Glossary // Glossary term Technical
Mediator
A variable that lies on the pathway between a cause and an outcome and is proposed to explain how or why the effect occurs, for example a change in how an event is understood linking expressive writing to later well-being. Statistical mediation analysis of correlational data cannot by itself establish such a pathway, because the mediator and the outcome may share unmeasured causes. Stronger support requires temporal ordering, experimental manipulation of the mediator, and a dose–response pattern. How one could reason about recording a catharsis-like change of state: signals, features, inference and context, baselines, self-report, error costs and ethics, and why every step stays uncertain. Nothing on this site measures anyone. Every public claim on this site with its type, evidence level, confidence, sources and review date, and an appraisal of each reference. How claims are graded, how art is kept apart from evidence, and how to report a problem. The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 Cited for the conceptual distinction between moderators and mediators. Its stepwise procedure for testing mediation has since been widely criticised, so it is not cited for how mediation should be tested. (2019). The role of common factors in psychotherapy outcomes. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095424 Supports the claim that no common or specific factor yet meets the criteria for an empirically validated working mechanism, because mechanism research has been correlational. Narrative review; it does not question that psychotherapies are effective.Where the site uses it
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