心理与脑科学研究中的样本代表性  

Sample representativeness in psychological and brain science research

作　　者：刘伟彪 陈志毅 胡传鹏 Weibiao Liu;Zhiyi Chen;Chuan-Peng Hu(School of Psychology,Nanjing Normal University,Nanjing 210024,China;Faculty of Medical Psychology,Army Medical University,Chongqing 400038,China)

机构地区：[1]南京师范大学心理学院,南京210024 [2]陆军军医大学医学心理系,重庆400038

出　　处：《科学通报》2024年第24期3515-3531,共17页Chinese Science Bulletin

摘　　要：心理与脑科学以人类被试作为研究对象,其结果的可推广性(generalizability,也称为普适性)很大程度上取决于其样本的代表性(representativeness).但心理与脑科学研究中样本的代表性长久以来饱受诟病.当前研究中主要存在两大问题:(1)样本信息的缺失,大部分研究仅报告了被试的性别、年龄与国别,而被试的种族/民族、受教育程度和社会经济地位等重要信息较少被报告,且从时间跨度上看,这种状况较以前未得到根本性改变;(2)从已报告的信息来看,当前样本的代表性不足:女性被试多于男性,集中于西方的、年轻的和受过高等教育的人群,而中老年人、受教育水平较低人群及低收入人群较少被研究者关注,亚洲人/亚裔、黑人/非洲裔、西班牙裔/拉丁裔人群同样较少受到关注,从国别角度来说,亚非拉国家尤其是非洲、拉丁美洲与中东地区的人群较少出现在心理和脑科学研究中.以上两大问题的产生可能主要存在如下原因:方便取样法作为主要的取样方法;欧美研究者主导了心理与脑科学的研究;整体上忽视文化以及不同人口因素的影响;研究者自身存有偏见.要改变这种现状,需要研究者、学术组织、期刊编辑和基金资助方等多方的共同努力.提升样本代表性将有助于让心理与脑科学的科学知识应用于更广泛的群体,推动人类命运共同体的构建.Psychological and brain science explore human behavior and the human brain by studying volunteers who participate in these studies.Given that the minds and behavior of participants are influenced by their own biological and social factors,the generalizability of findings in these fields largely depends on the representativeness of samples.However,the representativeness of samples in psychological and brain science has long been criticized as“WEIRD”(Western,Educated,Industrialized,Rich,and Democratic).In recent years,several meta-researches have surveyed the representativeness of samples in published studies from different sub-fields,but an overall understanding of the representativeness of samples in psychological and brain science is lacking.In this review,we analyze these meta-researches to provide a comprehensive perspective on the current state of sample representativeness.Two common issues emerged across these meta-researches.Firstly,the demographics of participants were incomplete in most of the published studies.Most psychological and brain science studies reported participants′gender,age,and country,but participants′race/ethnicity,education level,and socioeconomic status were far less reported.Other important demographics,such as rural/urban division,were not reported at all.Additionally,the reporting of these demographics has increased only slightly in recent years compared to decades ago.Thus,the under-reporting of demographic information in literature was largely unchanged.Secondly,based on the reported demographics,we found that samples in the field are far from being representative of the world population:most participants are young,highly educated Caucasian females in Western countries;middle-aged and older,less educated,colored people in and outside Western countries are less likely to be studied.In terms of countries,Southeast Asian,African,Latin American,and Middle Eastern countries appear fewer in psychological and brain science research.These two issues may be due to the following reaso

关 键 词：人口心理学 样本代表性 多样性 可推广性 系统综述 

分 类 号：B84-05[哲学宗教—基础心理学]