Lack of group-to-individual generalizability is a threat to human subjects research

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 115; no. 27; pp. E6106 - E6115
• Main Authors: Fisher, Aaron J., Medaglia, John D., Jeronimus, Bertus F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 03.07.2018
• Series: PNAS Plus
• Subjects: Anxiety Disorders - therapy; Biological Sciences; Bipolar Disorder - therapy; Data collection; Domains; Ergodic processes; Female; Human behavior; Humans; Male; Medicine; PNAS Plus; Psychotherapy, Group; Research methodology; Social behavior; Social Sciences; Statistical analysis; Statistical methods; generalizability; idiographic science; replicability; ecological fallacy; research methodology

Only for ergodic processes will inferences based on group-level data generalize to individual experience or behavior. Because human social and psychological processes typically have an individually variable and time-varying nature, they are unlikely to be ergodic. In this paper, six studies with a r...