meta-analysis

Examples of meta-analysis in the following topics:

• Research Methods for Evaluating Treatment Efficacy

  • A meta-analysis comprises statistical methods for contrasting and combining results from different treatment-focused studies in the hope of identifying patterns among study results, sources of disagreement among those results, or other interesting relationships that may come to light in the context of multiple studies.
  • Meta-analysis can be thought of as "conducting research about previous research" in order to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of different therapeutic approaches.
  • Many meta-analyses have been used to explore the effectiveness of psychotherapy.
  • For example, one large-scale study that examined 16 meta-analyses of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) reported that it was as effective as, or more effective than, other therapies in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and social phobia (Butlera, Chapmanb, Formanc, & Becka, 2006).
  • Another meta-analysis found that psychodynamic therapy was also as effective at treating these types of psychological issues as CBT (Shedler, 2010).

• Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

  • Scientific research using data-based studies, meta-analysis, and child psychology continue to bring many of Freud's qualitative assumptions into question.

• Prejudice

  • In a meta-analysis of 515 studies on prejudice, three important mediating factors were found to reduce prejudice.

• Group Differences in Intelligence

  • Recent meta-analysis has concluded that the Flynn effect and the closing gap in group differences in intelligence have different origins.

• Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Therapy

  • Meta-analyses in 2012 and 2013 found evidence for the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy; other meta-analyses published in recent years showed psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy to be effective, with outcomes comparable to or greater than other kinds of psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs.
  • It used a meta-analysis of numerous other studies to find whether the method was "proven" or "presumed" to be effective in the treatment of different diseases.

• Electroconvulsive Therapy

  • A meta-analysis done on the effectiveness of ECT in unipolar and bipolar depression was conducted in 2012.

• Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies

  • Some meta-analyses find CBT more effective than psychodynamic therapy and equal to other therapies in treating anxiety and depression.
  • A recent meta-analysis revealed that the positive effects of CBT on depression have been declining since 1977.

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  • Other forms of therapy found to be effective in treating GAD include metacognitive therapy (MCT), which treats the "worrying about worrying" (or "meta-worrying") often found in GAD, and intolerance-of-uncertainty (IUT), which focuses on resolving people's difficulty dealing with uncertain situations.

• Behavior Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis

  • Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) is a type of behavior therapy that uses the principles of operant conditioning; it is commonly used in the treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
  • Applied behavioral analysis has been shown to be an effective tool and is a very common treatment approach for children with autism (Lovaas, 1987, 2003; Sallows & Graupner, 2005; Wolf & Risley, 1967).
  • Applied behavioral analysis has been criticized for trying to "normalize" the behavior of children with autism; critics argue that children with autism express themselves in different ways that are not pathological, and that ABA pathologizes these behaviors and seeks to re-shape them into more socially acceptable behaviors.
  • Discuss the goals, techniques, and efficacy of behavior therapy and applied behavior analysis

• Evaluation of Psychological Therapy Options

  • Forms of therapy include, but are not limited to: psychoanalytic, gestalt, existential, person-centered, reality, Adlerian, transactional analysis, rational-emotive behavior, and behavior therapies.
  • A criticism of Gestalt therapy is that clients tend to have highly emotional moments, which can hinder a cognitive analysis due to the therapist focusing on the emotion.
  • Transactional analysis operates under the assumption that we make decisions based upon past premises, formed during childhood, in response to feelings of powerlessness and the need for survival.
  • The first step in transactional analysis is awareness, and the second is understanding that we are responsible for how we think, feel, and behave, and no one else can make us feel a certain way.