Theory and methodology

Quantitative psychological research is focused on detecting the occurrence of certain population phenomena by analyzing data from a sample, and statistics is a particularly helpful mathematical tool that is used by researchers to evaluate hypotheses and make decisions to accept or reject such hypotheses. In this paper, the various statistical tools in psychological research are reviewed. The limitations of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and the advantages of using effect size and its respective confidence intervals are explained, as the latter two measurements can provide important information about the results of a study. These measurements also can facilitate data interpretation and easily detect trivial effects, enabling researchers to make decisions in a more clinically relevant fashion. Moreover, it is recommended to establish an appropriate sample size by calculating the optimum statistical power at the moment that the research is designed. Psychological journal editors are encouraged to follow APA recommendations strictly and ask authors of original research studies to report the effect size, its confidence intervals, statistical power and, when required, any measure of clinical significance. Additionally, we must account for the teaching of statistics at the graduate level. At that level, students do not receive sufficient information concerning the importance of using different types of effect sizes and their confidence intervals according to the different types of research designs; instead, most of the information is focused on the various tools of NHST.

The relationship of consciousness to the reflexive processes is one of the fundamental problems in psychology. To date, however, many important aspects of this problem remain poorly understood. This article attempts a theoretical study of this problem. The subject of research is the interconnection between consciousness and reflexive processes and also the structure of these processes. This study presents theoretical and empirical materials revealing the interrelatedness of these two fundamental subjects of psychological research. In connection with this issue, I introduce a new methodology for psychological research, which I refer to as the metasystem approach. This approach is grounded in the claim that reflection is the basic procedural means of consciousness and is based on a heterarchical principle. This article proposes a new structural, polyprocess method for revealing the psychological nature of reflection and the contents of reflexive processes. I propose a new explanation for the basic properties of the psyche that underlie consciousness: self-sensitiveness (sensitivity to oneself). I theoretically prove the following proposition: reflection has a fundamental heterogeneity because its processes are localized on completely different hierarchical cognitive levels of personality. In addition, I show that in the structural organization of reflection as an integral process in relation to other (“secondary,” metacognitive) processes, another basic principle is involved — the principle of hierarchy. The property of reflexivity (and the process of reflection as a procedural manifestation of this property) should be understood as a species in relation to the more common attribute inherent in the psyche: self-sensitiveness. Elementary manifestations of this property have been observed for the simplest sensory processes.

This is the second in a series of four articles scheduled for publication in this journal. In the previous article I proposed a description of a new so-called existential criterion of normal and abnormal personality that is implicitly present in the works of Erich Fromm. According to this criterion, normal and abnormal personalities are determined, first, by special features of the content of their position regarding existential dichotomies that are natural to human beings and, second, by particular aspects of the formation of this position. Such dichotomies, entitatively existent in all human life, are inherent, two-alternative contradictions. The position of a normal personality in its content orients one toward a contradictious predetermination of life in the form of existential dichotomies and the necessity of searching for compromise in resolving these dichotomies. This position is created on a rational basis with the person’s active participation. The position of an abnormal personality in its content subjectively denies a contradictious predetermination of life in the form of existential dichotomies and orients one toward a consistent, noncompetitive, and, as a consequence, one-sided way of life that doesn’t include self-determination. This position is imposed by other people on an irrational basis. Abnormality of personality interpreted like that is one of the most important factors influencing the development of various kinds of psychological problems and mental disorders — primarily, neurosis. In this article I show that this criterion is implicitly present in the personality theories of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, although in more special cases. In the following articles I will show that this criterion is also implicitly present in the personality theories of Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, and Viktor Frankl.