The dodo bird might be extinct in the real world but in the world of psychotherapy research it refuses to die. However, a group of German researchers recently put forward an article were they had randomized patients to either a PDT or CBT condition and measured the relative proficiency of the two orientations, and they found that their results delivered a convincing blow to the dodo bird verdict. Read more
Posts in Category ‘Psychology’
Effect of sample size on the accuracy of Cohen’s d estimates (95 % CI)
When talking about confidence intervals, Jacob Cohen famously said: “I suspect that the main reason they are not reported is that they are so embarrassingly large!” (Cohen, 1994). In this post I’ll take a look at the relationship between the 95 % CI for Cohen’s d and it’s corresponding sample size. Read more
More PubMed data mining: looking at top 20 CBT journals
In this short article I present some data of the top 20 Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) journals with the most PubMed publications, and compare that to data from 2010 and 2011. Read more
Further evidence that mindfulness meditation might bolster creativity
Last week a group of Dutch scientists published a study providing further evidence of mindfulness’ ability to bolster creativity. Specifically they looked at if open awareness differed from focused attention in increasing divergent thinking Read more
Short R script to plot effect sizes (Cohen’s d) and shade overlapping area
In this short post I take a look at how to use R and ggplot2 to visualize effect sizes (Cohen’s d) and how to shade the overlapping area of two distributions. Read more
Meditation, mindfulness, and executive control: results from a new EEG study
A new interesting study by Teper and Ingzlict (2012) examined the effect of meditation practice on executive control. Many studies have shown that meditation does indeed enhance executive control. But in this study the researchers look more at why meditation is effective in enhancing executive control, and not so much if it’s effective. Read more
The (Un)disputed Champion of Psychotherapy – Clinical psychologists and their theoretical orientations
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the psychological treatment of choice for many, if not all, mental disorders. Nonetheless a majority of US clinical psychologist do not primarily identify themselves as either cognitive or behavioral therapists. Looking at data from PubMed publication counts a clear picture emerges; psychodynamic researchers might just be research loafers. Read more
Mindfulness and pain: new research review hints at unique mechanism for pain relief
Mindfulness mediations ability to help regulate pain has been gaining more and more empirical evidence over last couple of years. From the seminal works of Jon-Kabatt Zinn to new neuroimaging studies the evidence seem to indicate that mindfulness mediation is indeed helpful in the attenuation of pain. A new research review by Zeidan et al (2012) tries to assimilate the empirical knowledge about meditation and pain relief in order to gain an understanding about the possible specificity of mindfulness techniques in pain regulation. Read more
Does mindfulness aid insight problem solving? New study suggest so
A new mindfulness research study (Ostafin, B. D., & Kassman, K. T, In Press) examined whether mindfulness could help improve participants’ insight problem solving skills. Their hypothesis was that mindfulness might aid in solving of problems that require creative, nonhabitual responses. Read more
Ggplot2, PubMed citation frequency and DSM-IV Axis I disorders by year
I searched PubMed for several major DSM-IV disorders and downloaded the hits. Using ggplot2 I plotted the number of publications each year for each disorder. Read more