The common denominator of the published papers is the application of research synthesis approaches, not a specific psychological topic or theme that all articles have to address. Moreover, methodological advances in research synthesis methods relevant to any subfield of psychology are being addressed.
This includes an exploration of using Twitter to identify hotspot topics in psychology and to make early predictions about trends as well as the presentation of a publication format facilitating reproducibility and a method of cumulative meta-analytic evidence synthesis called community-augmented meta-analyses (CAMA).
Further meta-analyses explore diverse areas, sometimes with big data samples. These include: the exploration of the factorial structure and measurement invariance between English and translated versions of a well-established psychometric instrument (the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule); an individual-participant meta-analysis of 221 representative samples from the European Social Survey (ESS) looking at what day of the week influences subjective well-being ratings; an exploration of the role of low self-esteem in the development of pathological eating; and the application of the theory of planned behavior to analyze gender differences in the motivation to start a business.
The papers included in the issue can be found here:
- Editorial: Hotspots in Psychology – 2021 Edition (Michael Bosnjak, Nadine Wedderhoff, and Holger Steinmetz)
- Mining Twitter to Detect Hotspots in Psychology (André Bittermann, Veronika Batzdorfer, Sarah Marie Müller, and Holger Steinmetz)
- Community-Augmented Meta-Analyses (CAMAs) in Psychology: Potentials and Current Systems (Tanja Burgard, Michael Bosnjak, and Robert Studtrucker)
- On the Structure of Affect: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Dimensionality and the Cross-National Applicability of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Nadine Wedderhoff, Timo Gnambs, Oliver Wedderhoff, Tanja Burgard, and Michael Bosnjak)
- The Day of the Week Effect on Subjective Well-Being in the European Social Survey: An Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis (Timo Gnambs)
- Low Self-Esteem as a Risk Factor for Eating Disorders: A Meta-Analysis (Isabelle-Sophie O. Colmsee, Petra Hank, and Michael Bosnjak)
- Gender Differences in the Intention to Start a Business: An Updated and Extended Meta-Analysis (Holger Steinmetz, Rodrigo Isidor, and Corinna Bauer)
The editors of the Zeitschrift für Psychologie (ZfP) invite prospective guest editor teams interested in a thematic issue (to be published in ZfP in 2023-2026) to prepare a proposal for submission by June 30, 2021. Further information can be found here.