BPS Core Textbooks Series
Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society
Epidemiology
the study of how diseases occur, spread, affect people and are controlled.
Prevalence
The number of people with a disease at a given time.
Incidence
The number of new cases of a disease at a given time.
Ontology
What exists, what we believe is real can be studied.
Epistemology
How we gain knowledge about things.
Objective measurements
Data that are collected in a way that is unbiased, not affected by thoughts, emotions or opinions.
Subjectivity
Results that are influence by personal thoughts, emotions or opinions.
Quantitative methods
Ways to collect numerical data that are analysed using statistical methods.
Hypothesis
A statement or prediction that is testable using statistical methods.
Qualitative methods
Ways to collect words, pictures, documents to understand meaning and experiences.
Research question
An exploratory statement that a qualitative study will address.
Central tendency
A summary statistic, usually the mean, mode or median.
Standard deviation
A statistic that shows how scores or values are spread out from the mean.
Validity
The extent to which a questionnaire measures what it is supposed to measure.
Reliability
How consistent the score of a questionnaire is over time and how well items in a questionnaire are related.
Longitudinal study
A study conducted over a period of time with the same people providing data at different timepoints, used to see if things change over time.
Placebo
An inert substance, such as a tablet that contains no active ingredient.
Inclusion criteria
The specific characteristics that a person must meet to take part in a study. The specific characteristics that studies must met to be included in a systematic review.
Exclusion criteria
The specific characteristics that prevent a person from taking part in a study. The specific characteristics that prevent studies from being included in a systematic review.
Narrative synthesis
A non statistical way of summarising the findings of a systematic review.
Meta analysis
A method that combines the statistical results of studies that have been included within a systematic review.
Primary outcome measure
The measure that the researcher considers to be the most important of several outcomes in a study.
Meta-synthesis
A method that combines and synthesises the findings from individual qualitative studies that have been included with a systematic review.
Purposeful sampling
Selecting participants on the basis that they have specific knowledge or experience of the topic or area that they study is addressing.
Trustworthiness
Four aspects of trustworthiness, credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability are used to assess the validity of qualitative studies, with the addition of reflexivity,
Mixed methods
The use of quantitative and qualitative methods in the same study.
Yarning
An Indigenous method of qualitative data collection that uses a respectful conversational technique.
Theory building
A process in which ideas and explanations are synthesised to understand behaviour.
Evaluation framework
A structured plan used to check whether a research project or intervention achieved the intended goals.
Participatory research methods
Research that is conducted in collaboration with participants, who may help with the planning, study design, data collection, analysis and or dissemination.
Cultural centredness
Research that places people’s values, culture and knowledge at the heart of research.
Community engagement
Working with communities in a culturally respectful way, can include research and or intervention development.
Systems thinking
Looking at various aspect of systems within a groups or society are interconnected.
Integrated knowledge transition
Working in partnership with communities or organisations to ensure that knowledge gin through research is shared throughout the research process and not just at the end of a study.
Social determinants of health
Non-medical factors that can have impacts on health, for example, poverty, educational level, housing access to healthcare.
Replications crisis
The inability of researchers to repeat a study and get the same or similar results.
p-hacking
Conducting multiple statistical analyses to find a result that is significant, rather than testing the originally specified hypotheses.
HARKing
When researchers change the hypotheses of a study after seeing the results.
Pre-registration
Placing the study methods and data analysis plans or the protocol for a systematic review in a open research forum.
Open science
Making science more transparent and accessible by sharing data, methods, and results openly.