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The Behavior Therapist association for behavioral and ISSN 0278-8403 ABCT cognitive therapies s VOLUME 41, NO. 8•DECEMBER 2018 the Behavior Therapist SCIENCE Contents Does the Language Science Fit the Evidence? April Bleske-Rechek, Michaela M. Gunseor, and Jenna R. Maly Unwarranted Causal Does the Language Fit the Evidence? Unwarranted Causal Language in Psychological Scientists’ Scholarly Work • 341 Language in Psych- Equity and Access ological Scientists’ T. Zachary Huit, Natalie R. Holt, and Debra A. Hope Scholarly Work Enhancing Queer and Transgender Resilience: Review of a Self-Help Book • 353 April Bleske-Rechek, Michaela M. Gunseor, Book Review and Jenna R. Maly, Reviewed by Dev Crasta University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Character Strengths and Well-Being • 355 When the causal link seems obvious to us, Obituaries when we have a strong preexisting bias, or when our interpretations become dominated Gerald C. Davison by our theoretical orientation, it is tempting to In Memoriam: Walter Mischel (1930–2018) • 356 treat correlations as evidence of causation. (Stanovich, 2010, p. 74) Dean G. Kilpatrick, Connie L. Best, and Daniel W. Smith In Memoriam: Heidi Susan Resnick (1957–2018) • 359 VARIOUS SCHOLARS HAVE EXPRESSED concern about science journalists’ tendency to jump Catherine F. Eubanks from correlational evidence to causal inference In Memoriam: Jeremy Safran (1952–2018) • 361 (Barrowman, 2014; Morling, 2018; Resnick, 2016). Indeed, systematic reviews of news sto- Kevin D. Arnold and Barry S. Anton ries find that journalists make causal claims In Memoriam: E. Thomas Dowd (1938–2018) • 363 when describing nonexperimental data; fur- ther, journalists often fail to review the study method or point out the limited inferences that At ABCT can be drawn from nonexperimental studies Call for Ticketed Sessions, 2019 • 364 (Schwitzer, 2008; see also Cooper, Lee, Goldacre, & Sanders, 2011, and Haneef, Call for Papers/General Sessions, 2019 • 365 Lazarus, Ravaud, Yavchitz, & Boutron, 2015). Call for 2019 Award Nominations • 366 Therefore, journalists have been urged to be Nominations for ABCT Officers: If Not You, Who? • back page “mindful of when causal language is warranted by the study design and when it is not” (Zweig & DeVoto, 2015, conclusion). [continued on p. 343] December • 2018 341 the Behavior Therapist Published by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 305 Seventh Avenue - 16th Floor New York, NY 10001 | www.abct.org (212) 647-1890 | Fax: (212) 647-1865 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2018 Editor: Kate Wolitzky-Taylor ABCT Class of Fellows Editorial Assistant: Bita Mesri The purpose of the Fellows program is to recognize Associate Editors members who have made outstanding and unusual RaeAnn Anderson contributions to the field of cognitive and behavioral Katherine Baucom therapy and related areas. Sarah Kate Bearman Shannon Blakey Angela Cathey Robert T. Ammerman Trent Codd Jill Ehrenreich-May David DiLillo Lisa Elwood Deborah R. Ledley Clark Goldstein David Hansen Jennifer P. Read Katharina Kircanski Richard LeBeau Alyssa Rheingold Angela Moreland Steven A. Safren Stephanie Mullins-Sweatt Amy Murell Susan W. White Alyssa Ward Tony Wells Stephen Whiteside Monnica Williams INSTRUCTIONS Ñçê AUTHORS ABCT President: Bruce Chorpita Executive Director: Mary Jane Eimer The Association for Behavioral and Cog- Submissions must be accompanied by a Director of Communications: David Teisler nitive Therapies publishes the Behavior Copyright Transfer Form (which can be Therapist as a service to its membership. downloaded on our website: http://www. Director of Outreach & Partnerships: Eight issues are published annually. The abct.org/Journals/?m=mJournal&fa=TB Tammy Schuler purpose is to provide a vehicle for the T): submissions will not be reviewed with- Convention Manager: Stephen Crane rapid dissemination of news, recent out a copyright transfer form. Prior to Managing Editor: Stephanie Schwartz advances, and innovative applications in publication authors will be asked to behavior therapy. submit a final electronic version of their Copyright © 2018 by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. All rights reserved. No part of this Feature articles that are approxi- manuscript. Authors submitting materi- publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any mately 16 double-spaced manuscript als to tBT do so with the understanding form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ- that the copyright of the published mate- ing photocopy, recording, or any information storage pages may be submitted. rials shall be assigned exclusively to and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Brief articles, approximately 6 to 12 the copyright owner. ABCT. Electronic submissions are pre- double-spaced manuscript pages, are Subscription information: tBT is published in 8 issues ferred and should be directed to the per year. It is provided free to ABCT members. preferred. Nonmember subscriptions are available at $40.00 per editor, Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, Ph.D., at year (+$32.00 airmail postage outside North America). Feature articles and brief articles [email protected]. Please Change of address: 6 to 8 weeks are required for address should be accompanied by a 75- to changes. Send both old and new addresses to the ABCT include the phrase tBT submission and office. 100-word abstract. the author’s last name (e.g., tBT Submis- ABCT is committed to a policy of equal opportunity Letters to the Editor may be used to sion - Smith et al.) in the subject line of in all of its activities, including employment. ABCT does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, reli- respond to articles published in the your e-mail. Include the corresponding gion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, Behavior Therapist or to voice a profes- author’s e-mail address on the cover page gender identity or expression, age, disability, or veteran status. sional opinion. Letters should be lim- of the manuscript attachment. Please also All items published in the Behavior Therapist, includ- ited to approximately 3 double-spaced include, as an attachment, the completed ing advertisements, are for the information of our read- manuscript pages. copyright transfer document. ers, and publication does not imply endorsement by the Association. 342 UNWARRANTED CAUSAL LANGUAGE Misrepresentation of scientific findings, in other disciplines. Indeed, the ability to the Association for Psychological Science however, can occur well in advance of the distinguish between correlation and causa- (APS). Because the threshold for poster media. Health-related university press tion is a foundational outcome of scientific acceptance is low (W. B. Mendes, personal releases (Sumner et al., 2014) and medical inquiry in the discipline (American Psy- communication, November 17, 2016) and journal press releases (Sumner et al., 2016) chological Association, 2013; McGovern, thus may be a biased representation of have both been shown to include causal Furumoto, Halpern, Kimble, & McK- scholarship in the discipline, we subse- statements drawn from correlational eachie, 1991). Psychology instructors dis- quently reviewed articles from 11 psychol- research. Moreover, a strong predictor of tinguish between correlation and causation ogy journals. misrepresentation of findings in both (Boneau, 1990; Rutter, 2007) and reinforce media news stories and press releases is the the distinction by (a) laying out criteria for Method misrepresentation of those findings in the causality and (b) differentiating research Samples original scientific article (Yavchitz et al., designs that do support causal claims from 2012). Unwarranted causal language is a those that do not (Hatfield, Faunce, & Sample 1 consisted of 660 accepted specific form of misrepresentation that has Soames Job, 2006; Leary, 2012; Morling, poster submissions drawn from the 2015 been documented in systematic reviews of 2018). They also have students identify APS Convention program. This sample articles published in medicine and health causal language and analyze the validity of size is appropriate because for descriptive journals (Brown, Brown, & Allison, 2013; causal claims in media headlines (Mueller research, random samples of approxi- Cofield, Corona, & Allison, 2010; Kohli & & Coon, 2013; Morling, 2018). Graduate mately 500 can provide valid frequency Cannon, 2012; Lazarus et al., 2015; Li, training in psychology continues to estimates (Morling, 2018). Each submis- Moja, Romero, Sayre, & Grimshaw, 2009). emphasize statistical and methodological sion included a title, abstract (≤ 50 words), Lazarus and colleagues, for example, reasoning (Lehman, Lempert, & Nisbett, and supporting summary (≤ 500 words). reviewed abstracts of nonexperimental 1988), with many master’s and doctoral The 2015 APS Convention held 21 general studies published in medical journals and programs in psychology requiring research poster sessions, with each session contain- found that 53% included causal statements. design coursework. ing between 120 and 140 accepted submis- Scholars have called on medical and health On the other hand, we had reasons to sions. We reviewed all 136 submissions in researchers to match the language they use expect that unwarranted causal language Poster Session 1, and for the remaining in their reports to the type of study they would be as prevalent in psychology as in poster sessions (Sessions 2 through 21), we conducted (Brown et al., 2013; Cofield et other
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