Scientist-practitioner Gap Research Articles

Quantifying the scientist–practitioner gap: How do small business owners react to our academic articles?

Abstract Much ink has been spilled on the scientist–practitioner gap, that is, the apparent divide between knowledge published in academic peer-reviewed journals and the actual business practices employed in modern organizations. Most prior papers have advanced meaningful theories on why the gap exists, ranging from poor communication skills on the part of academics to paywalls and other obstacles preventing the public from accessing research in industrial-organizational psychology (I-O). However, very few papers on the scientist–practitioner gap have taken an empirical approach to better understand why the gap exists and what can be done about it. In our focal article, we specifically discuss the gap as it pertains to small businesses and present empirical data on the topic. Drawing from our experiences working with and in small businesses before entering a PhD program, we suggest that a primary reason for the existence of this gap is the differences between large and small businesses, and we advance two theory-driven reasons for why this is the case. Next, we compiled abstracts and practical implications sections from articles published in top I-O journals in the past 5 years, then we collected ratings and open-ended text responses from subject matter experts (i.e., small business owners and managers) in reaction to reading these sections. We close by recommending several potential perspectives, both for and against our arguments, that peer commentators can take in their responses to our focal article.

Narrowing the scientist-practitioner gap via career triangulation

Our career journeys are unique and become integral parts of our life stories. This paper describes the development of a career path that can be currently defined as a persistent effort to balance three separate but highly aligned areas that feed into each other: research, teaching and coaching. The emergence and improvement of each of these career identities will be explained, focusing on the motives and concerns that guided the quest. The dynamic nature of this triangular career and the interaction among its components will be clarified, followed by a summary of key suggestions and insights based on this journey to address the scientist-practitioner gap. This career story is expected to inspire others who need to reconsider their career perceptions and expectations, and define their authentic career identities.

The illusion of validity: how effort inflates the perceived validity of interview questions

ABSTRACT Interviewers are often confident in the validity of their interview questions. What drives this confidence and is it justified? In three studies, we found that question creators judged their own interview questions as more valid than when the same questions are judged by an evaluator. We also found that effort expenditure inflated the perceived validity of interview questions but not question quality. Question creators’ perceptions of validity were primarily driven by their self-confidence, and not the question quality. As an intervention, we nudged participants into holding more favourable attitudes towards better questions (i.e., structured questions) by allowing them to choose a subset of them from a pre-written list. Together, we found that while effort expenditure was responsible for the illusion of validity when evaluating unstructured (i.e., low-quality) questions, the same mechanism could also be used to improve interviewers’ acceptance of structured questions. Implications for structured interviews and the scientist-practitioner gap are discussed.

Coaching Isn’t Just for Little League Anymore: A Theory of Coachability

Coaching is a form of employee development that has grown in use in practice, despite little attention in the academic literature. Coaching and mentoring are addressed in multiple literatures, yet despite being distinct activities, they are often conflated. Further, the notion of what makes an employee coachable is not consistent in published research. Therefore, the purpose of the current manuscript is to more clearly define coaching and its elements, focusing specifically on employee coachability. This paper thus attempts to begin to close the scientist-practitioner gap in regards to employee coaching.

Data Analytic Advances That Bridge the Scientist-Practitioner Gap

In this commentary, I advance the view that the scientist-practitioner gap is partly due to the research designs commonly used in psychotherapy research. Specifically, I believe that randomized controlled trials, which are important for establishing treatment efficacy and as leverage when making the case for the value of psychotherapy in relation to various stakeholders, are limited for further development of clinical theories. Instead, I find recent advances in cross-lagged panel modeling to be both clinically intuitive and stronger for causal inference than most other nonexperimental designs. In addition to discussing causal inference and clinical interpretation of cross-lagged panel models, I discuss the potential of improving mediation analysis, personalization of research, and studying issues of clinical timing. Finally, I briefly discuss some limitations of cross-lagged panel models. It is my belief that the use of these data analytic advances can make empirical research better live up to the innovations in Beck’s work.

Psychotherapy outcome research: Implications of a new clinical taxonomy.

Since the publication of DSM-III in 1980, the scientist-practitioner gap in clinical psychology has expanded, as almost all outcome research in clinical psychology has been on diagnosed mental disorders within a medical model using drug trial methodologies, whereas most practising clinicians undertake functional analyses and case formulations of clinical psychological problems (CPPs) and then apply tailored interventions within an ongoing hypothesis-testing methodology. But comparatively reliable assessment and generalizable conclusions in psychotherapy outcome research require a comprehensive theory-derived conception or operational definition of 'CPPs', standardized functional analyses, and a taxonomy of CPPs comparable to DSM's listings of mental disorders. An alternative conception and taxonomy of CPPs have recently been proposed, offering improvements in the reliability and generalizability of case formulation-based psychotherapy outcome research. It conceives of CPPs as instances of the formation and operation of self-sustaining problem-maintaining circles (PMCs) of psychological-level causal elements-that is, at the level of cognitions, behaviours, emotions, and events or situations (stimuli). The paper describes this new conception of CPPs, a subsequent nascent taxonomy of evidence-based PMCs which standardizes the underlying mechanisms that maintain CPPs, and ensuing benefits to research (as well as to practice) in clinical psychology. These benefits include being able to encompass all treatment-worthy CPPs, not just diagnosable mental disorders; to assess theory-derived intervention strategies, not just arbitrary therapy bundles; and to directly feed back into psychological theories, not just expand an atheoretical list of patented "evidence supported therapies."

Undergraduate Science Students’ Scientist–Practitioner Gap: the Role of Epistemic Curiosity and Cognitive Flexibility

The scientist–practitioner gap refers to the phenomenon of individuals with a scientific background exhibiting non-scientific beliefs. Informed by the social-cognitive process model, this study aimed to develop a more coherent understanding of how such non-scientific beliefs can be predicted by individuals’ cognitive flexibility mediated by their epistemic curiosity. A questionnaire was administered to 332 undergraduate students majoring in science at 2 universities in Taiwan. It included items on cognitive flexibility, 2 types of epistemic curiosity, and non-scientific beliefs. After the reliability and validity of the items and constructs were validated, structural equation modeling was applied to verify the research model. Results indicated that the 2 types of epistemic curiosity, interest-type and deprivation-type, were positively predicted by cognitive flexibility but were negatively reflected in the students’ non-scientific beliefs. The study also tested the gender difference for each factor and found that female students majoring in science tended to have stronger non-scientific beliefs than their male counterparts. The results imply that if a higher level of cognitive flexibility is attained, the scientist–practitioner gap may be reduced.

Telling stories to communicate the value of the pre‐employment structured job interview

AbstractIn an effort to bridge the scientist–practitioner gap in the employee selection, some researchers have advocated telling stories to better communicate the value of evidence‐based hiring practices to human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we conducted two experiments that examine the efficacy of storytelling for overcoming managers’ resistance to use structured job interviews. In two experiments, we found that participants who read a story regarding the effectiveness of structured interviews, as opposed to receiving evidence‐based advice, reported more favorable attitudes toward structured job interviews. Serial mediation analysis revealed that the observed attitude change was mediated by an increase in narrative transportation and reduction in counterarguing. Implications for using stories in communicating the value of evidence‐based HR practices are discussed.

Review of Practice-Based Research: A Guide for Clinicians.

Reviews the book, Practice-Based Research: A Guide for Clinicians edited by R. Trent Codd III. As illuminated in this new book, clinicians are at the forefront of mental health care. They have the proverbial front row view of treatment implementation. Therefore, clinicians are ideally suited, compared with academic researchers, to conduct research that yields a quick and meaningful impact on the medical field. Therefore, clinicians conducting practice-based research are well situated to identify and answer questions of practical importance and direct impact on the medical field. This five-chapter, 13-article guidebook brings to light that the field of mental health faces a scientist-practitioner gap. Hopefully, this book achieves its intention: to improve the caliber of treatments delivered and research conducted, thereby helping the ultimate recipients of both-the patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

A Systems View of the Scientist–Practitioner Gap

We commend Rotolo et al. (2018) for introducing a new lens for viewing the well-known gap between industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology research and human resource (HR) practices in organizations. However, Rotolo et al.’s characterization of practitioner behavior as “anti I-O” suggests a particularly negative view of scientific research among some HR practitioners. The label implies that some HR practitioners are intentionally ignoring or actively resisting academic research. More likely, the behavior stems from a passive indifference to academia, which may be the appropriate attitude for some practitioners to adopt when a great deal of academic research is too slow, too theoretical, and too cryptically communicated to be useful in applied settings. We agree with Rotolo et al. when they say, “we are a discipline that is not geared for being cutting edge” (p. 182), and we appreciate their recommendations for addressing this lack of relevance. However, most recommendations in this broader discussion do not address the foundational problem within our field: a systemic mismatch between the incentives of practitioners and academics. To support this point, we briefly describe a typology of I-O psychologists as well as the varying contexts and incentives that drive their behavior. We then close with our own recommendations for how academia can improve its relevance to practitioners and close the gap. These changes are not easy, but we agree with Rotolo and colleagues that if any field can address such foundational problems, it is ours.

The Role of Professional Associations in Promoting Robust Science

Grand et al. (2018) address an important and timely concern with scientific research with implications well beyond industrial and organizational (I-O) psychological science. As they describe a comprehensive ecosystem responsible for robust science, they have alluded to the notorious scientist–practitioner gap in our field. In this commentary I propose how that gap relates to the various stakeholders in Grand et al.’s ecosystem, and suggest professional associations take on an elevated role in the communication of science.

Steps towards bridging the scientist-practitioner gap in the field of Work and Organizational Psychology in Romania

In the last two years, the Romanian Association of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (APIO) has proposed to develop a series of actions to create bridges between the Work and Organizational psychology (WOP) community and the HR specialists from the Romanian market. In order to better understand the specifics of the practitioners in this field and to subsequently reduce the gap between them and Academia, in 2016, APIO conducted a survey in the Romanian HR community. The data were collected through an online questionnaire and 215 HR specialists and organizational practitioners participated in the survey (83% women). The HR specialists expressed their interest for implementing or optimizing a variety of diagnosis intervention services concerning all levels of analysis within a workplace: individual, group, and organization. The majority of the HR professionals who participated in our survey acknowledged the need and reported an increased interest in being better informed and keeping up-to-date with scientific data regarding various topics at the intersection of HR and WOP. Only 20% of the respondents expressed very little interest in such activities. In line with these conclusions, APIO proposed a set of possible measures in order to bridge the gap beween WOP researchers and HR practitioners that would benefit from the support of APIO members within the following years.

Introduction: Applying Clinical Psychological Science to Practice.

Mental illness is a prevalent and extraordinarily complex phenomenon. Psychologists have developed distinct approaches toward understanding and treating mental illness, rooted in divergent epistemology. This introduction to the Special Issue on Clinical Psychological Science and Practice provides a brief overview of the scientist-practitioner gap, and explores one step (of many) toward bridging this divide. Seven compelling case illustrations featured in this Special Issue apply empirical findings to case formulation, treatment selection, and assessment across complex and varied clinical presentations. This issue thereby demonstrates the feasibility of integrating research and clinical expertise in mental healthcare.

The Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS): Merging clinical practice, training, and research.

The goal of this article is to present information about a standardized multidimensional measure of psychological symptoms, the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS; Locke et al., 2011; Locke, McAleavey, et al., 2012; McAleavey, Nordberg, Hayes, et al., 2012), developed to assess difficulties specific to college students' mental health. We provide (a) a brief review and summary of the psychometric and research support for the CCAPS; (b) examples of the use of the CCAPS for various purposes, including clinical, training, policy, and counseling center advocacy; and (c) implications of the integration of routine outcome monitoring and feedback for the future of training, research, and clinical practice. In particular, the article emphasizes how the assimilation of and symbiotic relationship between research and practice can address the scientist-practitioner gap.

Bridging the Scientist–Practitioner Gap: Notable Progress From One Side

Bridging the Scientist–Practitioner Gap: Notable Progress From One Side

Are the “Memory Wars” Over? A Scientist-Practitioner Gap in Beliefs About Repressed Memory

The “memory wars” of the 1990s refers to the controversy between some clinicians and memory scientists about the reliability of repressed memories. To investigate whether such disagreement persists, we compared various groups’ beliefs about memory and compared their current beliefs with beliefs expressed in past studies. In Study 1, we found high rates of belief in repressed memory among undergraduates. We also found that greater critical-thinking ability was associated with more skepticism about repressed memories. In Study 2, we found less belief in repressed memory among mainstream clinicians today compared with the 1990s. Groups that contained research-oriented psychologists and memory experts expressed more skepticism about the validity of repressed memories relative to other groups. Thus, a substantial gap between the memory beliefs of clinical-psychology researchers and those of practitioners persists today. These results hold implications for the potential resolution of the science-practice gap and for the dissemination of memory research in the training of mental-health professionals.

Russians in Treatment: The Evidence Base Supporting Cultural Adaptations

Despite large waves of westward migration, little is known about how to adapt services to assist Russian-speaking immigrants. In an attempt to bridge the scientist-practitioner gap, the current review synthesizes diverse literatures regarding what is known about immigrants from the Former Soviet Union. Relevant empirical studies and reviews from cross-cultural and cultural psychology, sociology, psychiatric epidemiology, mental health, management, linguistics, history, and anthropology literature were synthesized into three broad topics: culture of origin issues, common psychosocial challenges, and clinical recommendations. Russian speakers probably differ in their form of collectivism, gender relations, emotion norms, social support, and parenting styles from what many clinicians are familiar with and exhibit an apparent paradoxical mix of modern and traditional values. While some immigrant groups from the Former Soviet Union are adjusting well, others have shown elevated levels of depression, somatization, and alcoholism, which can inform cultural adaptations. Testable assessment and therapy adaptations for Russians were outlined based on integrating clinical and cultural psychology perspectives.

Psychological treatments: Putting evidence into practice and practice into evidence.

AbstractIn June 2011, the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Board of Directors launched a task force on the evidence-based practice of psychological treatments. purpose of this task force was to operationalize what constitutes evidence-based practice in psychological treatment, to make recommendations about how psychologists can best integrate evidence into practice, and to disseminate information to consumers about evidence-based interventions. An important impetus for this task force was the continuing and widening scientist-practitioner gap. There are both barriers and opportunities when it comes to promoting greater reliance on the scientific literature and greater uptake of empirically supported treatments among practitioners. Two main factors prevail. For one, there is considerable controversy over what constitutes best evidence. second is that researchers often do not communicate their findings in a manner that effectively translates their results from the laboratory to the clinic. It is crucial that we not only make practice evidence-based but also make evidence practice-based. In this article, focus on current issues and opportunities with respect to evidence-based practice and identify strategies for closing the gap between research and practice. -Keywords: evidence-based practice, evidence-based treatment, empirically supported treatment, bridging research and practice, psychotherapyA number of years ago, as was heading out of the house to attend my undergraduate classes, my father said to me, What do you have today, David? told him, I have personality and motivation. Good for you! he said. am fortunate to have had and continue to have a great relationship with my parents. We have a lot of fun together and my parents have always been an incredible encouragement to me. In preparing for my address, my dad - a retired minister - also provided me with some good advice: If you don't strike oil in the first 20 minutes, stop boring.As President of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), have the special honour of providing an address to the membership. intend to use this platform to share with Canadian psychologists some ideas related to evidence-based practice. Part of my presidential mandate was for CPA to develop its own position on the evidence-based practice of psychological treatments to support and guide practice as well as to inform stakeholders. Psychological health and disorders are clearly a priority for many of Canada's stakeholder groups (e.g., Mental Health Commission of Canada, Treasury Board, Public Health Agency of Canada) and their effective treatment needs to become a priority for CPA as well. When first brought this idea to the CPA Board of Directors in March 2011, Dr. Lome Sexton, who was on the board in the portfolio of Professional Affairs, and who had just chaired a task force on prescriptive authority for psychologists, said, And thought prescription privileges was controversial.To be sure, this is a sensitive topic, and hope that will deal with it appropriately and at least do it some justice. In his classic monograph, Why Don't Attend Case Conferences, Paul Meehl (1973) began by stating, The first portion of the paper will be highly critical and aggressively polemic (If you want to shake people up, you have to raise a little hell). second part, while not claiming grandiosely to offer a definitive solution to the problem, proposes some directions of thinking and 'experimenting' that might lead to a significant improvement over current conditions (p. 227). Although have no intention of raising a little hell, would similarly like to highlight the problem and then move toward some potential - not grandious or definitive - but potential solutions.After briefly highlighting some of the outcome data that support the idea that psychological treatments are effective for a variety of mental health problems, would like to address the difficult fact that the empirical research is often not utilized by practitioners. …

Information technology and feedback research can bridge the scientist–practitioner gap: A couple therapy example.

Information technology and feedback research can bridge the scientist–practitioner gap: A couple therapy example.

Comments on “Distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology:” Evidence-based interventions for grandiose bragging

The purpose of this article is to provide some perspectives on Lilienfeld, Ammirati, and David's (2012) paper on distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology. In many respects their work represents an intervention for “grandiose bragging,” a problem that has occasionally occurred when various non-evidence-based or discredited interventions receive sensationalized positive endorsement for adoption in school psychology practice. In this paper, the implications of the Lilienfeld et al. work are discussed within the context of the scientist–practitioner gap, scientific thinking and evaluation of scientific thinking, and negative results research. The authors have advanced our thinking on evidence-based practices in school psychology and education.