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Athletes who merit the title ‘elite’ are rare and differ both quantitatively and qualitatively from athletes of lower qualifications. Serving and studying elite athletes may demand non-traditional approaches. Research involving elite athletes suffers because of the typical nomothetic requirements for large sample sizes and other statistical assumptions that do not apply to this population. Ideographic research uses single-athlete study designs, trend analyses, and statistical process control. Single-athlete designs seek to measure differences in repeated measurements under prescribed conditions, and trend analyses may permit systematic monitoring and prediction of future outcomes. Statistical process control uses control charting and other methods from management systems to assess and modify training processes in near real-time. These methods bring assessment and process control into the real world of elite athletics.

This paper sought to assess whether cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) was effective with a male patient meeting diagnostic criteria for hoarding disorder (HD) who had been nonresponsive to two previous courses of cognitive behaviour therapy. An adjudicated hermeneutic single-case efficacy design (HSCED) evaluation was undertaken. A rich case record (i.e., a summary document containing the case details, formulations, and detailed qualitative and quantitative outcomes) was created. The rich case record was then debated by affirmative (N = 3) and sceptic (N = 3) research teams. Expert judges (N = 3) reviewed the debate and then delivered a final verdict as to whether treatment had worked. Judges unanimously returned a verdict in favour of the sceptic position, concluding that CAT had not enabled change. Lack of change on the primary nomothetic hoarding outcome measure was particularly influential in the final judgement. In this case of HD, CAT was therefore not effective as an intervention. More research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be drawn however as to the wider utility of CAT with HD. Methodological limitations are outlined, alongside considerations for future research.

Personality and psychopathology are composed of dynamic and interactive processes among diverse psychological systems, manifesting over time and in response to an individual's natural environment. Ambulatory assessment techniques promise to revolutionize assessment practices by allowing access to the dynamic data necessary to study these processes directly. Assessing manifestations of personality and psychopathology naturalistically in an individual's own ecology allows for dynamic modeling of key behavioral processes. However, advances in dynamic data collection have highlighted the challenges of both fully understanding an individual (via idiographic models) and how s/he compares with others (as seen in nomothetic models). Methods are needed that can simultaneously model idiographic (i.e., person-specific) processes and nomothetic (i.e., general) structure from intensive longitudinal personality assessments. Here we present a method, group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME) for simultaneously studying general, shared (i.e., in subgroups), and person-specific processes in intensive longitudinal behavioral data. We first provide an introduction to the GIMME method, followed by a demonstration of its use in a sample of individuals diagnosed with personality disorder who completed daily diaries over 100 consecutive days. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Investigations into person-specific predictors of stress have typically taken either a population-level nomothetic approach or an individualized ideographic approach. Nomothetic approaches can quickly identify predictors but can be hindered by the heterogeneity of these predictors across individuals and time. Ideographic approaches may result in more predictive models at the individual level but require a longer period of data collection to identify robust predictors. Objective: Our objectives were to compare predictors of stress identified through nomothetic and ideographic models and to assess whether sequentially combining nomothetic and ideographic models could yield more accurate and actionable predictions of stress than relying on either model. At the same time, we sought to maintain the interpretability necessary to retrieve individual predictors of stress despite using nomothetic models. Methods: Data collected in a 1-year observational study of 79 participants performing low levels of exercise were used. Physical activity was continuously and objectively monitored by actigraphy. Perceived stress was recorded by participants via daily ecological momentary assessments on a mobile app. Environmental variables including daylight time, temperature, and precipitation were retrieved from the public archives. Using these environmental, actigraphy, and mobile assessment data, we built machine learning models to predict individual stress ratings using linear, decision tree, and neural network techniques employing nomothetic and ideographic approaches. The accuracy of the approaches for predicting individual stress ratings was compared based on classification errors. Results: Across the group of patients, an individual’s recent history of stress ratings was most heavily weighted in predicting a future stress rating in the nomothetic recurrent neural network model, whereas environmental factors such as temperature and daylight, as well as duration and frequency of bouts of exercise, were more heavily weighted in the ideographic models. The nomothetic recurrent neural network model was the highest performing nomothetic model and yielded 72% accuracy for an 80%/20% train/test split. Using the same 80/20 split, the ideographic models yielded 75% accuracy. However, restricting ideographic models to participants with more than 50 valid days in the training set, with the same 80/20 split, yielded 85% accuracy. Conclusions: We conclude that for some applications, nomothetic models may be useful for yielding higher initial performance while still surfacing personalized predictors of stress, before switching to ideographic models upon sufficient data collection.

Ambulatory assessment (also known as ecological momentary assessment) has enjoyed enthusiastic implementation in psychological research. The ability to assess thoughts, feelings, behavior, physiology, and context intensively and repeatedly in the moment in an individual’s natural ecology affords access to data that can answer exciting questions about sequences of events and dynamic processes in daily life. Ambulatory assessment also holds unique promise for developing personalized models of individuals (i.e., precision or person-specific assessment) that might be transformative for applied settings such as clinical practice. However, successfully translating ambulatory assessment from bench to bedside is challenging because of the inherent tension between idiographic and nomothetic principles of measurement. We argue that the value of applied ambulatory assessment will be most fully realized by balancing the ability to develop personalized models with ensuring comparability among individuals.

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is considered a highly efficient measure because easy and stress-free methods of measuring sAA have been developed. However, most studies on sAA are considered as nomothetic research that is typical to fields such as the natural sciences, e.g., acquiring evidence that music therapy is effective for stress reduction. In the present study, using an idiographic approach, we examined sAA measurements before and after the performance of certain activities (e.g., group music therapy) implemented in a day care center for individuals with dementia. Findings revealed that the variations in the sAA value differed across individuals, reflecting the personality of each individual. Further, for a given individual, variations in the sAA value differed across the activities performed (music therapy, art therapy, rhythm calisthenics, exercise, and so on). These results were consistent with caregivers observations, suggesting that a caregiver can use an sAA monitor to gain a deeper understanding of the personality of care recipients, to accordingly optimize her/his care.

Il presente lavoro di tesi propone un nuovo approccio allo studio della Rejection Sensitivity (RS) e dei suoi effetti sul funzionamento psicologico sia di adolescenti che di giovani adulti. Sottolinea quindi l’importanza di considerare la RS non solo come una disposizione statica di personalità, ma anche come un processo dinamico che prende forma all’interno dell’individuo, nel tempo e nell’interazione costante con le situazioni che l’individuo incontra nel corso della sua vita quotidiana. Per questo viene introdotta la necessità di studiare la RS integrando due approcci: quello nomotetico e quello idiografico. I primi tre capitoli descrivono ricerche effettuate seguendo un approccio nomotetico. Nel primo capitolo, abbiamo introdotto un metodo alternativo per calcolare i punteggi del Children Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire. Secondo questo metodo, la componente cognitiva e le due componenti emotive della RS vengono considerate come fattori separati (rispettivamente, Aspettativa del rifiuto, Ansia e Rabbia per il rifiuto). Poi sono state prese in considerazione due caratteristiche individuali che possono giocare un ruolo importante nel modificare gli effetti della RS sul funzionamento psicologico degli individui. Nello specifico, nel Capitolo 2, abbiamo osservato il ruolo dell’Organizzazione di Personalità nel moderare l’associazione tra RS e le conseguenze negative sul funzionamento psicologico di adolescenti. Nel Capitolo 3, abbiamo esaminato se le strategie cognitive di regolazione emotiva potessero mediare gli effetti della RS sui comportamenti prosociali, aggressivi o di isolamento, in un campione di giovani adulti. Gli ultimi tre capitoli, invece, danno importanza e mettono in luce i vantaggi teorici e pratici di studiare la RS utilizzando un approccio idiografico. Nel Capitolo 4, utilizzando un approccio dinamico è stato studiato come un campione di giovani adulti percepisse le situazioni incontrate nel corso della propria vita quotidiana e come vi reagisse emotivamente. È stato poi indagato come la RS influenzasse la dinamica temporale di tale relazione. Nel capitolo 5, ci si è focalizzati in modo più specifico sulla dinamica temporale sottostante alla relazione tra la strategia della ruminazione, la percezione delle situazioni come avverse e due comportamenti disadattivi (aggressività e isolamento) e su come questa relazione si modificasse nel tempo, in un campione di adolescenti. Anche in questo caso, abbiamo poi studiato il ruolo della RS nell’influenzare la dinamica temporale di questa relazione. Infine, nel Capitolo 6 è stato presentato un nuovo modello statistico utile per l’analisi dei dati dinamici, il TV-VAR model. Anche se questo capitolo non si concentra in modo specifico sullo studio della RS, abbiamo sottolineato come il TV-VAR sia vantaggioso per lo studio di questa disposizione di personalità oltre che dei fenomeni psicologici in generale. La tesi si conclude con una discussione dei vantaggi che derivano dall’utilizzo sia di un approccio nomotetico sia di un approccio idiografico allo studio della RS. Un’attenzione particolare è stata rivolta alle implicazioni psicometriche, metodologiche, teoriche e cliniche di questo nuovo approccio e a possibili studi futuri. The present work proposes a new approach for studying Rejection Sensitivity (RS) and its maladaptive effects on the individual's functioning, among adolescents and young adults. We stress the importance of considering RS not only as a static personality disposition but also as a dynamic process that unfolds within-person over time in interaction with the situations encountered. We thus propose to study it integrating both a nomothetic and an idiographic perspective. The first three chapters are situated within a nomothetic approach. In Chapter 1, we introduced an alternative scoring method for the Children Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire, which considers the cognitive and the emotional components of RS as separate factors (i.e., rejection Expectation, Anxiety and Anger about rejection, respectively). Then the attention shifts toward two individual’s characteristics that may play an important role in strengthening the effects of RS on individuals’ psychological functioning. In Chapter 2, we assessed the role of Personality Organization in moderating the association between RS and negative psychological outcomes in early adolescence. In Chapter 3, we examined whether cognitive emotion regulation strategies mediate the effect of RS on prosociality, aggression, and isolation in a young adult sample. The last three chapters are organized around the theoretical importance and practical benefit of studying RS from a dynamic perspective (i.e., idiographic approach). In Chapter 4, we studied the dynamics of the situational characteristics perceptions and the emotional reactions and of their relationships over time in a young adult sample and how these dynamics could be influenced by RS. In Chapter 5, we focused more specifically on the dynamics of rumination, situational Adversity, and two maladaptive behaviors (i.e., aggression and isolation) over time in a sample of adolescents, again investigating the role of RS in these dynamics. Finally, in Chapter 6, we went a step further in studying the dynamics of psychological phenomena over time by considering non-stationary processes with a new approach, the TV-VAR model. Although we did not focus directly on RS, we highlight both the usefulness and the advantages of the TV-VAR for studying RS. Finally, we discussed the advances provided by these new approaches in the study of RS, with a specific focus on the psychometric, methodological, theoretical, and clinical implications for future research.

Clinical science seems to have reached a tipping point. It appears that a new paradigm is beginning to emerge that is questioning the validity and utility of the medical illness model, which assumes that latent disease entities are targeted with specific therapy protocols. A new generation of evidence-based care has begun to move toward process-based therapies to target core mediators and moderators based on testable theories. This could represent a paradigm shift in clinical science with far-reaching implications. Clinical science might see a decline of named therapies defined by set technologies, a decline of broad schools, a rise of testable models, a rise of mediation and moderation studies, the emergence of new forms of diagnosis based on functional analysis, a move from nomothetic to idiographic approaches, and a move toward processes that specify modifiable elements. These changes could integrate or bridge different treatment orientations, settings, and even cultures.

Three experiments tested and supported the hypothesis that collective nostalgia-nostalgia that is experienced when one thinks of oneself in terms of a particular social identity or as a member of a particular group and that concerns events or objects related to this group-increases individuals' ethnocentric preference for ingroup (compared to outgroup) products. Greek participants who recalled collective nostalgic experiences shared with other Greeks (compared to controls) evinced a highly robust preference for Greek (compared to foreign) consumer products. This preference is referred to as domestic country bias. Following a systematic replicate-and-extend strategy, we demonstrated that both idiographic and nomothetic inductions of collective nostalgia increased domestic country bias (Experiment 1), that collective nostalgia increased domestic country bias across different product categories (Experiment 2), and that collective self-esteem mediated the effect of collective nostalgia on domestic country bias and did so independently of positive affect (Experiment 3). We discuss theoretical and practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This chapter emphasizes ecological validity so that Miranda evaluations give full consideration to real-world circumstances within the boundaries of professional ethics. For Miranda comprehension, recall and understanding can often be tested via recordings by law enforcement and the advisement, pre-waiver interactions, and the subsequent waiver. Miranda abilities are best understood within a hierarchical model. An integrated understanding for Miranda rights depends on accurate recall; likewise, use of accurate recall relies on correct definitions of Miranda-relevant vocabulary. Sophisticated Miranda evaluations often include specialized Miranda measures that provide both nomothetic data as well as case-specific findings. In addition, open-ended (i.e., non-standardized) interviews and observations are essential in capturing the totality of circumstances as required by Miranda evaluations. Thus, this chapter provides a step-by-step approach for assessing Miranda comprehension and evaluating any efforts at feigned Miranda impairment.

This chapter begins by describing the first stage of a line of reasoning (that continues in Chapters 2– 5) wherein Identity Structure Analysis (Weinreich, 2003) is offered as a method that can generate information for the creation of professional development plans for entire schools and mentorship advice for individual teachers. Illustrative nomothetic Identity Structure Analyses follow the opening argument of this chapter. The first nomothetic analysis is of a faculty of education class and the second combines identity data across 3 schools. The first identity analysis is offered as proxy for a faculty of education and the second as proxy for a school board or local education authority. Both analyses illustrate that ISA can generate advice for professional development that is specific to the needs of the institution to hand. The use of ISA to develop such advice is offered as a ready way to augment current approaches to teacher professional development. The chapter closes with description of ways that governments and boards might use nomothetic reports to monitor schools across and within nations, regions and boards so that professional development resources might be better spent.

As a Constitutional safeguard, the validity of Miranda decisions is only considered when detainees have waived their Miranda rights. Pragmatically speaking, such waivers are almost never examined unless they are coupled with damaging self-incriminations. A careful analysis of waiver decisions integrates Miranda comprehension and reasoning within a hierarchical model. Determinants of decisions involve systematic examinations of how arrestees weighed the pros and cons of both exercising and waiving Miranda rights. From a nomothetic perspective, the Miranda Reasoning Measure (MRM) is evaluated closely for aggregate scores in the Exercise and Waive domains. From a case-specific perspective, the MRM—as well as open-ended inquiries—provide detailed information via item-level analysis. This analysis is enhanced by the Blackwood’s “salience-probability” approach. In addition, Miranda waiver decisions may strongly be influenced by response styles, such as acquiescence and compliance, both of which are addressed in detail.

This chapter will consider the nomothetic capabilities of ISA. That is, focus will be placed on ISA analyses at the level of the individual school. Links between school identity and current and future approaches to professional development will be explored as will consideration of how summaries of ISA analyses can be implemented within professional development procedures to mentor a school’s teachers in a structured and informed manner.

Because of the globalization of world food markets there is a growing need for valid and language independent self-assessment tools to measure food-related emotions. We recently introduced the EmojiGrid as a language-independent, graphical affective self-report tool. The EmojiGrid is a Cartesian grid that is labeled with facial icons (emoji) expressing different degrees of valence and arousal. Users can report their subjective ratings of valence and arousal by marking the location on the area of the grid that corresponds to the emoji that best represent their affective state when perceiving a given food or beverage. In a previous study we found that the EmojiGrid is robust, self-explaining and intuitive: valence and arousal ratings were independent of framing and verbal instructions. This suggests that the EmojiGrid may be a valuable tool for cross-cultural studies. To test this hypothesis, we performed an online experiment in which respondents from Germany (GE), Japan (JP), the Netherlands (NL) and the United Kingdom (UK) rated valence and arousal for 60 different food images (covering a large part of the affective space) using the EmojiGrid. The results show that the nomothetic relation between valence and arousal has the well-known U-shape for all groups. The European groups (GE, NL and UK) closely agree in their overall rating behavior. Compared to the European groups, the Japanese group systematically gave lower mean arousal ratings to low valenced images and lower mean valence ratings to high valenced images. These results agree with known cultural response characteristics. We conclude that the EmojiGrid is potentially a valid and language-independent affective self-report tool for cross-cultural research on food-related emotions. It reliably reproduces the familiar nomothetic U-shaped relation between valence and arousal across cultures, with shape variations reflecting established cultural characteristics.

Indigenous social development scenarios must be understood as the possibility of improving the sustainability of the planet and human health in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating the institutional resilience approach by learning from the experience of indigenous peoples’ informal institutions through the design of public policies can be a reality. To demonstrate the potential of this premise, a case study was conducted that examined the institutional resilience of one indigenous people, whose findings under nomothetic conditions may be useful for other territories around the world. These peoples provide lessons on how they cope with adversity, the COVID-19 pandemic being one of them. Institutional resilience is a step towards reaching out to the world’s ancestral populations to learn from their knowledge. These scenarios can help us understand the implications of international policies on the capacities of nations to secure access to food and resources and, subsequently, to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Objective This article analyzes how the extremely authoritarian nature of the Iraqi regime affected scholarship of Iraq and shows how regime opacity and brutality constrain social science research. Methods The article examines scholarly output on Iraq using qualitative and quantitative metrics from the Saddam Hussein era and the post-2003 period after his removal from power. Results The article finds a dramatic increase in the quantity of publications on Iraq after 2003 and a shift toward more nomothetic, theory-building research involving Iraq. New forms of research on Iraq, including field research, embedded observation, interviews, surveys, and archival research, also became prevalent after 2003. Conclusion The progress of social science research depends both on regime transparency and regime stability. Researchers can adjust techniques to address the absence of transparency or stability, but without the combination of both, the overall venture suffers.

The case study method has been essential in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy, since it is the only way to describe and explore the deepest levels of the human psyche. Addiction is no more and no less than a particular psychological mechanism, identical at its core to other psychological compulsions, and is therefore best understood and reported by this method that explores the mind in depth. We will discuss the value of the case report method in general and in specific with regard to psychoanalysis and addiction, criticisms raised about this method, and comparisons of it with nomothetic research.

Risk in society is a pertinent concept of late modernity. Most elements of our social and interpersonal lives are in some way linked to concerns about safety, security and fear of harm. As a consequence, we spend a great deal of time engaged in emotional, physical and economic processes that facilitate our safety. Whether this be through purchasing anti-theft devices, or subscribing to self-defense training courses; participating in neighbourhood-watch schemes or altering our behavior to prevent susceptibility to victimization, all demonstrate an inherent pre-occupation with risk and perceived danger. The work presented in this paper offers an in-depth socio-criminological analysis focusing on the issue of citizens insecurity, and proposes an original interpretative paradigm emerging from findings on the INNES (Intimate Neighborhood Strengthening) European Project. A presentation of the idiographic and nomothetic motivations and conditions influencing and predicting social fears and insecurities over the last two decades is discussed, with the presentation of the new interpretative model, ‘Social Cobweb Theory’. This model focuses on solidarity and on the strengthening of intimate neighborhood bonds and argues that these aforementioned concepts function as an effective approach in lowering citizens' perceptions of individual insecurities and risk.

The study of civil war has increased exponentially during the post-Cold War period. This has not, however, resulted in greater levels of consensus with regard to the causes and nature of this phenomenon. Indeed, as Jonathan Goodhand has shown, the conflict studies discipline is currently experiencing something of a ‘crisis of theory as well as a crisis of practice’ (2006, 29). This article aims to show, however, that this situation can be alleviated by drawing on the critical realist approach to the philosophy of science. This is the case, in short, because critical realism provides conflict studies authors with a more sophisticated and coherent understanding of causality than has previously been available to them. More specifically, it has developed a mechanism-based understanding of causality which transcends the persistent split between (1) nomothetically-oriented (or ‘universal law-oriented’) approaches, predominantly associated with the work of various neo-positivist authors, and (2) idiographically-oriented (or ‘single case-oriented’) approaches, associated with the work of a much more diverse group of authors. By making the case for this mechanism-based approach, however, this article also aims to show that critical realist philosophy paves the way for an alternative approach to social science. An approach, that is, which – rather than consistently abstracting from (historical/geographical) context in the way that neo-positivist studies do – systematically engages with the context in which civil wars take place.

The evidence base for treatment of hypersexuality disorder (HD) has few studies with appropriate methodological rigor. This study therefore conducted a single case experiment of cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) for HD using an A/B design with extended follow-up. Cruising, pornography usage, masturbation frequency and associated cognitions and emotions were measured daily in a 231-day time series. Following a three-week assessment baseline (A: 21 days), treatment was delivered via outpatient sessions (B: 147 days), with the follow-up period lasting 63 days. Results show that cruising and pornography usage extinguished. The total sexual outlet score no longer met caseness, and the primary nomothetic hypersexuality outcome measure met recovery criteria. Reduced pornography consumption was mediated by reduced obsessionality and greater interpersonal connectivity. The utility of the CAT model for intimacy problems shows promise. Directions for future HD outcome research are also provided.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Self-Directed Learning Scale (SDLS) based on 1760 undergraduate students in Hong Kong. The psychometric evaluation included: (i) factor structure; (ii) internal consistency; (iii) criterion validity and (iv) convergent validity of the scale. While Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed the uni-dimensionality of the scale, a multi-group CFA supported the structure as invariant across genders. Besides, the Cronbach's alpha result showed that the scale was internally consistent. Moreover, its criterion validity was evidenced by its correlations with the university and public examination results (i.e., GPA, HKALE and HKDSE), students' self-evaluation of social, cognitive and self-growth outcomes as well as their satisfaction of the university experience. The study also extended the nomothetic span of self-directed learning by establishing its relationship with emotional intelligence and the different emotional abilities. The positive relationships between self-directed learning and the different student learning outcomes and emotional abilities were discussed.

The categories of social success­unsuccess are examined, the critical going is offered near this binary opposition as to the out­of­date form of social discourse and systems of self­presentations and self­definition. In exchange nomothetic principle, principle of ideographic allowing more exactly to describe a subject in the systems of social cooperation is offered. General aim hired – to show, whatever the usual, standard, generally accepted, popular formulas of success have and can not have no universal value on the essence. In this connection it is necessary to subject to criticism so widespread conception of binarism, that in an obvious or hidden kind is in grounds to the traditional, conservative culture and philosophy. This position can come forward as founding for new social epistemology, in that binarism not abolished, but becomes one of possible variants, that is suitable for description of a limit number of social cooperations. General aim hired – to show, whatever the usual, standard, generally accepted, popular formulas of success have and can not have no universal value on the essence. In this connection it is necessary to subject to criticism so widespread conception of binarism, that in an obvious or hidden kind is in grounds to the traditional, conservative culture and philosophy. This position can come forward as founding for new social epistemology, in that binarism not abolished, but becomes one of possible variants, that is suitable for description of a limit number of social cooperations. The modern theories of alternative sociality do not suppose the presence of single criteria of estimation of different, extraordinarily various vital scenarios. What be more, all possible vital scenarios can be described out of scopes of paradigm approach and considered as a single multivalent structure is the semantic field, where any certain choice depends only on individuality of everybody. By the result of consideration of binary opposition «success­failure» the radical rethinking must become, if pleasingly, destruction and de­construction of principle of binarism and orientations on initially set, and in fact, constructed public ideals, understanding of that circumstance, that these values are not that another, as a result of fully certain historical type of public device. It is thus impossible not to notice that society in the motion constantly products the new forms of social practices and sociocultural discourse, that even if does not change him fully, then in any event, substantially influence on his development. The account of this circumstance must be related to abandonment from traditional research receptions and creation by new social epistema, as only in this case social knowledge is able to save the heuristic potential.

In this special section Nesselroade and Molenaar (N & M) propose a provocative new approach to measurement invariance. When measures are collected repeatedly over time (e.g., daily diary studies), a potentially unique measurement model relating the items to the underlying construct can be created for each individual. If hypothesized causal paths specified between constructs (e.g., frustration → aggression) can be constrained to be equal across the individuals, a model with idiographic measurement of the constructs, but with nomothetic structural relationships can be specified. Three commentaries react to N & M's proposal. Revelle and Wilt challenge the priority given by N & M to unique individual measurement structures, arguing that between subjects differences in structural relationships are empirically important and meaningful. Markus's uses David Hume's framework to raise philosophy of science challenges for N & M's approach. Maydeu-Olivares challenges the incremental validity of N & M's approa...

Over the last decade, personalized medicine has become a buzz word, which covers a broad spectrum of meanings and generates many different opinions. The purpose of this article is to achieve a better understanding of the reasons why personalized medicine gives rise to such conflicting opinions. We show that a major issue of personalized medicine is the gap existing between its claims and its reality. We then present and analyze different possible reasons for this gap. We propose an hypothesis inspired by the Windelband's distinction between nomothetic and idiographic methodology. We argue that the fuzzy situation of personalized medicine results from a mix between idiographic claims and nomothetic methodological procedures. Hence we suggest that the current quandary about personalized medicine cannot be solved without getting involved in a discussion about the complex epistemological and methodological status of medicine. To conclude, we show that the Gadamer's view of medicine as a dialogical process can be fruitfully used and reveals that personalization is not a theoretical task, but a practical one, which takes place within the clinical encounter.

A convergent parallel design was used to interrogate two sets of literature produced by researchers investigating music, emotions and well-being: the first being 16 quantitative music psychology studies, the second being seven qualitative music therapy studies. A series of critical analyses examined some of the main assumptions that had influenced the design of the studies, largely related to the nomothetic or idiographic approaches adopted by the researchers, as well as beliefs about how music is best used for either emotion regulation or emotional expression. The results of the critical analyses were then synthesised into a set of three theoretical propositions describing how uses of music may vary across a well-being continuum, particularly noting that the same music can have a different effect depending on the state of well-being of the individual. It is proposed that when people use music to engage with strong emotions while distressed, qualitatively different experiences result that may require a supportive, even therapeutic context. The value of contextualising rather than generalising about music and emotions is therefore argued, particularly for vulnerable young people who might rely on ways of using music to engage with emotions that do not sufficiently account for their current state of well-being.

Limitations of instruments adopting consensus and actuarial approaches are well documented when assessing risk of abusive behaviour. Whilst the consensus approach is flexible and useful for structuring information, it relies upon the practitioner's ability to combine information and apply knowledge of empirical research. The actuarial approach involves a graduated probability measure in the form of a score that determines the likelihood of a particular event occurring; however, this approach focuses upon static risk factors and tends to be inflexible given its necessary reliance on nomothetic factors. A third approach, structured professional judgement comprises evidence-based risk factors and decision-making guidelines to inform professional judgement and standardize assessments. Instruments focus upon dynamic risk factors that assist practitioners monitor risk levels and manage risk. This approach is useful for social work practice that commonly requires ongoing risk assessments and risk management. Structured professional judgement has not been meaningfully explored in Australian child protection practice despite it being used successfully for approximately two decades for assessing a range of offending and violent behaviour. Given the complexity of child protection cases, further research on approaches to risk assessment that combine evidence-based research, structured assessment and clinical judgement, is warranted.

This paper takes as its starting point the recent interventions of Jock Young (2011) on the contemporary state of criminology. In adding to these observations those made by Connell (2007) and Aas (2012), the case will be made, following de Sousa Santos (2014), for a criminology of absences. In endeavouring to uncover these absences, the paper will consider how the ‘bogus of positivism’ (Young 2011, chapter 4), its associated presumptions and related conceptual thinking, manifest themselves in two substantive areas of contemporary concern: violence against women and violent extremism. With the first of these issues I shall consider the ongoing controversies in which the bogus of positivism is most apparent: the powerful influence of the criminal victimisation survey as the data gathering instrument about such violence. In the second area of concern, this bogus of positivism is most apparent in its ‘nomothetic impulse’ (ibid: 73). Both of these discussions will expose different, but connected absences within criminology. In the final and concluding part of this paper, I shall return to the questions posed by the title of this paper: whither criminology, and in the light of this discussion, offer some thoughts on the place of Asian criminology within criminology’s global future(s).

This study aimed to verify the effects of sexual abuse and maternal abandonment and to explore the utility of the Rorschach method to understand the victims’ interior life. The qualitative analysis focused on 12 protocols of children between six and eight years of age, including five girls and seven boys from Brazilian institutions. The presence of recursive responses of inanimate movement (m), morbid (MOR), aggressive (AG), sexual (Sx) contents and anatomy (An) was evidenced. The results suggest traumatic experiences with primary objects, hostile and aggressive human interactions, damaged self-perception and early abusive sexualization. The findings illustrate the harmful effects of sexual abuse and maternal abandonment in child development, and ratify the use of the Rorschach for evaluation processes in an ideographic approach, beyond the nomothetic perspective.

In the original article, the section heading was incorrectly published. The heading of Section 8 should read as “Nomothetic and Idiographic Principles” rather than “Omothetic and Idiographic Principles”.

Objective Emotional pain (i.e., pain affect in response to psychological experiences such as rejection or loss) may be a component of chronic pain syndromes given high co-occurrence with depression and neurobiological overlaps in pain affect resulting from physical and emotional experiences. In the current set of studies, we examined the relationship between emotional and physical pain using both nomothetic (i.e., group-level) and idiographic (i.e., individual-level) approaches. Methods Individuals with chronic pain were recruited from the Washington University Pain Center. First, we assessed the relationship between emotional and physical pain at the group level. Then, three individuals from the group-level study completed ecological momentary assessment four times per day for at least four weeks. We assessed relationships between emotional and physical pain using correlations and dynamic structural equation modeling. Results Emotional pain severity was significantly positively correlated with physical pain at the group level. However, results from idiographic analyses suggested that one individual did not display a significant correlation between physical and emotional pain, and two individuals displayed correlations larger than expected based on the group-level data. Competing models suggested that emotional and physical pain represented distinct constructs for the individuals studied. Conclusions These results suggest that emotional pain may be an important component of chronic pain syndromes. However, idiographic models revealed heterogeneity that may have important implications for treatment. Further research is needed to understand whether idiographic relationships between emotional and physical pain can help identify effective treatment targets for individuals with co-occurring emotional and physical symptoms.

The objective of the text is to analyze the teaching professionalization process to work in distance learning courses in Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (IFs) in Brazil. The phenomenological methodology materialized by (a) locating, among all the IFs in Brazil, the courses object of the research; (b) analyzing their institutional arrangements and, (c) analyzing, collating and reflecting, through ideographic and nomothetic analysis, the phenomenon in question. It is concluded that teacher professionalization is the result of initial and continued conscious training and guided by trajectories that reflect on the training process, the work space and its relationship with the desired world.

Few clinical scientists would disagree that more research is needed on the underlying mechanisms and processes of change in psychological therapies. In the dominant current approach, processes of change are studied through mediation. The study of mediation has been largely structured around a distinction between moderation and mediation first popularized by Baron and Kenny's (1986) seminal article, which is based on a nomothetic and cross-sectional framework. In this article, we argue that this approach is unable to adequately address change processes in psychological therapies, because it falsely assumes that treatment change is a linear, unidirectional, pauci-variate process and that the statistical assumptions are met to study processes of change in an individual using a nomothetic approach. In contrast, we propose that treatment is a dynamic process involving numerous variables that may form bi-directional and complex relationships that differ between individuals. Such relationships can best be studied using an individual dynamic network approach connected to nomothetic generalization methods that are based on a firm idiographic foundation. We argue that our proposal is available, viable, and can readily be integrated into existing research strategies. We further argue that adopting an individual dynamic network approach combined with experimental analyses will accelerate the study of treatment change processes, which is necessary as the field of evidence-based care moves toward a process-based model. We encourage future research to gather empirical evidence to examine this approach.

The title of this article signals increasing collaboration across boundaries aimed at understanding and solving complex scientific and societal problems. The article is a reflective analysis of five intersecting keywords in discussions of sustainability and boundary crossing. This genre of discourse studies interprets language use, drawing in this case on a representative sample of authoritative definitions, case studies, and state-of-the-art accounts. The Introduction situates the discussion around the increasing number and size of teams as well as research across both academic disciplines and other sectors, followed by the five keywords that structure the overall argument. Section 2 examines the first of the five keywords, defining interdisciplinarity by marking its alignment with integration, confluence, interdependence, interaction, and balance. Section 3 considers the second keyword—transdisciplinarity—by tracing evolution of a problem-focused connotation, links to sustainability, inclusion of stakeholders, the imperative of critique, and transdisciplinary action research. Section 4 brings together insights on inter- and trans-disciplinarity in a composite “crossdisciplinary” alignment with collaboration, factoring in the nature of teamwork, public engagement, and translation. Section 5 then turns to learning, noting the difference between education and training then emphasizing transformative capacity, double- and triple-loop learning, reflexivity, and a transdisciplinary orientation. Section 6 takes up the final keyword—knowledge—by calling attention to inclusion, indigenous and local perspectives, nomothetic versus idiographic perspectives, the question of fit, and the nature of crossdisciplinary knowledge. The article concludes by identifying future research needs., Sustainability, 12 (4), ISSN:2071-1050

The research purpose was to assess the link between corporate storytelling for branding and internal stakeholders' corporate brand perceptions. Nomothetic quantitative explanatory research design anchored on positivist paradigm was applied. Data were collected via physical self-administered survey, resulting in 335 responses from 6 selected companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), in 6 industrial sectors. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS version 6 software, was used to test the propositions. Results depicted that there is a positive link between corporate stories for branding elements such as corporate activities (r(335) =.15, p =.01), corporate values (r(335) =.84, p

Background Choosing a suitable sample size in qualitative research is an area of conceptual debate and practical uncertainty. That sample size principles, guidelines and tools have been developed to enable researchers to set, and justify the acceptability of, their sample size is an indication that the issue constitutes an important marker of the quality of qualitative research. Nevertheless, research shows that sample size sufficiency reporting is often poor, if not absent, across a range of disciplinary fields. Methods A systematic analysis of single-interview-per-participant designs within three health-related journals from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and medicine, over a 15-year period, was conducted to examine whether and how sample sizes were justified and how sample size was characterised and discussed by authors. Data pertinent to sample size were extracted and analysed using qualitative and quantitative analytic techniques. Results Our findings demonstrate that provision of sample size justifications in qualitative health research is limited; is not contingent on the number of interviews; and relates to the journal of publication. Defence of sample size was most frequently supported across all three journals with reference to the principle of saturation and to pragmatic considerations. Qualitative sample sizes were predominantly – and often without justification – characterised as insufficient (i.e., ‘small’) and discussed in the context of study limitations. Sample size insufficiency was seen to threaten the validity and generalizability of studies’ results, with the latter being frequently conceived in nomothetic terms. Conclusions We recommend, firstly, that qualitative health researchers be more transparent about evaluations of their sample size sufficiency, situating these within broader and more encompassing assessments of data adequacy. Secondly, we invite researchers critically to consider how saturation parameters found in prior methodological studies and sample size community norms might best inform, and apply to, their own project and encourage that data adequacy is best appraised with reference to features that are intrinsic to the study at hand. Finally, those reviewing papers have a vital role in supporting and encouraging transparent study-specific reporting. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12874-018-0594-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Treatment resistance in psychiatry is one of the most important issues facing psychiatrists and their patients alike. It is not only a highly important topic but a very hot and controversial one as well. There is no generally accepted agreement of what defines treatment resistance for any of the individual mental disorders; thus it is a metaphor with different meanings which implies negative, pessimistic, and frightening connotations. This metaphor complicates treatment in psychiatry as well as the lives of patients with the so-called treatment-resistant mental disorders. Treatment resistance as a construct should be reconsidered as well as delaying “wait-and-see” and “monotherapy before polytherapy” treatment strategies. Changing treatment philosophy may be a critical step toward overcoming what some sign as “therapeutic stagnation in psychiatry” associated with a high rate of treatment failures. A “paradigm shift” is needed from the mechanistic, formistic, and reductionistic ways of thinking of technical, nomothetic, and impersonal psychopharmacology to contextual, systemic, and creative thinking with a new treatment holodigm of individualized and person-centered psychopharmacology. The best treatments are those that timely utilize and integrate multiple therapeutic modalities. The concept of creative, person-centered narrative psychopharmacotherapy gives a hope for increasing treatment effectiveness and efficiency in psychiatry and thus overcome treatment failures and resistance.

The main objective of this research was to delve into the concept of playing handball at home from a classical perspective of previous studies. The emergence of regularities or certain patterns of play can be explained by the location of matches. Through an observational methodology and a nomothetic, monitoring and multidimensional design, thirty-nine European elite handball matches were selected (N = 39). A mixed ‘ad hoc’ registration system was designed. Records were made of the last three minutes of home and visiting games of which images were available. Two observers with observational methodology experience participated in the study. The quality of the records was dealt with in an intraobserver and interobserver way. Two different techniques were applied for the treatment of the data: a) detection of behavioral patterns by Theme (p < .005) (Magnusson, 2000) and b) Chaid decision trees (p < .05) using SPSSv.24. The results showed the existence of T-patterns according to the location (different T-patterns: home: 1085; away: 1242) of the matches. The categories most involved in effective launches were unveiled. On the other hand, the Chaid model also showed the effect of location (p < .001): home-win (node 9) (n = 149, 69%), away-win (node 10) (n = 15, 16%) in handball. Crossing analysis offered enriched interpretations to advance in the home advantage concept. From this study, guidelines can be drawn that may help handball coaches to build training tasks as differences in behavioral patterns between home or away play in handball were identified. Thus, designing tasks considering a match location has requires specificity.

An alternative set of construas for intergenerational relation(ship)s, Post-Solidarity, is presented and empirically tested. Post-Solidarity comprehends not only traditional positive and consensual dimensions of within-primary-group (or "family") relation(ships) but also the ambivalence, conflict, fluidity, and indeterminacy so characteristic of social life in Postmodern America (and, perhaps. Western Europe). A series of measurement, mean-comparison, and regression analyses, evaluating the nomothetic and predictive viability of Post-Solidarity against the currently dominant conceptualization of intergenerational relation(ship)s as either solidary or fatally conflictual, generated results that suggest preliminary support for Post-Solidarity as an alternative and more appropriate conceptualization of contemporary intergenerational reIation(ship)s.

The study of personality development primarily focuses on between-person, nomothetic assessments of personality using assessments of personality traits. An alternative approach uses individual, idiographic personality assessment, defining personality in reference to one's self rather than to others. Nomothetic approaches to personality development identify high levels of consistency in personality, even over decades. But the developmental pattern of idiographic personality is unclear, partially due to difficulties in assessing personality idiographically. We examine a number of traditional and novel idiographic modeling techniques using 2 years of ESM data from the Personality and Interpersonal Roles Study (PAIRS; N = 372 participants, total assessments N = 17,715). We computed idiographic lagged (lag 1 autoregressive) and contemporaneous (concurrent) graphical VAR models, as well as several other idiographic models, for each subject at the individual level at both waves, which are represented as networks. The utility and interpretation of these newer idiographic personality models at an individual level is demonstrated by using two example subjects. Across all participants, idiographic personality models were heterogeneous in structure, indicating the value of an idiographic approach. Contemporaneous, but not lagged, idiographic models were consistent over time. Despite normative levels of consistency, both types of idiographic models exhibited a great range of individual differences in consistency where some people were completely stable across two years whereas others were very unlike their former selves. In sum, we demonstrate that novel idiographic modeling techniques provide a useful tool to address questions of personality dynamics that were not possible with more traditional idiographic assessments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigates the item properties of a newly developed Automatic Number Series Item Generator (ANSIG). The foundation of the ANSIG is based on five hypothesised cognitive operators. Thirteen item models were developed using the numGen R package and eleven were evaluated in this study. The 16-item ICAR (International Cognitive Ability Resource1) short form ability test was used to evaluate construct validity. The Rasch Model and two Linear Logistic Test Model(s) (LLTM) were employed to estimate and predict the item parameters. Results indicate that a single factor determines the performance on tests composed of items generated by the ANSIG. Under the LLTM approach, all the cognitive operators were significant predictors of item difficulty. Moderate to high correlations were evident between the number series items and the ICAR test scores, with high correlation found for the ICAR Letter-Numeric-Series type items, suggesting adequate nomothetic span. Extended cognitive research is, nevertheless, essential for the automatic generation of an item pool with predictable psychometric properties., Journal of Intelligence;Jg.: 6, Heft: 2 | S. 20-1-20-25

The triad is a particular structure in which an ambivalent social relationship takes place. This work is focused on the search of behavioral regularities in the practice of motor games in triad, which is a little known field. For the detection of behavioral patterns not visible to the naked eye, we use Theme. A chasing games model was followed, with rules, and in two different structures (A↔B↔C↔A and A → B → C → A) on four class groups (two for each structure), for a total of 84, 12, and 13 year old secondary school students, 37 girls (44%) and 47 boys (56%). The aim was to examine if the players' behavior, in relation to the triad structure, matches with any ludic behavior patterns. An observational methodology was applied, with a nomothetic, punctual and multidimensional design. The intra and inter-evaluative correlation coefficients and the generalizability theory ensured the quality of the data. A mixed behavioral role system was used (four criteria and 15 categories), and the pattern detection software Theme was applied to detect temporal regularities in the order of event occurrences. The results show that time location of motor responses in triad games was not random. In the “maze” game we detected more complex ludic patterns than the “three fields” game, which might be explained by means of structural determinants such as circulation. This research points out the decisional complexity in motor games, and it confirms the differences among triads from the point of view of motor communication., We gratefully acknowledge the support of two Spanish government projects (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad): (1) La actividad física y el deporte como potenciadores del estilo de vida saludable: Evaluación del comportamiento deportivo desde metodologías no intrusivas [Grant number DEP2015-66069-P, MINECO/FEDER, UE]; (2) Avances metodológicos y tecnológicos en el estudio observacional del comportamiento deportivo [PSI2015-71947-REDP, MINECO/ FEDER, UE].