Rosenthal R, DiMatteo M R
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
Annu Rev Psychol. 2001;52:59-82. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.59.
We describe the history and current status of the meta-analytic enterprise. The advantages and historical criticisms of meta-analysis are described, as are the basic steps in a meta-analysis and the role of effect sizes as chief coins of the meta-analytic realm. Advantages of the meta-analytic procedures include seeing the "landscape" of a research domain, keeping statistical significance in perspective, minimizing wasted data, becoming intimate with the data summarized, asking focused research questions, and finding moderator variables. Much of the criticism of meta-analysis has been based on simple misunderstanding of how meta-analyses are actually carried out. Criticisms of meta-analysis that are applicable are equally applicable to traditional, nonquantitative, narrative reviews of the literature. Much of the remainder of the chapter deals with the processes of effect size estimation, the understanding of the heterogeneity of the obtained effect sizes, and the practical and scientific importance of the effect sizes obtained.
我们描述了元分析事业的历史和现状。阐述了元分析的优势以及历史上对它的批评，还介绍了元分析的基本步骤以及效应量作为元分析领域主要货币的作用。元分析程序的优势包括看清一个研究领域的“全貌”、正确看待统计显著性、尽量减少数据浪费、深入了解所汇总的数据、提出有针对性的研究问题以及找到调节变量。对元分析的许多批评都源于对元分析实际实施方式的简单误解。适用于元分析的批评同样适用于传统的、非定量的文献叙述性综述。本章的其余部分大多涉及效应量估计的过程、对所获得效应量异质性的理解以及所获得效应量的实际和科学重要性。
