Discrepant Results in Mental Health Research probes the most common outcomes of mental health studies. Discrepant results appear in scores of studies traversing the globe--a literature dating back to the 1950s. This literature reveals that any two studies often differ in their estimates of anything from the prevalence of mental health conditions to the effects of mental health treatments. In fact, researchers often encounter discrepant results among findings made in a single study. Discrepant results factor into what we think we know about how often mental health conditions occur, what causes them, and how to treat them. Yet, researchers do not know what to do with discrepant results when they encounter them. The problem is not with their methods--discrepant results appear even when researchers use high-quality instruments to collect data. The problem lies with how researchers interpret their data, and the decisions they make with those data. To address this problem, the book reveals a conceptually grounded, evidence-based approach to discrepant results in mental health research. It describes the robust nature of these discrepant results, along with theoretical models for understanding and interpreting them. These models inform sound scientific practices.
The book reviews work that has implemented these practices, and it also leverages illustrative case examples to facilitate content mastery. Additionally, it describes future directions in research on discrepant results across several areas of work, including measurement development, intervention science, data analysis, and clinical populations that have received relatively little attention on issues surrounding discrepant results, such as suicide risk and autism.
Preface Acknowledgements 1. The Errors of Yesterday, and the Dark Matter of Today ================================================================= Part I: Describing Discrepant Results 2. The Ubiquity of Discrepant Results in Research 3. Should Discrepant Results Promote a Crisis of Confidence? 4. How Discrepant Results Reveal Blueprints for Discovery ================================================================= Part II: Conceptualizing Discrepant Results 5. Structurally Different Informants, Triangulation, and Falsifiability 6. Why Theories about Rater Biases Fail to Explain Discrepant Results 7. The Operations Triad Model ================================================================= Part III: Validating Discrepant Results 8. The CONTEXT Validation Paradigm 9. Constructing Measurement Batteries 10. Distinguishing Discrepant Results from Bias and Noise ================================================================= Part IV: Project CONTEXT 11. The Operations Triad System and Connections to the History of Science 12. Study Design and Measurement Validation Battery 13. Insights About Data Sources, Validation Testing, and Theory ================================================================= Part V: How Discrepant Results Inform Scientific Practices 14. Clinical Utility 15. Meta-Analysis 16. Research, Education, and Training ================================================================= Part VI: When Clinic Assessments Produce Discrepant Results 17. The Ubiquity of Discrepant Results in the Clinic 18. The Needs-to-Goals Gap Framework 19. How the Operations Triad System Informs Assessing Clients ================================================================= Part VII: Future Directions in Discrepant Results Research 20. Instrumentation 21. Analytic Procedures 22. Clinical Populations 23. Replication and Reproduction ================================================================= 24. The Power of Discrepant Results?The Dark Matter in Mental Health Research About the Author References
Andres De Los Reyes is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Chaired the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Board of Educational Affairs. He received the APA's Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, as well as an APA Presidential Citation. He is a Fellow of the APA and Association for Psychological Science, and a Fulbright Scholar.
Reviews for Discrepant Results in Mental Health Research: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and How They Inform Scientific Practices
Scientific studies often produce results that disagree. What to make of the discrepant findings? This book provides a scholarly, novel, and candid appraisal of discrepant results in mental health research. De Los Reyes draws from work in physics, medicine, history and more to make this a very engaging read. Assessment is core to all that scientists do and this book, largely focused on psychological science, has lessons that apply to science more generally as well as other domains such as government, policy, and law where assessments are used to monitor health, welfare, and social processes. The book provides a contribution without peer in how to conceptualize, use, and interpret assessments and the concrete implications that result. * Alan E. Kazdin, Sterling Professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry, Yale University * In this important book, De Los Reyes provides critical insights into the problem of discrepant results in mental health research. Professionals in clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, and education, as well as graduate students, will profit greatly from reading this thoughtful and inspiring book. * Dante Cicchetti, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester * This book covers a lifetime of research that forms the bedrock of mental health intervention science as we know it today. Mental health researchers and clinicians recognize the importance of collecting data from a variety of different sources to effectively treat a patient. Yet, multi-source data will result in discrepancies. This volume is the first comprehensive treatise on the subject of âwhat to doâ with the inevitable complexity of discrepant data, and is accessible to a wide range of readers--from undergraduates to clinical scientists in the trenches of this work, as well as clinicians who must contend with discrepancies in patient care. De Los Reyes has made this area of research digestible to a broad audience in a way that no other scholar could. * Susan W. White, Professor and Doddridge Saxon Chair in Clinical Psychology, University of Alabama *
