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An editorial is presented on the Editorial Advisory Group for the British Psychological Society (BPS) journals has delighted to present this special issue of landmark papers. Topics include the many different spheres of influence of psychological knowledge, the opportunity to delve outside of your immediate area of interest and read the whole spectrum of papers, and the emphasis on theoretical enhancement and of presenting theoretical interpretations of empirical findings.

Psychological research has acknowledged that the commonly accepted definitions of ‘transgender’, ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ within psychological research have resulted in limitations in accounting for the lived realities of transgender individuals. Such limitations include, but are not limited to, the continued pathologization of transgender experiences through idealizing sex and gender congruence and incapacity to account for non‐normative and non‐binary transition pathways. This paper provides a review of these limitations to first demonstrate how the incongruence definition of ‘transgender’ is reliant on the idea of a ‘true’ gender, and next suggest that problematising the idea of a ‘true’ gender allows new conceptions of transgender experiences to be advanced. To undertake this problematization, the work of Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed is used to consider how gender could be conceptualized otherwise in psychology and then applied to transgender experiences. In all, this paper theorizes transgender experiences without a reliance on the assertion of a true gender, to suggest instead a focus on contextualized transgender experiences. Last, the limitations and implications of this definition of transgender are briefly discussed. Overall, transgender experiences are conceptualized as those experiences that run counter to the dominant (re)production of binary sexed gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its release the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) has received considerable interest and uptake. However, there have not yet been any attempts to review the scope of this emergent literature. This scoping review aimed to identify and synthesize: (1) all empirical research which utilized the PTMF in their methodologies, (2) the characteristics of these studies, (3) the different ways in which these studies utilized the PTMF, and (4) the key findings of these studies. This review was conducted in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) scoping review extension (PRISMA‐ScR). Following systematic searches of academic databases and grey literature, 17 studies meeting eligibility criteria were included. These papers were subject to critical appraisal, data charting, and narrative synthesis. This review identified four uses of the PTMF: (1) PTMF‐informed data collection, (2) PTMF‐informed data analysis, (3) Experiences of/views on the PTMF, and (4) PTMF‐informed psychological practices. This evidence‐base demonstrated the merits of utilizing the PTMF across a range of disciplines, settings, and populations. This heterogeneity also presents challenges for evidence synthesis. Implications for research (e.g. importance of the coherent and consistent approach to research) and practice/policy (e.g. professional training, collaboration, service‐level barriers) are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bayesian methods are becoming increasingly used in applied psychological research. Previous researchers have thoroughly written about much of the details already, including the philosophy underlying Bayesian methods, computational issues associated with Bayesian model estimation, Bayesian model development and summary, and the role of Bayesian methods in the so‐called replication crisis. In this paper, we seek to provide case studies comparing the use of frequentist methods to the use of Bayesian methods in applied psychological research. These case studies are intended to 'illustrate by example' the ways that Bayesian modelling differs from frequentist modelling and the differing conclusions that one may arrive at using the two methods. The intended audience is applied psychological researchers who have been trained in the traditional frequentist framework, who are familiar with mixed‐effects models and who are curious about how statistical results might look in a Bayesian context. Along with our case studies, we provide general opinions and guidance on the use of Bayesian methods in applied psychological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ad hominem discourse is largely prohibited in scientific journals. Historically, this prohibition restricted the dissemination of ad hominem discussion, but during the last decade, blogs and social media platforms became popular among researchers. With the use of social media now entrenched among researchers, there are important questions about the role of ad hominems. Ad hominems and other forms of strong criticism became particularly evident in online discussions associated with the recent replication crisis in psychology. Here, these discussions, and a few incidences of ad hominems in journal articles, are situated in the broader history of science. It is argued that explicit codes of conduct should be considered to curb certain kinds of ad hominem comments in certain fora, but that some ad hominem discussions have an important role to play in a healthier science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the introduction of a special issue in the British Psychological Society (BPS) Journals, featuring papers centered around the theme of inequality in psychology. Topics include various aspects of inequality such as race, gender, and social class, with a commitment to promoting diversity and reducing discriminatory practices in the field.

There is a wealth of research that has highlighted the relationship between personality and eating disorders. It has been suggested that understanding how subclinical disordered eating behaviours are uniquely associated with personality can help to improve the conceptualization of individuals with eating disorders. This study aimed to explore how the facets of the Five‐Factor Model (FFM) predicted restrictive eating, binge eating, purging, chewing and spitting, excessive exercising and muscle building among males and females. An online survey assessing disordered eating behaviours, FFM and general psychopathology was completed by 394 females and 167 males aged between 16 and 30 years. Simultaneous equations path models were systematically generated for each disordered eating behaviour to identify how the FFM facets, body dissatisfaction and age predicted behaviour. The results indicated that each of the six disordered behaviours were predicted by a unique pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving. Considerable differences between males and females were found for each path model, suggesting differences between males and females in the personality traits that drive disordered eating behaviours. It was concluded that it is important to take personality into account when treating males and females who engage in disordered eating behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vignette methods are widely used in psychology and the social sciences to obtain responses to multi‐dimensional scenarios or situations. Where quantitative data are collected this presents challenges to the selection of an appropriate statistical model. This depends on subtle details of the design and allocation of vignettes to participants. A key distinction is between factorial survey experiments where each participant receives a different allocation of vignettes from the full universe of possible vignettes and experimental vignette studies where this restriction is relaxed. The former leads to nested designs with a single random factor and the latter to designs with two crossed random factors. In addition, the allocation of vignettes to participants may lead to fractional or unbalanced designs and a consequent loss of efficiency or aliasing of the effects of interest. Many vignette studies (including some factorial survey experiments) include unmodeled heterogeneity between vignettes leading to potentially serious problems if traditional regression approaches are adopted. These issues are reviewed and recommendations are made for the efficient design of vignette studies including the allocation of vignettes to participants. Multilevel models are proposed as a general approach to handling nested and crossed designs including unbalanced and fractional designs. This is illustrated with a small vignette data set looking at judgements of online and offline bullying and harassment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We overwhelmingly utilize (partially) informed consent for, and debriefing of, human research participants. Also common is the practice of reconsent, particularly where changes in study protocols (or in participants themselves) occur midstream – participants consent again to remaining in the project or to having their data included. Worryingly under‐discussed is post‐debriefing reconsent, wherein participants can withdraw their data after learning more fully of the study's goals and methods. Yet, major ethics bodies in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom promote such practice, with vague and potentially problematic guidelines. Here, the author provides examples involving such reconsent practice, highlighting potentially serious problems that are scientific (e.g. threats to internal and external validity) and ethical (i.e. to the participant, their peers, the researcher and society) in nature. Particularly, problematic is the introduction, by design, of unknowable bias in our research findings. For example, highly prejudiced participants could withdraw data from a discrimination study after learning of the study's hypotheses and goals. The practice may arguably contradict an Open Science goal of increasing research transparency. This call for discussion about the direction of psychological science methods aims to engage a broader discussion in the research community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]