| 1. |
- Akiyama, Kazunori, et al.
(författare)
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First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. II. EHT and Multiwavelength Observations, Data Processing, and Calibration
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - : American Astronomical Society. - 2041-8213 .- 2041-8205. ; 930:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) 1.3 mm measurements of the radio source located at the position of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), collected during the 2017 April 5-11 campaign. The observations were carried out with eight facilities at six locations across the globe. Novel calibration methods are employed to account for Sgr A*'s flux variability. The majority of the 1.3 mm emission arises from horizon scales, where intrinsic structural source variability is detected on timescales of minutes to hours. The effects of interstellar scattering on the image and its variability are found to be subdominant to intrinsic source structure. The calibrated visibility amplitudes, particularly the locations of the visibility minima, are broadly consistent with a blurred ring with a diameter of similar to 50 mu as, as determined in later works in this series. Contemporaneous multiwavelength monitoring of Sgr A* was performed at 22, 43, and 86 GHz and at near-infrared and X-ray wavelengths. Several X-ray flares from Sgr A* are detected by Chandra, one at low significance jointly with Swift on 2017 April 7 and the other at higher significance jointly with NuSTAR on 2017 April 11. The brighter April 11 flare is not observed simultaneously by the EHT but is followed by a significant increase in millimeter flux variability immediately after the X-ray outburst, indicating a likely connection in the emission physics near the event horizon. We compare Sgr A*'s broadband flux during the EHT campaign to its historical spectral energy distribution and find that both the quiescent emission and flare emission are consistent with its long-term behavior.
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| 2. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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A critical reanalysis of the relationship between genomics and well-being
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 111:35, s. 12705-12709
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fredrickson et al. [Fredrickson BL, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(33):13684–13689] claimed to have observed significant differences in gene expression related to hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions of well-being. Having closely examined both their claims and their data, we draw substantially different conclusions. After identifying some important conceptual and methodological flaws in their argument, we report the results of a series of reanalyses of their dataset. We first applied a variety of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques to their self-reported well-being data. A number of plausible factor solutions emerged, but none of these corresponded to Fredrickson et al.’s claimed hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions. We next examined the regression analyses that purportedly yielded distinct differential profiles of gene expression associated with the two well-being dimensions. Using the best-fitting two-factor solution that we identified, we obtained effects almost twice as large as those found by Fredrickson et al. using their questionable hedonic and eudaimonic factors. Next, we conducted regression analyses for all possible two-factor solutions of the psychometric data; we found that 69.2% of these gave statistically significant results for both factors, whereas only 0.25% would be expected to do so if the regression process was really able to identify independent differential gene expression effects. Finally, we replaced Fredrickson et al.’s psychometric data with random numbers and continued to find very large numbers of apparently statistically significant effects. We conclude that Fredrickson et al.’s widely publicized claims about the effects of different dimensions of well-being on health-related gene expression are merely artifacts of dubious analyses and erroneous methodology.
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| 3. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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A Reproduction of the Results of Onyike et al. (2003)
- 2021
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Ingår i: Meta-Psychology. - : Linnaeus University Press. - 2003-2714. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Onyike et al. (2003) analyzed data from a large-scale US-American data set, the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-III), and reported an association between obesity and major depression, especially among people with severe obesity. Here, we report the results of a detailed replication of Onyike et al.’s analyses. While we were able to reproduce the majority of these authors’ descriptive statistics, this took a substantial amount of time and effort, and we found several minor errors in the univariate descriptive statistics reported in their Tables 1 and 2. We were able to reproduce most of Onyike et al.’s bivariate findings regarding the relationship between obesity and depression (Tables 3 and 4), albeit with some small discrepancies (e.g., with respect to the magnitudes of standard errors). On the other hand, we were unable to reproduce Table 5, containing Onyike et al.’s findings with respect to the relationship between obesity and depression when controlling for plausible confounding variables—arguably the paper’s most important results—because some of the included predictor variables appear to be either unavailable, or not coded in the way reported by Onyike et al., in the public NHANES-III data sets. We discuss the implications of our findings for the transparency of reporting and the reproducibility of published results.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Does Twitter language reliably predict heart disease? : A commentary on Eichstaedt et al. (2015a)
- 2018
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Ingår i: PeerJ. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We comment on Eichstaedt et al.’s (2015a) claim to have shown that language patterns among Twitter users, aggregated at the level of US counties, predicted county-level mortality rates from atherosclerotic heart disease (AHD), with “negative” language being associated with higher rates of death from AHD and “positive” language associated with lower rates. First, we examine some of Eichstaedt et al.’s apparent assumptions about the nature of AHD, as well as some issues related to the secondary analysis of online data and to considering counties as communities. Next, using the data files supplied by Eichstaedt et al., we reproduce their regression- and correlation-based models, substituting mortality from an alternative cause of death—namely, suicide—as the outcome variable, and observe that the purported associations between “negative” and “positive” language and mortality are reversed when suicide is used as the outcome variable. We identify numerous other conceptual and methodological limitations that call into question the robustness and generalizability of Eichstaedt et al.’s claims, even when these are based on the results of their ridge regression/machine learning model. We conclude that there is no good evidence that analyzing Twitter data in bulk in this way can add anything useful to our ability to understand geographical variation in AHD mortality rates.
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| 6. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Easy as (Happiness) Pie? : A Critical Evaluation of a Popular Model of the Determinants of Well-Being
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Happiness Studies. - : Springer. - 1389-4978 .- 1573-7780. ; 21:4, s. 1285-1301
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An underlying principle behind much of the research in positive psychology is that individuals have considerable leeway to increase their levels of happiness. In an influential article that is frequently cited in support of such claims, Lyubomirsky et al. (Rev Gen Psychol 9:111–131, 2005. https://doi-org.proxy.lnu.se/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.111) put forward a model (subsequently popularized under the name of the “happiness pie”) in which approximately 50% of individual differences in happiness are due to genetic factors and 10% to life circumstances, leaving 40% available to be changed via volitional activities. We re-examined Lyubomirsky et al.’s claims and found several apparent deficiencies in their chain of arguments on both the empirical and the conceptual level. We conclude that there is little empirical evidence for the variance decomposition suggested by the “happiness pie,” and that even if it were valid, it is not necessarily informative with respect to the question of whether individuals can truly exert substantial influence over their own chronic happiness level. We believe that our critical re-examination of Lyubomirsky et al.’s seminal article offers insights into some common misconceptions and pitfalls of scientific inference, and we hope that it might contribute to the construction of a more rigorous and solid empirical basis for the field of positive psychology.
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| 7. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Emodiversity : Robust Predictor of Outcomes or Statistical Artifact?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of experimental psychology. General. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0096-3445 .- 1939-2222. ; 146:9, s. 1372-1378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the concept of emodiversity, put forward by Quoidbach et al. (2014) as a novel source of information about "the health of the human emotional ecosystem" (p. 2057). Quoidbach et al. drew an analogy between emodiversity as a desirable property of a person's emotional make-up and biological diversity as a desirable property of an ecosystem. They claimed that emodiversity was an independent predictor of better mental and physical health outcomes in two large-scale studies. Here, we show that Quoidbach et al.'s construct of emodiversity suffers from several theoretical and practical deficiencies, which make these authors' use of Shannon's (1948) entropy formula to measure emodiversity highly questionable. Our reanalysis of Quoidbach et al.' s two studies shows that the apparently substantial effects that these authors reported are likely due to a failure to conduct appropriate hierarchical regression in one case and to suppression effects in the other. It appears that Quoidbach et al.' s claims about emodiversity may reduce to little more than a set of computational and statistical artifacts.
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| 8. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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More Questions than Answers : Continued Critical Reanalysis of Fredrickson et al.'s Studies of Genomics and Well-Being
- 2016
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 11:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We critically re-examine Fredrickson et al.’s renewed claims concerning the differential relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic forms of well-being and gene expression, namely that people who experience a preponderance of eudaimonic well-being have gene expression profiles that are associated with more favorable health outcomes. By means of an extensive reanalysis of their data, we identify several discrepancies between what these authors claimed and what their data support; we further show that their different analysis models produce mutually contradictory results. We then show how Fredrickson et al.’s most recent article on this topic not only fails to adequately address our previously published concerns about their earlier related work, but also introduces significant further problems, including inconsistency in their hypotheses. Additionally, we demonstrate that regardless of which statistical model is used to analyze their data, Fredrickson et al.’s method can be highly sensitive to the inclusion (or exclusion) of data from a single subject. We reiterate our previous conclusions, namely that there is no evidence that Fredrickson et al. have established a reliable empirical distinction between their two delineated forms of well-being, nor that eudaimonic well-being provides any overall health benefits over hedonic well-being.
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| 9. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Positive Psychology and Romantic Scientism
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Psychologist. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0003-066X .- 1935-990X. ; 69:6, s. 636-637
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Replies to the comments of Nickerson (see record 2014-36500-010), Guastello (see record 2014-36500-011), Musau (see record 2014-36500-013), Hämäläinen et al. (see record 2014-36500-014), and Lefebvre and Schwartz (see record 2014-36500-015) on the authors article (see record 2013-24609-001). Fredrickson and Losada’s (2005) article was the subject of over 350 scholarly citations before our critique (Brown et al., 2013) appeared, and its principal “conclusions” have been featured in many lectures and public presentations by senior members of the positive psychology research community, although its deficiencies ought to have been visible to anyone with a modest grasp of mathematics and a little curiosity. Unfortunately— because human behavior is, after all, complex and difficult to understand—we have no way of knowing whether the fact that it took so long for these deficiencies to be recognized was due to an unwarranted degree of optimism about the reliability of the peer-review process, a reluctance to make waves in the face of powerful interests, a general lack of critical thinking within positive psychology, or some other factor. We hope that our revelation of the problems with the critical positivity ratio ultimately demonstrates the success of science as a self-correcting endeavor; however, we would have greatly preferred it if our work had not been necessary in the first place.
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| 10. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Questionable Measures Are Pretty Meaningless
- 2015
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Ingår i: American Psychologist. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0003-066X .- 1935-990X. ; 70:6, s. 571-573
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comments on the original article "Life is pretty meaningful," by S. J. Heintzelman and L. A. King (see record 2014-03265-001). Heintzelman and King argued that meaning in life (MIL) is widely experienced and exists at high levels. In this brief commentary, the current authors examine what they believe are several flaws in their argument: a lack of clarity in defining MIL; the questionable validity of the instruments used to measure MIL throughout Heintzelman and King’s article; and an erroneous interpretation of quantitative reports of MIL from surveys and the academic literature.
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| 11. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Reanalysis of Vedhara et al. 's (2015) study of personality and gene expression
- 2016
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Ingår i: Personality and Individual Differences. - : Elsevier. - 0191-8869 .- 1873-3549. ; 91, s. 133-137
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A recent study by Vedhara et al. appearing in Psychoneuroendocrinology (2015, 52, 72–82) concluded that the personality traits of conscientiousness and extraversion were associated with the decreased and increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes, respectively. A reanalysis of the data from this study indicates that these results are fragile and ambiguous, and depend on (a) the inclusion or exclusion of two study participants missing values for one of the control variables and (b) the accumulation of statistical suppression effects in the regression analyses.
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| 12. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The Complex Dynamics of Wishful Thinking The Critical Positivity Ratio
- 2013
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Ingår i: American Psychologist. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0003-066X .- 1935-990X. ; 68:9, s. 801-813
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We examine critically the claims made by Fredrickson and Losada (2005) concerning the construct known as the “positivity ratio.” We find no theoretical or empirical justification for the use of differential equations drawn from fluid dynamics, a subfield of physics, to describe changes in human emotions over time; furthermore, we demonstrate that the purported application of these equations contains numerous fundamental conceptual and mathematical errors. The lack of relevance of these equations and their incorrect application lead us to conclude that Fredrickson and Losada’s claim to have demonstrated the existence of a critical minimum positivity ratio of 2.9013 is entirely unfounded. More generally, we urge future researchers to exercise caution in the use of advanced mathematical tools, such as nonlinear dynamics, and in particular to verify that the elementary conditions for their valid application have been met.
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| 13. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The GRIM Test : A Simple Technique Detects Numerous Anomalies in the Reporting of Results in Psychology
- 2017
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Ingår i: Social Psychology and Personality Science. - : Sage Publications. - 1948-5506 .- 1948-5514. ; 8:4, s. 363-369
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a simple mathematical technique that we call granularity-related inconsistency of means (GRIM) for verifying the summary statistics of research reports in psychology. This technique evaluates whether the reported means of integer data such as Likert-type scales are consistent with the given sample size and number of items. We tested this technique with a sample of 260 recent empirical articles in leading journals. Of the articles that we could test with the GRIM technique (N = 71), around half (N = 36) appeared to contain at least one inconsistent mean, and more than 20% (N = 16) contained multiple such inconsistencies. We requested the data sets corresponding to 21 of these articles, receiving positive responses in 9 cases. We confirmed the presence of at least one reporting error in all cases, with three articles requiring extensive corrections. The implications for the reliability and replicability of empirical psychology are discussed.
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| 14. |
- Brown, Nicholas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The Persistence of Wishful Thinking
- 2014
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Ingår i: American Psychologist. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0003-066X .- 1935-990X. ; 69:6, s. 629-632
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Comments on the article by Fredrickson and Losada (see record 2005-11834-001). Recently the current authors (Brown, Sokal, & Friedman, 2013) debunked the widely cited claim made by Fredrickson and Losada (2005) that their use of a mathematical model drawn from nonlinear dynamics (namely, the Lorenz equations from fluid dynamics) provided theoretical support for the existence of a pair of critical positivity-ratio values (2.9013 and 11.6346) such that individuals whose ratios fall between these values will “flourish,” whereas people whose ratios lie outside this ideal range will “languish.” For lack of space in our previous article, we refrained from addressing, except in passing, the question of whether there might be empirical evidence for the existence of one or more critical positivity ratios (“tipping points”). In response to our critique, Fredrickson and Losada (2013) withdrew their nonlinear dynamics model, but Fredrickson (December December 2013) reaffirmed some claims concerning positivity ratios on the basis of empirical studies. We would therefore like to comment briefly on these claims and the alleged supporting evidence.
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| 15. |
- Crüwell, Sophia, et al.
(författare)
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What’s in a Badge? : A Computational Reproducibility Investigation of the Open Data Badge Policy in One Issue of Psychological Science
- 2023
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Ingår i: Psychological Science. - : Sage Publications. - 0956-7976 .- 1467-9280. ; 34:4, s. 512-522
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In April 2019, Psychological Science published its first issue in which all Research Articles received the Open Data badge.We used that issue to investigate the effectiveness of this badge, focusing on the adherence to its aim at Psychological Science: sharing both data and code to ensure reproducibility of results. Twelve researchers of varying experience levels attempted to reproduce the results of the empirical articles in the target issue (at least three researchers per article). We found that all 14 articles provided at least some data and six provided analysis code, but only one article was rated to be exactly reproducible, and three were rated as essentially reproducible with minor deviations. We suggest that researchers should be encouraged to adhere to the higher standard in force at Psychological Science. Moreover, a check of reproducibility during peer review may be preferable to the disclosure method of awarding badges.
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Friedman, Harris L., et al.
(författare)
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Implications of Debunking the "Critical Positivity Ratio" for Humanistic Psychology : Introduction to Special Issue
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of humanistic psychology. - : Sage Publications. - 0022-1678 .- 1552-650X. ; 58:3, s. 239-261
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An extraordinary claim was made by one of the leading researchers within positive psychology, namely, there is a universal–invariant ratio between positive to negative emotions that serves as a unique tipping point between flourishing and languishing in individuals, marriages, organizations, and other human systems across all cultures and times. Known as the “critical positivity ratio,” this finding was supposedly derived from the famous Lorenz equation in physics by using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamic systems, and was defined precisely as “2.9013.” This exact number was widely touted as a great discovery by many leaders of positive psychology, had tremendous impact in various applied areas of psychology, and, more broadly, and was extensively cited in both the scientific literature and in the global popular media. However, this finding has been demonstrated to be bogus. Since its advent as a relatively new subdiscipline, positive psychology has claimed superiority to its precursor, the subdiscipline of humanistic psychology, in terms of supposedly both using more rigorous science and avoiding popularizing nonsense. The debunking of the critical positivity ratio demonstrates that positive psychology did not live up to these claims, and this has important implications, which are discussed in terms of “romantic scientism” and “voodoo science.” In addition, articles in the special issue on the “Implications of Debunking the ‘Critical Positivity Ratio’ for Humanistic Psychology” are introduced, as they also delve into these concerns.
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Nickerson, Carol A., et al.
(författare)
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Overstating the effect of mindfulness on motivated perception : Comment on Adair and Fredrickson (2015)
- 2016
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Ingår i: Personality and Individual Differences. - : Elsevier. - 0191-8869 .- 1873-3549. ; 88, s. 225-229
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A recent article by Adair and Fredrickson (2015) concluded that both trait mindfulness and state mindfulness significantly predicted reduced motivated perception, and that these predictions were “strengthened” when participants who noticed the ambiguity of an image were excluded from the analyses and when mood was controlled. A comparison of the article with Adair's (2013) master's thesis, on which the article was based, reveals that Adair and Fredrickson (2015) have overstated their findings by (a) selecting without justification one of the two available methods of determining whether the ambiguity of the image was noticed, (b) inappropriately using one-tailed p-values, and (c) including in the analyses without theoretical justification a new predictor—mood—that resulted in a statistical suppression situation.
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| 21. |
- Nickerson, Carol A., et al.
(författare)
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Simpson's Paradox is suppression, but Lord's Paradox is neither : clarification of and correction to Tu, Gunnell, and Gilthorpe (2008)
- 2019
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Ingår i: Emerging Themes in Epidemiology. - : Springer Nature. - 1742-7622. ; 16:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Tu et al. (Emerg Themes Epidemiol 5:2, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-7622-5-2) asserted that suppression, Simpson’s Paradox, and Lord’s Paradox are all the same phenomenon—the reversal paradox. In the reversal paradox, the association between an outcome variable and an explanatory (predictor) variable is reversed when another explanatory variable is added to the analysis. More specifically, Tu et al. (2008) purported to demonstrate that these three paradoxes are different manifestations of the same phenomenon, differently named depending on the scaling of the outcome variable, the explanatory variable, and the third variable. According to Tu et al. (2008), when all three variables are continuous, the phenomenon is called suppression; when all three variables are categorical, the phenomenon is called Simpson’s Paradox; and when the outcome variable and the third variable are continuous but the explanatory variable is categorical, the phenomenon is called Lord’s Paradox. We show that (a) the strong form of Simpson’s Paradox is equivalent to negative suppression for a 2×2×2 contingency table, (b) the weak form of Simpson’s Paradox is equivalent to classical suppression for a 2×2×2 contingency table, and (c) Lord’s Paradox is not the same phenomenon as suppression or Simpson’s Paradox.
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| 22. |
- Scheel, Anne M., et al.
(författare)
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Methodological problems in a study of fetal visual perception
- 2018
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - : Cell Press. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 28:10, s. R594-R596
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reid et al. [1] analysed data from 39 third-trimester fetuses, concluding that they showed a preferential head-orienting reaction towards lights projected through the uterine wall in a face-like arrangement, as opposed to an inverted triangle of dots. These results imply not only that assessment of visual-perceptive responses is possible in prenatal subjects, but also that a measurable preference for faces exists before birth. However, we have identified three substantial problems with Reid et al.’s [1] method and analyses, which we outline here.
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| 23. |
- Schulz, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Is the future of peer review automated?
- 2022
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Ingår i: BMC Research Notes. - : Springer Nature. - 1756-0500. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The rising rate of preprints and publications, combined with persistent inadequate reporting practices and problems with study design and execution, have strained the traditional peer review system. Automated screening tools could potentially enhance peer review by helping authors, journal editors, and reviewers to identify beneficial practices and common problems in preprints or submitted manuscripts. Tools can screen many papers quickly, and may be particularly helpful in assessing compliance with journal policies and with straightforward items in reporting guidelines. However, existing tools cannot understand or interpret the paper in the context of the scientific literature. Tools cannot yet determine whether the methods used are suitable to answer the research question, or whether the data support the authors' conclusions. Editors and peer reviewers are essential for assessing journal fit and the overall quality of a paper, including the experimental design, the soundness of the study's conclusions, potential impact and innovation. Automated screening tools cannot replace peer review, but may aid authors, reviewers, and editors in improving scientific papers. Strategies for responsible use of automated tools in peer review may include setting performance criteria for tools, transparently reporting tool performance and use, and training users to interpret reports.
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Vogelezang, Suzanne, et al.
(författare)
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Novel loci for childhood body mass index and shared heritability with adult cardiometabolic traits.
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLoS genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7404. ; 16:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genetic background of childhood body mass index (BMI), and the extent to which the well-known associations of childhood BMI with adult diseases are explained by shared genetic factors, are largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of BMI in 61,111 children aged between 2 and 10 years. Twenty-five independent loci reached genome-wide significance in the combined discovery and replication analyses. Two of these, located near NEDD4L and SLC45A3, have not previously been reported in relation to either childhood or adult BMI. Positive genetic correlations of childhood BMI with birth weight and adult BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, diastolic blood pressure and type 2 diabetes were detected (Rg ranging from 0.11 to 0.76, P-values <0.002). A negative genetic correlation of childhood BMI with age at menarche was observed. Our results suggest that the biological processes underlying childhood BMI largely, but not completely, overlap with those underlying adult BMI. The well-known observational associations of BMI in childhood with cardio-metabolic diseases in adulthood may reflect partial genetic overlap, but in light of previous evidence, it is also likely that they are explained through phenotypic continuity of BMI from childhood into adulthood.
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| 26. |
- Wilkinson, Jack, et al.
(författare)
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Protocol for the development of a tool (INSPECT-SR) to identify problematic randomised controlled trials in systematic reviews of health interventions
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMJ Open. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2044-6055. ; 14:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) inform healthcare decisions. It is now apparent that some published RCTs contain false data and some appear to have been entirely fabricated. Systematic reviews are performed to identify and synthesise all RCTs that have been conducted on a given topic. While it is usual to assess methodological features of the RCTs in the process of undertaking a systematic review, it is not usual to consider whether the RCTs contain false data. Studies containing false data therefore go unnoticed and contribute to systematic review conclusions. The INveStigating ProblEmatic Clinical Trials in Systematic Reviews (INSPECT-SR) project will develop a tool to assess the trustworthiness of RCTs in systematic reviews of healthcare-related interventions.Methods and analysis The INSPECT-SR tool will be developed using expert consensus in combination with empirical evidence, over five stages: (1) a survey of experts to assemble a comprehensive list of checks for detecting problematic RCTs, (2) an evaluation of the feasibility and impact of applying the checks to systematic reviews, (3) a Delphi survey to determine which of the checks are supported by expert consensus, culminating in, (4) a consensus meeting to select checks to be included in a draft tool and to determine its format and (5) prospective testing of the draft tool in the production of new health systematic reviews, to allow refinement based on user feedback. We anticipate that the INSPECT-SR tool will help researchers to identify problematic studies and will help patients by protecting them from the influence of false data on their healthcare.Ethics and dissemination The University of Manchester ethics decision tool was used, and this returned the result that ethical approval was not required for this project (30 September 2022), which incorporates secondary research and surveys of professionals about subjects relating to their expertise. Informed consent will be obtained from all survey participants. All results will be published as open-access articles. The final tool will be made freely available.
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