directed negative emotions to potentially reduce suicide-related risk.     

Poisoning Severity Associated with a Range of Medications in Suicide Attempts by Ingestion

There are limited data on the medical severity of suicide attempts by intentional self‐poisoning (ISP) associated with ingestion of differing classes of medications and meager data on specific agents. The purpose of the study was to address these gaps. This was an analysis of a consecutive series of ISP cases ages 13 to 65 treated at a U.S. university medical center (N = 671). The outcome, poisoning severity, was dichotomized as “moderate‐severe” and “low” (reference) based on a standard measure. Class of medication (e.g., opiate) and specific agents ingested were the predictors of interest. Covariates were age, sex, and the ingestion of multiple classes of medications. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression models. At the class level, ingestion of opiate was uniquely associated with increased risk for moderate‐severe ISP at a statistically significant level, adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) = 2.97 (1.69, 5.21), p = .0002. Several specific agents were also associated with moderate‐severe ISP. Along with the key role of opiate medications in unintentional overdose morbidity and mortality, opiate medications may also play an important and largely unrecognized role in medically serious suicidal behavior. Results also underscore the variability in toxicity of specific agents within drug classes.     

Metaanalysis of Mood and Substance Use Disorders in Proximal Risk for Suicide Deaths

Evidence for proximal risk factors for suicide is based on case–control psychological autopsy studies, with these reports showing that mood and substance use disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders among suicide decedents worldwide and are associated with marked risk. However, moderators of risk and the degree of risk associated with (nonalcohol) drug use disorder are unknown. A comprehensive search was used to identify 35 case–control psychological autopsy studies published worldwide over a 30‐year period that were metaanalyzed using random effects models. Major depression, odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 9.14 (5.53, 15.09), and drug use disorder, OR (95% CI) = 7.18 (3.22, 16.01), had large effect sizes, among other results. Risk estimates associated with major depression were greater in studies with a larger proportion of women and those conducted in Asia compared with other regions. There was no evidence of publication bias or that any one study had a disproportionate impact on findings. Risk for suicide associated with major depression appears to be moderated by sex and/or world region. Drug use disorder is a potent risk factor, illustrating the importance of assessing drug use in clinical risk assessment.