Behavioral Medicine: Assessment Issues, Fall 2012
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SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology
Behavioral Medicine Pro-seminar: Assessment Issues (Psychology 842)
Fall 2012
Thursdays: 9:00-11:40 p.m.
9245 Sky Park Court Suite 221 (Conference Room) and Other
Linda C. Gallo, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
San Diego State University
lcgallo@sciences.sdsu.edu
This course provides an introduction to the theory, principles, and practical aspects of
assessment in Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology. Content will include general issues of
measurement and specific measures of health behaviors and psychosocial constructs. A
variety of approaches will be considered, including self-report, interview, physiological, and
behavioral observation. When possible, approaches to measurement and specific tools will be
compared and contrasted. The emphasis will be on assessment of individuals, although
contextual measures will also receive attention. A combination of lectures, readings, and
laboratory presentations will be utilized. Students will have the opportunity to convey their
understanding of course material through class discussion, outside readings, formal
presentation, and written products.
The LEARNING OBJECTIVES of the course are as follows:
1. To define the fields of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine.
2. To gain familiarity with general issues of measurement in behavioral medicine.
3. To acquire knowledge concerning the advantages and disadvantages of specific
measurement instruments and approaches in terms of theoretical issues (e.g., sources of
variation in the targeted construct, etiology of the targeted construct, relation of the target to
health outcomes).
4. To acquire knowledge concerning the advantages and disadvantages of measurement
options in terms of practical issues (e.g. respondent burden, costs).
5. To acquire the ability to critically evaluate measurement instruments in terms of theoretical
and practical issues, and to choose among available alternatives.
6. To display the ability to critically evaluate and discuss current research issues in behavioral
medicine.
7. To learn the process of performing a systematic scholarly literature review.
The format of the course will be lecture and discussion, with a heavy emphasis on the latter.
Please read the assigned readings and come to class prepared to participate. Note that this
pro-seminar is cooperatively taught by the primary professor along with invited experts in
relevant topical areas from the SDSU/UCSD JDP in Clinical Psychology and related programs.
Remember that it is a privilege to have these nationally and in many cases internationallyrecognized scholars participate in the course; thus, it is especially important to be on time,
actively participate, etc.
Absences: Please inform me in advance if you will be absent from class for any reason (email
is the best contact method).
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Blackboard: Please access the course on Blackboard, where I will be posting handouts,
readings, PowerPoint slides (when available), updates and announcements. To conserve
resources, hard copies will not be distributed.
ASSIGNMENTS
Review Paper
The goal of this assignment is to help you obtain experience in a critical skill for academic
psychologists – writing a systematic review paper. Your review may or may incorporate metaanalysis. In special cases, a narrative approach will be considered (please discuss with me in
advance). In any case, the goal is to write an integrative, scholarly review that is suitable for
publication and will be evaluated as if it had been submitted for publication, with written
feedback provided. The paper should be approximately 20 pages (excluding citations), doublespaced, and typed (in APA format). There is no specific requirement for the number of citations
that must be included in the review - you should include as many citations as needed to address
the chosen topic. This assignment will be worth 85% of your grade (i.e., 85 points), including
interim assignments. You may choose one of the following options:
1. Complete a review that represents a systematic, critical evaluation of a measure that is
widely used in behavioral medicine.
2. Complete a review that compares and contrasts different measures of a behavior or
psychosocial construct relevant to health.
3. Complete a review that incorporates a measurement emphasis but addresses another
behavioral-medicine relevant research question.
All of you have written research articles, but you may never have written a comprehensive,
systematic review paper. The purpose of this type of paper is to survey research within a
particular area. The dual overarching goals of the review are description and evaluation of the
research. Hence, you will not simply be citing all of the important, relevant research, but also
comparing and evaluating the findings, and synthesizing them in a manner that generates
conclusions and directions for future research.
For further information on issues and guidelines in writing a systematic review paper, please
consult the following articles (posted on Blackboard):
Carretero-Dios, H. and Pérez, C. (2007). Standards for the development and the review of
instrumental studies: Considerations about test selection in psychological research.
International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 7, 863-882
Fernández-Ríos and Buela-Casal (2009) [Fernández-Ríos, L. and Buela-Casal, G. (2009).
Standards for the preparation and writing of Psychology review articles. International
Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 9, 329-344
Mullen, P. D. & Ramirez, G. (2006). The promise and pitfalls of systematic reviews. Annual
Review of Public Health, 27, 81-102.
Pai, M. et al. (2004). Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: An illustrated, step-by-step guide.
National Medical Review of India, 17(2), 86-95.
In addition, here are some relevant web resources:
***Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA):
http://www.prisma-statement.org/
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***The Equator Network for enhancing the quality and transparency of health research:
http://www.equator-network.org/
Evidenced Based Behavioral Psychology: http://www.ebbp.org/resources.html (see systematic
reviews training module, http://www.ebbp.org/training.html).
Although focused on intervention studies, the following (from the Cochrane Collaborative) also
provides an excellent overview and some detailed information regarding how to approach a
systematic review: http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/
Also see examples of systematic reviews posted on Blackboard.
In organizing your review, you should follow the format presented in the PRISMA guidelines and
checklist (http://www.prisma-statement.org/, also available on Blackboard). I highly encourage
you to thoroughly review these guidelines before you finalize your topic and before the first
interim assignment is due. However, note that depending on the topic and form of your review,
not all specific sub-topics may apply. To summarize the major components:
1. Background: Provide sufficient background and literature review to introduce the research
question and why the topic is important. Emphasize the conceptual basis of the review, and
consider including a model that guides the presentation and evaluation of studies. If there
have been other reviews on the topic, clarify how your review expands or improves upon
them.
2. Objectives: State the specific question to be answered by the review, or specific aims of
the review. In outlining the research question, use the “PICO” format (as appropriate to the
topic).
3. Method. Summarize the criteria and process for choosing studies for this review. Describe
the inclusion and exclusion criteria, information sources, search strategy, including keywords
used and how they were combined, and limits applied (e.g., language, age group, type of
study, year of publication, etc.). Include information regarding the approach used to
evaluate data quality (if applicable). Describe the selection process and data collection
process, and which data will be coded. As with an empirical study, this section should
provide enough detail to allow full replication of the study. Please see examples
posted on blackboard and elsehwere to ensure you understand the level of detail required.
4. Results. The content will depend on the goals of your paper, however, your review must
include 1) a flow chart that depicts numbers of studies screened, assessed for eligibility,
and included in the review, and reasons for exclusions (http://www.prisma-statement.org/,
also on blackboard) and 2) a table or tables that organize the key aspects of each study
(e.g., authors, sample characteristics, measure used, results, comments). There are
numerous examples in the literature of how to construct such tables. The goal of this
section is to synthesize, compare and critically evaluate studies. Use the information in the
tables much as you would use data tables in an empirical paper. Summarize key findings
and patterns.
5. Discussion. Describe the implications of the research. Discuss limitations of the review.
Provide aggregate conclusions about the studies you have reviewed, including suggestions
for what the next steps should be. Use the conceptual basis of the paper to organize your
findings and recommendations.
6. Annotated PRISMA Checklist. With your final paper, please include an annotated PRISMA
checklist that shows on which page each required component is included (or note “NA” if the
component is not applicable).
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Interim Assignments (25 points) To facilitate your progress toward this major project, you will
be asked to complete several interim assignments during the course of the semester, as
follows:
1. Complete a one-page topical proposal that describes the research question(s) to be
addressed in the review paper (due 10/04/12; 5 points). The proposal must provide
sufficient background to clarify why the review is important, state the SPECIFIC aims or
research question/s to be answered (according to the PICO framework), how measurement
is emphasized, whether you will include meta-analysis, and the rationale for your decision to
adopt the selected approach. Any format is justifiable depending on your area of interest,
but in most cases a systematic review with or without meta-analysis will be most
appropriate. Consider a topic that would be publishable, but also narrow enough to allow
completion of the assignment within the semester timeframe. Feel free to consult your
advisor in selecting the topic.
2. Complete an outline of the methods, with bullet point summaries of your approach (follow
PRISMA checklist) and shell tables that show how you will present extracted data (include
headings for columns, rows, and sufficient information to clarify exactly what data will be
included). The methods should include your explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, limits to
the search, databases you will examine, and search terms (due 10/18/12; 10 points).
3. Submit your PRISMA flowchart summarizing studies included and excluded from the
review, along with a reference list showing the studies included in the final selection phase
(due 11/05/12; 10 points).
The final review paper and annotated PRISMA checklist is due 12/13/12 (60 points) – (No
exceptions please!)
Class Presentation (15 Points)
Students will present the findings of their review paper for the class. The presentation should be
prepared as if for a scientific conference, and should be 15-20 minutes in length, with about
10 minutes for discussion and questions. Since all students will be presenting their research
within a single class period, it is critical that everyone adhere to this time limit. Your presentation
should review the main components of your paper, i.e., a brief overview of the
background/context, the specific aims or question/s of interest, the review methods, a brief
synthesis of results, and conclusions drawn. Each presentation must include a PowerPoint
presentation and may include handouts (distributed by email or posted on Blackboard).
Students will receive written feedback concerning the content and style of their presentation, in
terms of strengths as well as areas for improvement.
Final grades will be calculated as follows:
Total Points
95 - 100
90 - 94
85 - 89
80 - 84
75 - 79
Letter Grade
SDSU GPA
A
AB+
B
B-
Class schedule and readings will be posted separately on Blackboard.
4.0
3.7
3.3
3.0
2.7