https://preview.redd.it/92imaxn5surh1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fa55480e608cba55fb2bd95524b6a361f456272

Image from: Koei Tecmo. Found at https://www.gamesradar.com/games/survival-horror/fatal-frames-iconic-camera-exists-to-force-players-to-look-straight-at-something-scary-says-series-creator-we-thought-it-would-really-bring-out-the-scariness-of-the-ghosts/

>It is no secret that I love Fatal Frame. Whenever someone on Reddit asks for a horror game suggestion, Fatal Frame is always my first suggestion. It is the greatest horror franchise I have ever played. Because of it, I have become enamoured with Japanese folklore and Shintoism, Japan’s indigenous religion, so I decided to make an encyclopedia (to the best of my knowledge, anyway; this is by no means an exhaustive list) of the folklore and Shintoism that I noticed across the series.

• Akai Ito: Red thread. There is an ancient East Asian legend of an invisible red thread tied by the gods that connects two people together- people meant to be soulmates, although the term soulmates, in this context, is not necessarily referring to romantic partners, but a more general and foundational definition where two people share a deep, personal, emotional and spiritual bond, whether familial, platonic, or romantic. Distance, time, and hardships can not break the thread. The thread may stretch and tangle, but it always guides the soulmates back to one another. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. The invisible thread that binds the twins together.
• Ara-Mitama: The angry, vengeful side of a spirit. In Shintoism, Kami can have multiple aspects. Seen in: Every aggressive ghost.
• Batsu (or Shinbatsu): Divine retribution inflicted as punishment on someone who speaks or acts in a disrespectful, impure way towards a god. Seen in: Fatal Frame II. The Folklorist travelled to the village, broke village rules, entered forbidden and sacred areas to photograph that which should not be photographed, and was punished.
• Chinkon: A meditative breathing exercise to ease the body and a practice to calm turbulent spirits. Seen in: The Camera Obscura. The Camera does not destroy the souls of angry ghosts; rather, it acts as a purifying device.
• Dōsojin: Protective deities that watch over and guard roads, borders, village boundaries, and mountain passes. They protect travellers, ward off evil, and bless families. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. Passing these stone markers at the start of the game lets the player know that Mio and Mayu have crossed the boundary and are in the Lost Village.
• En: A profound connection that links people, places, and events together. Seen in: Fatal Frame 3. The tragic invisible thread that pulls Rei into the Manor of Sleep. Her grief creates an unshakeable connection to the tattooed curse.
• Goryō: A vengeful high-ranking and noble spirit who suffered an untimely, tragic, and unjust death. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. Sae Kurosawa.
• Haiden: The hall of worship. Typically placed in front of the Honden. Seen in: Pretty much every game, usually early on.
• Harae: Ritual purification processes used to wash away bad luck, sins, and impurities. In Shintoism, such a practice resets Kagare. Seen in: Camera Obscura. The burst of spiritual light from the Camera can be seen as a localized purification. Seen in: Every game.
• Heiden: The offering hall, where offerings are made. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. Inside the Kurosawa house, offerings include sacred gourds and twin artifacts.
• Hitobashira (human pillar): A historical ritual practice of burying a human sacrifice alive to appease local deities. These sacrifices were typically buried under dams, pillars, and castles to prevent disaster (supernatural or otherwise). Seen in: Fatal Frame 1 and again, sort of, in Fatal Frame 5, where maidens were stuffed into tight boxes and submerged in water to hold back the underworld.
• Hitogata: A human-shaped doll (usually made of paper or straw) used as a spiritual scapegoat of sorts to absorb a person’s sins, illness or impurities. They are usually rubbed on the person and then burned or sent downstream. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2.
• Honden: The most sacred building at a Shinto shrine; it is where the Kami resides. It is often connected to the haiden, which is often connected to the honden. Seen in: Every game.
• Izanagi and Izanami: The creator Kami. Izanami’s death and rotting decay in Yomi, followed by Izanagi’s trek through Yomi and subsequent water purification, brought about the concepts of kegare and misogi. Seen in: Almost every game. It is the series’ overarching metaphysical blueprint.
• Jizo statues: Statues that are set up to protect and guide travellers, especially young children and souls of the unborn. These figures watch over children who pass away before their parents and guide them across the river in the afterlife. Often adorned in red bibs and tiny knitted caps by grieving parents. (Note: While there is overlap with Dōsojin, Jizo statues are Buddhist in origin). Seen in: Fatal Frame 5 on Mount Hikami.
• Kagura (God entertainment): A Shinto ritual dance. Chinkon is a major component of Kagura. Seen in Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. The entire narrative revolves around a failed Kagura, and things went horribly wrong.
• Kakuriyo: The otherworld, where Kami and other spirits reside. It is in stark contrast to utsushiyo, the visible human world. Seen in: Whenever the game goes monochrome. Distorted, or bleeding black water, it is the Kakuriyo bleeding into reality.
• Kami: A sacred spirit that is worshipped in Shintoism. Seen in: Worshipped indirectly via the numerous cults. However, Fatal Frame 4 makes direct reference to Tsukiyomi.
• Kamidana: A miniature Shinto shrine often found in the home to enshrine and honour the Kami. Seen in: Several homes that you may come across.
• Kannabi: A sacred mountain, hill, landmark, or forest believed to be a natural dwelling for a Kami. Seen in: Fatal Frame 5. Mount Hikami is a textbook Kannabi. A massive sacred mountain that preys on the grieving, promising to reunite them with their loved ones.
• Kegare (Ritual Pollution): Spiritual pollution, defilement, and uncleanliness. It is not seen as a sin; rather, it is viewed as a natural state. It is a state that occurs when someone comes into contact with death, childbirth, blood, disease, and menstruation. Seen in: The Rift, Black Water, pretty much every game. A ritual fails, and what happens next is akin to a spiritual oil spill in that environment. Areas are stained, and souls are corrupted.
• Kekkai: Sacred and bounded territory that acts as a barrier. Seen in: Fatal Frame 1. Created by the four pillars, the entire mansion is meant to lock the gates of Hell inside and keep the outside safe from defilement.
• Ma: Negative space, a pause in time. Ma gives shape and deeper meaning to what surrounds it. Seen in: Every game. The franchise is a masterpiece in its use of silence and space. It is the agonizing, long quiet walk down an empty hallway where all you can hear are the creaks of the floor underneath you.
• Miren: Lingering attachment and unfulfilled emotional duties. Seen in: Diaries that detail victims’ unfulfilled emotional needs, such as failing to find a loved one.
• Misogi: A purification ritual where the entire body is cleansed with water. Seen in: Fatal Frame V: The Maiden of Black Water. It serves as a narrative backbone.
• Mononoke: A catch-all term used to describe Onryō, Shiryō, and Ikiryō (live spirits) that are said to possess individuals, make them suffer and bring about disease and even death. Seen in: Fatal Frame 3 and 5.
• Nigi-Mitama: The peaceful, gentle side of a spirit. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. After you defeat a certain young child’s ghost, she later returns to thank you for helping her.
• Ofuda: Sacred paper or wooden talismans used to seal doors and ward off bad luck, prevent illness, and bring about safety. Seen in: Fatal Frame 1, pinned to the doors inside Himuro Mansion.
• Onryō: A type of ghost believed to be able to cause harm in the real world. Seen in: Every game. The best examples I can think of are the broken-neck women and the blinded woman.
• Reikon: Soul. When a person dies in an unexpected, traumatic, violent way, the reikon remains amongst the living as a Yūrei. Seen in: Well, every game. Some of these guys have seen some serious shit.
• Shide: Zigzag paper streamers hung on Torii Gates to mark holy spaces and invite purification. Seen in: Every game with a Torii Gate.
• Shimenawa: Braided rope made of rice that adorns Torii gates. These braids signal Kekkai and Yorishiro. Seen in: Same as above. However, in Fatal Frame 1, the rope serves a much more horrific purpose.
• Shiryō: Souls of the dead. Seen in: Every game. They are just the poor bastards walking around.
• Tatari: Vengeance enacted by an Onryō. Seen in: Every time a ritual fails. Which is all the time.
• Torii gates: Tall red gates adorned with braided rope and paper. These gates mark and signal the boundary between the mundane, ordinary world and the world of the Kami. Seen in: Every game. They’re big red sticks connected by another big red stick.
• Tsukiyomi: One of the three precious children, alongside his younger brother Susano and his eldest sister Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi is the Moon Kami and plays a pivotal role in Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse as a worshipped figure. Seen in: Fatal Frame 4. My favourite Kami gets an entire game to himself.
• Tsumi: A word that indicates the violation of a rule, whether legal, social, or religious, most often used in a religious sense and a moral sense that brings about kegare or disaster. It had to be dealt with in certain ways, such as through harae. Seen in: Fatal Frame 2. A certain set of twins try to run away, and bad things happen.
• Utsushiyo: The visible, human world. Seen in: At the start of every game, before shit hits the proverbial fan.
• Wa: Harmony. Seen in: Every game. The stupid cults try to appease the underworld and all the horrors that reside within, usually by sacrificing a couple of people (or trying to, anyway).
• Yomi (and Jigoku): The abyss, the underworld, where the dead reside. In Shinto lore, Yomi (the land of the dead) is distinct from the Buddhist Jigoku (realms of karmic judgement), but Fatal Frame blends these concepts into one. Seen in: Fatal Frame 1, 2, 3; you get the idea.
• Yomotsu-hirasaka: The sloping boundary between the living world and Yomi. Seen in: Almost every game. It usually occurs at the end as a slow descent into Hell.
• Yorishiro: A sacred object or person that attracts Kami and provides them with a physical space during rituals and festivals. Seen in: Any game that has a sacred maiden. They take on the Kami’s malice so the rest of the world does not have to. If only things went according to plan.
• Yūrei: Spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife. If someone dies in a violent, unexpected, and traumatic way, and if the proper rites have not been performed or strong emotions plague the person, the reikon transforms into a Yūrei. The Yūrei must then either perform whatever missing ritual was not completed or resolve whatever emotions they were dealing with before their death. Seen in: Pretty much every ghost. There is a reason they are barred from a peaceful afterlife.
• Zushi: A traditional Japanese cabinet or double-doored shrine used to house sacred religious objects, Buddhist statues or Shinto deities. Seen in: Any game where you can open a cabinet to find something important, such as a key.

I originally posted this on my Substack, but thought it would fit here as well.

One of the most difficult parts of being a therapist who advocates for the rights and treatment of sexual offenders is the experience of being told that you cannot rehabilitate sex offenders, that these people offer nothing of value, and that they deserve to be either locked away forever or killed—statements that many therapists who work with sex offenders hear (Marshall, 2020). However, despite these emotional objections and negative perceptions, many countries provide treatment to sex offenders. Still, academia has debated its efficacy (Hanson, 2010) and even the best method for determining treatment outcomes (Seto et al., 2008). Typically, researchers use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine whether a treatment is truly effective. An RCT involves randomly assigning a group of people to either the control group, who do not receive treatment, or the treatment group. However, conducting an RCT with this population is rare because of major legal and ethical issues (Tyler et al., 2021), such as securing funding, withholding treatment, and potential public safety risks, so other methods must be used instead.

Many meta-analyses have been conducted to see if sex offender treatment is effective. Research by Alexander (1999), Gallagher et al. (1999), Hanson et al. (2002), Lösel and Schmucker (2005), Hanson et al. (2009), Dennis et al. (2012), Beech et al. (2015), Långström et al. (2015), Schmucker and Lösel (2015), and Gannon et al. (2019) has shown varied perspectives on its efficacy. Of note, seven of these studies (Alexander, 1999; Beech et al., 2015; Gannon et al., 2019; Hanson et al., 2002; Hanson et al., 2009; Lösel & Schmucker, 2005; Schmucker & Lösel, 2015) suggested that treatment reduces sexual offending. Still, it is not as simple as saying “Yes, treatment works!” As explained by Tyler et al. (2021), many factors determine the efficacy of treatment, such as program orientation and method of delivery (e.g., modality used, duration of treatment), the content of the program (e.g., exercises, treatment target), staffing (e.g., qualified psychologists vs. paraprofessionals), and the treatment setting itself (e.g., prison vs. community). As they go on to explain, overall, research suggests that sex offender treatment is an effective, positive treatment. However, at an individual level, factors like age, offence type, risk level, completion vs. non-completion, and whether the treatment was mandatory or voluntary influence its success.

Treatment for sex offenders also appears to be cost-effective. Prentky and Burgess (1990) found that a single sexual assault, when factoring in investigation and prosecution, was around $180,000 USD or roughly $200,000 CAD. As Marshall (2020) explained in great detail, however, in Canada, this rough estimate does not cover any costs incurred by the government, such as legal aid, which is common when the accused is a repeat offender. Marshall noted in a report by Olver et al. (2018) that between 1991 and 2001, 579 clients completed the Rockwood sex offender program. At $3,000 per offender, the total cost was $1,737,000 (579 × CAN$3,000). If these offenders had remained untreated, there would have been 113 repeat offenders (19.6% reoffense rate among the 579 offenders). However, the actual reoffending rate was 31 (5.4% of the 579), so Rockwood’s program prevented 82 people from reoffending (113 – 31 = 82). Using the estimated $200,000 per investigation and prosecution, the reduction to the taxpayer was $16,400,000 (82 × CAN$200,000). When removing the costs of operating the program (roughly $1,737,000), the overall reduction to Canadian taxpayers was $14,663,000.

Broadly speaking, research has found that specific treatment for sexual offending is effective at reducing sexual offending and that it can be even more effective under certain circumstances (e.g., using cognitive behavioural therapy), but that many factors influence the efficacy of treatment, such as staffing, setting, duration of treatment, modality used, age, offence type, risk level, completion vs. non-completion of the treatment, whether they were mandated to attend treatment or if they entered treatment voluntarily. Finally, treatment for sex offenders also appears to be a cost-effective method, ultimately saving more money for taxpayers.

References

Alexander, M. (1999). Sexual offender treatment efficacy revisited. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 11(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02658841

Beech, A., Freemantle, N., Power, C., & Fisher, D. (2015). An examination of potential biases in research designs used to assess the efficacy of sex offender treatment. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 7(4), 204–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-01-2015-0154

Dennis, J. A., Khan, O., Ferriter, M., Huband, N., Powney, M. J., & Duggan, C. (2012). Psychological interventions for adults who have sexually offended or are at risk of offending. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012(12), Article CD007507. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd007507.pub2

Gallagher, C. A., Wilson, D. B., Hirschfield, P., Coggeshall, M. B., & MacKenzie, D. L. (1999). A quantitative review of the effects of sex offender treatment on sexual reoffending. Correctional Management Quarterly, 3(4), 19–29.

Gannon, T. A., Olver, M. E., Mallion, J. S., & James, M. (2019). Does specialized psychological treatment for offending reduce recidivism? A meta-analysis examining staff and program variables as predictors of treatment effectiveness. Clinical Psychology Review, 73, Article 101752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101752

Hanson, R. K. (2010, September). Meta-analysis of treatment outcome in sexual offenders [Paper presentation]. 11th Conference of the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders, Oslo, Norway.

Hanson, R. K., Bourgon, G., Helmus, L., & Hodgson, S. (2009). The principles of effective correctional treatment also apply to sexual offenders. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 36(9), 865–891. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854809338545

Hanson, R. K., Gordon, A., Harris, A. J. R., Marques, J. K., Murphy, W., Quinsey, V. L., et al. (2002). First report of the collaborative outcome data project on the effectiveness of psychological treatment for sex offenders. Sexual Abuse, 14(2), 169–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/107906320201400207

Långström, N., Babchishin, K. M., Fazel, S., Lichtenstein, P., & Frisell, T. (2015). Sexual offending runs in families: A 37-year nationwide study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 44(2), 713–720. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyv029

Lösel, F., & Schmucker, M. (2005). The effectiveness of treatment for sexual offenders: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1(1), 117–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-004-6466-7

Marshall, L. E. (2020). The utility of treatment for sexual offenders. In J. Proulx, F. Cortoni, E. J. Letourneau, & L. E. Marshall (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of what works with sexual offenders: Contemporary perspectives in theory, assessment, treatment, and prevention (pp. 175–183). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119439325.ch10

Olver, M. E., Marshall, L. E., Marshall, W. L., & Nicholaichuk, T. P. (2018). A long‐term outcome assessment of the effects on subsequent re‐offense rates of a prison‐based CBT/RNR sex offender program with strength-based elements. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. doi: 10.1177/1079063218807486

Prentky, R. A., & Burgess, A. W. (1990). Rehabilitation of child molesters: A cost-benefit analysis. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(1), 108–117. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0079161

Schmucker, M., & Lösel, F. (2015). The effects of sexual offender treatment on recidivism: An international meta-analysis of sound quality evaluations. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 11(4), 597–630. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-015-9241-z

Seto, M. C., Marques, J. K., Harris, G. T., Chaffin, M., Lalumière, M. L., Miner, M. H., Berliner, L., Rice, M. E., Lieb, R., & Quinsey, V. L. (2008). Good science and progress in sex offender treatment are intertwined: A response to Marshall and Marshall (2007). Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment, 20(3), 247–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/1079063208317733

Tyler, N., Gannon, T. A., & Olver, M. E. (2021). Does treatment for sexual offending work? Current Psychiatry Reports, 23(8), Article 51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-021-01259-3

Following up on my post about the lack of research literacy in the field of therapy, I thought I would create a brief introduction to help people understand and read research papers. I love research methodology and data analysis, so I had a fun Friday morning! This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it covers as much as I can remember from my years of undergrad and grad school.

Core Variables & Descriptive Statistics

• Sample size: Represented by N, N represents the number of participants in a study. Small sample sizes make it difficult to know if the findings will apply to the population. Likewise, massive populations can make tiny, insignificant differences look meaningful.
• Representative sample: A sample that accurately reflects the demographics, clinical traits, and characteristics of the broader population you are trying to treat. A study can have a massive sample size, but if the test only examines a narrow, non-representative subgroup, the results will not generalize well to actual clients.
• Independent and dependent variable: The independent variable is the variable that researchers manipulate (e.g., one group gets CBT, one group does not). The dependent variable is the outcome variable; it is measured to see if the independent variable affected it (e.g., sleep quality).
• Confounding variable: Variables that are not controlled for but affect the independent and dependent variables, affecting the results and creating or distorting the relationship.
• Spurious relationship: A correlation between two variables that appears to be causal, but is actually driven by a hidden variable.
• Mean and Standard Deviations: The mean is the average score, and the standard deviation shows how spread out the scores are around the average. A large standard deviation means that clients had wildly different responses to treatment, whereas a small standard deviation means the scores were close together.

Designs

• Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT): Considered the gold standard, participants are randomly assigned to either an intervention group or control group; the randomization reduces bias and helps prove that the treatment, rather than some external factor, caused the outcome in the client.
• Cross-sectional research: This method takes a snapshot of data at one point in time; it is nice for looking to see if links exist, but it cannot prove causation.
• Longitudinal: It tracks the same cohort over many months or years; it is vital for looking at treatment efficacy, symptoms, and long-term outcomes.
• Mediation: Explains how or why a treatment works.
• Moderation: Explains for whom or under what conditions the treatment works (e.g., an intervention works better for teens than adults).

Reliability and Validity

• Reliability: Essentially, it asks whether the tool you are using will produce similar results at different points in time, or whether it is noisy and unpredictable. Reliability involves internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and inter-rater reliability.
  • Internal consistency: Does every item on a scale measure the same concept? This is where Cronbach's alpha comes into play. Between .70 and .90 is considered internally consistent.
  • Test-retest reliability: Does the client get the same result if tested at two different points in time, with no treatment between tests? It is vital in therapy to determine if score changes represent real changes or measurement error.
  • Inter-rater reliability: Do different clinicians evaluating the same session or test come to the same conclusion?
• Validity: Does the tool measure what it is supposed to? Validity involves construct validity, convergent and discriminant validity, criterion validity, and ecological validity.
  • Construct validity: Does the tool capture the psychological construct (e.g., resilience) that it is meant to measure?
  • Convergent validity: Does the tool correlate strongly with other gold-standard scales used to measure the same construct?
  • Discriminant validity: Does the tool remain distinct enough to separate unrelated traits (e.g., anxiety from general fatigue)?
  • Criterion validity: Does the tool accurately predict real-world clinical outcomes, such as future hospitalizations?
  • Ecological validity: Do the measurements and gains from an artificial environment transfer to real-life environments?
• Self-report vs. clinician-rated measures: It is important to understand how data were collected. Self-report is convenient, but susceptible to social desirability bias where the client gives the socially correct answer or simply tells the therapist or researcher what they want to hear. Blind, clinician-rated instruments generally offer better objectivity and better data.

A scale can be reliable but not valid, but it cannot be valid without first being reliable.

Power and Real-World Value

• p-value: Typically set at p < .05; p-values measure probability; it answers the simple question of "Is this result likely to have occurred by random chance?" While it gives you statistical significance, it does not tell you how large or useful the effect is.
• Effect size (e.g., Cohen's d, r): This measures the actual change or magnitude of the relationship.
  •  R-squared is awesome because it shows the proportion of variance in the dependent variable caused by manipulating the independent variable. Though this does not mean the model is free from error, it just shows correlation and fit.
  • IMPORTANT: IF YOU HAVE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE, ALWAYS CHECK THE EFFECT SIZE. A RESULT CAN BE SIGNIFICANT BUT HAVE A SMALL, NEGLIGIBLE, AND UNNOTICEABLE EFFECT. A LARGE EFFECT SIZE IS SOMETHING YOU WOULD RUN OUTSIDE TO TELL THE POPE; SMALL EFFECT SIZES TELL US SOMETHING IS THERE, BUT IT COULD BE NOISE.
• Confidence Intervals: Give a range where the true effect is likely to fall. A narrow confidence interval (e.g., d = 0.50, 95% CI [0.42, 0.58]) offers more certainty and precision in an estimation than a wide confidence interval (e.g., d = 0.50, 95% CI [0.20, 0.98]). A wide confidence interval means there is high uncertainty and low precision in an estimation.
• Statistical vs. clinical significance: Statistical significance is when outcomes show that a difference exists among groups. Clinical significance is when those differences translate to meaningful quality-of-life improvements.
• Number Needed to Treat (NNT): A metric showing how many clients must receive a treatment for one client to experience a meaningful benefit over the control group. The lower the number, the better.
• Power: The likelihood that a study will detect an effect if one actually exists. More people = more power = more likely to find real differences. Fewer people = less power = less likely to find real differences.

Control Groups, Analyses, and Common Traps

• Control groups and Blinds:
  • Active controls: Comparing a new treatment against standard therapy (e.g., CBT) tests efficacy.
  • Passive controls: Comparing treatment to a waitlist can artificially inflate effect sizes, as waitlist participants stagnate.
• Attrition and dropout: High dropout rates can potentially suggest that an intervention was burdensome, ineffective, or unpalatable for a subset of participants. High attrition rates can skew outcome data towards only those who tolerated or benefited from the treatment. If a paper shows a 90% success rate for a certain treatment, but half the people dropped out, the success rate is seriously skewed.
• Intent-to-treat and per-protocol: Intent-to-treat analyses include every participant, even those who dropped out, whereas per-protocol analyses include only those who completed treatment. Per-protocol can inflate the results and make the treatment look unrealistically effective.
• Publication bias and p-hacking:
  • Sadly, journals tend to publish only positive results, and negative and null findings get shoved into a drawer and lost to time. As I have argued for years, statistically insignificant results are just as important (if not more) than statistically significant results because they tell us where not to look.
  • p-hacking occurs when researchers test dozens of variables in hopes of finding a statistically significant result, ignoring all the times they got a statistically insignificant result.
• Paper age vs. methodology: Many people often conflate new with better. However, that is not always the case. In research, the methodology used is far more valuable than the age. A paper from 1995 that has an RCT, a representative sample, and controls for confounding variables can be significantly better and more reliable than a paper published this year that did not use an RCT, is not representative, and does not control for confounding variables.

References

Chambers, C. (2017). The seven deadly sins of psychology: A manifesto for reforming the science of mind. Princeton University Press.

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Furr, R. M. (2021). Psychometrics: An introduction (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Gravetter, F. J., & Forzano, L.-A. B. (2018). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Gravetter, F. J., Wallnau, L. B., Forzano, L.-A. B., & Witnauer, J. E. (2021). Essentials of statistics for the behavioral sciences (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Kazdin, A. E. (2017). Research design in clinical psychology (5th ed.). Pearson.

Sawilowsky, S.S. (2009). New Effect Size Rules of Thumb. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, 8, 26.

Shadish, W. R., Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Cengage Learning.

Straus, S. E., Richardson, W. S., Glasziou, P., & Haynes, R. B. (2018). Evidence-based medicine: How to practice and teach EBM (5th ed.). Elsevier.

 

I have been wanting to ask this question for a while now, and I am curious to see all the different reasons people offer up for why they love the series.

Fatal Frame is my favourite horror franchise because:

• It combines the inventory management of Resident Evil with the creepy, tense atmosphere of Silent Hill, all wrapped in Japanese supernatural horror.
• It is primarily female-led. So much horror is male-orientated, and that is ok, but not really for me. Ever since I can remember, I related better to girls and women than boys and men. If a work is female-led, I am drawn to it more, not only because of who I am as a person, but because I love experiencing the same media (horror) through a different lens. Girls and women have unique experiences, and I want to see and feel those perspectives.
• Almost every game revolves around loss, grief, and trauma. Fatal Frame does a remarkable job of showcasing how these are things that stay with us for the rest of our lives and change us; that these are not merely just chapters that we can turn a page and have it be over, never to revisit, but that these things remain a part of who we are forever.
• The games incorporate Japanese history and culture beautifully. Unlike Silent Hill and Resident Evil, Fatal Frame is 100% Japanese from start to finish. Obviously, when I say history and culture, what that entails is far too broad, so I will focus on my favourite aspect: Shintoism. Shintoism is Japan's indigenous religion. It is animistic, polytheistic, and nature-based. There is no Bible or other major doctrine to follow, no single creator, no Pope or anything like that. There are many different Kami, but Tsukiyomi—my GOAT and the Moon Kami—gets a major role in Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. He is one of the three precious Children alongside his eldest sister, Amaterasu (the Sun Kami), and his younger brother, Susanoo (the Kami of the Sea, Storms, and Fields). Aside from the physical markers of Shintoism (e.g., torii gates, Shimenawa), concepts of Hitobashira, Kegare, Harae, Wa, among others, abound.
• The audio design is the best I have heard in any game. Every step, every creak of the floorboard, every whimpering lightbulb—you are meant to hear every noise, and if you are like me, it will feel like you are right there with the character. You are meant to walk through decrepit mansions, haunted villages, and grief-stricken manors and soak it all in. Old-school Japanese horror films heavily inspired Fatal Frame (Such as The Ring and Kwaidan, though I would argue that Cure, Pulse, and Perfect Blue also share some thematic DNA with the series). Because of this influence from Japanese horror films and heavy reliance on audio design and atmosphere, Fatal Frame is easily the slowest-paced of my three favourite horror franchises, and that is exactly how I love it.
• The music. While the music is not in the same league as Akira and Silent Hill 2 and 3, there are some genuinely beautiful tracks, such as Chou and Koe, or songs that just scare the absolute shit out of me, such as The Pipe Organ Ambience and the Tsukimori Song. The Pipe Organ Ambience song that plays as Ruka ascends the Lighthouse is the creepiest shit I have ever heard in my life. The Tsukimori Song (Pipe Organ) is also disturbing as hell; a long time ago, I read a comment from someone on YouTube that described it as something like music that plays when you are forced to watch a loved one slowly fall apart due to illness (mental or physical), and you can not do anything; you are forced to watch.
• The combat. While not as exciting as Silent Hill or Resident Evil, Fatal Frame's combat is unique among them because all you are given is a camera, and the best way to deal damage is to get as close to the ghosts as possible and zoom in. Unlike the other games where you can attack from a distance, Fatal Frame forces you to get up close and personal to deal the most damage, and I love it.

 

Every so often, this subreddit will have a post misrepresenting a study, claiming it said something it did not, or, more often, therapists suggesting pseudoscience to other therapists.

Being a therapist means basing what we do on research and evidence; it means being able to distinguish correlational data from causal data; it means being able to tell good reliability from bad, good validity from bad, and recognizing spurious relationships and confounding variables that may be impacting treatment or research; it means being able to understand p-values and effect sizes; it means being able to point out when desirability bias or sampling bias are an issue; it means being able to point out the various fallacies we encounter every session; it means being able to understand false positives and false negatives; it means being able to understand that new studies are not inherently better than older studies just because they are new.

Good therapy is not simply, “It works for my clients, so that is all that matters.” So much of good therapy is understanding the research behind it and the interventions we use.

Providing therapy without understanding the research behind it is not scientific; it is guesswork, and clients deserve better than guesswork.

https://preview.redd.it/tfmrao6gl1fh1.png?width=665&format=png&auto=webp&s=473ea837c69548adbf8bf12b0013f3004a51d18d

I recently finished my Higurashi anime binge-rewatch. Initially, I preferred the manga to the anime for the expected reasons: manga and novels have more room to explore characters and situations and to provide more detail, and even after rewatching the first two seasons, this held true. However, once I got to Gou and Sotsu, that changed. There was so much that I enjoyed about Gou and Sotsu.

What changed during my rewatch:

The music: Initially, when I first watched the anime back in 2020 and 2021, I did not care for the intro or outro music. However, I found myself enjoying it, along with the visuals, much more this time around. Still, I do not know if I prefer the intro music in Gou and Sotsu to the season 1 intro and the accompanying visuals.

The animation style: Upon first watch, I did not care for the animation style; I felt it too bright, colourful, and happy-looking; too clean. Upon my second watch, after having spent a few years reading about Japanese history and culture (especially in the history and production of anime and the concept of moé) and writing research papers about it, it occurred to me that this change (aside from the obvious different studios) was intentional to lull viewers into a sense of security by giving the anime more of a slice of life feel. The juxtaposition of bright, happy colours and moé feelings with psychological and supernatural horror mixed with gore creates a beautiful contrast.

What did not change during my rewatch:

My love for the voice actors: I absolutely loved the performances of Khoi (Keiichi), Emi (Rena), Brittany (Satoko), Apphia (Rika), Xanthe (Hanyuu), Emily (Eua), and Michelle (Takano). I am hoping they return for the upcoming anime.

My love for the story: When I started Gou and Sotsu, I was in the middle of college, and I loved the story. Now, years later, my appreciation for the story has grown even more. Most importantly, I loved how Gou and Sotsu portrayed Satoko. I do not look at her or her behaviour from a "Does this make sense from a lore perspective?", but from a "Does this make sense from the perspective of a therapist who works in child abuse prevention? Do her character and behaviour align with what the research says about abuse, grief, trauma, codependency, attachment issues, and abandonment issues?" and the answer to that is a resounding yes, albeit it is cranked up to 11 and exaggerated, but deep down, her character and behaviour align with what the research says. Namely,

(1) People who have dealt with abuse, regardless of the type of abuse, are more likely to engage in the same type of abuse they endured later on in life. It will not always occur, but the risk increases. However, it can be mitigated by factors such as social support, a strong sense of community and community involvement, stable housing and employment, and education.

(2) People with abandonment issues and attachment issues (such as Satoko's anxious attachment style) may go to extreme lengths to prevent real or imagined abandonment. An example is when Satoko went to the academy with Rika. She was a clear fish out of water. The loss of control triggers profound panic, and her abandonment and codependency issues manifest yet again. Satoko refuses to lose Rika and, to an extent, the rest of her friends, and will do anything to ensure they stay together. People like Satoko with her anxious attachment may view another person's independence as an existential threat to who she is. Rather than processing the shifting dynamic, they may resort to manipulation to maintain the status quo, effectively punishing the person for seeking independence from them. Satoko does not view normal life transitions as a part of growing. Rather, she views them as traumatic re-abandonments. First, she lost Satoshi, then she lost Rika. After losing her primary core attachments, her response is not rational adaptation, but a desperate, hyperfixated, irrational survival attempt to maintain control over her environment and the people in her circle.

While Satoko's behaviour and character are amplified by supernatural tragedy that is Hinamizawa, her underlying terror of being left behind, her communication and boundary failures, her attachment and abandonment issues, and the repetition of harm she enacts throughout are rather realistic behaviours. Gou and Sotsu reinvigorated my love for Higurashi to the point where I am hoping to, one day, get a book chapter published on Higurashi, maybe discussing attachment styles, Shintoism, how child abuse prevention takes a community, or how Higurashi uses Hinamizawa syndrome as a metaphor for paranoia, psychosis, and how extreme stress can change someone biologically, emotionally, and psychologically.

For more, see:

Azuma, H. (2009). Otaku: Japan's database animals (J. E. Abel & S. Kono, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 2001).

Bowlby, J. (1980). Attachment and loss: Vol. 3. Loss: Sadness and depression. Basic Books.

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0749-3797(98)00017-8

Galbraith, P. W. (2014). The moe manifesto: An insider's look at the worlds of manga, anime, and gaming. Tuttle Publishing.

Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.

Hughes, D. A., & Gurney-Smith, B. (2020). The little book of attachment: Theory to practice in child mental health with Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. W. W. Norton & Company.

Lamarre, T. (2009). The anime machine: A media theory of animation. University of Minnesota Press.

Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227–238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.227

Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2007). Attachment in adulthood: Structure, dynamics, and change. Guilford Press.

Widom, C. S. (1989). The cycle of violence. Science, 244(4901), 160–166. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2715501

Widom, C. S., & Maxfield, M. G. (2001). An update on the "cycle of violence" (Research in Brief, NCJ 184894). U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/184894.pdf

Wright, E. M., & Fagan, A. A. (2013). The cycle of violence in context: Exploring the moderating roles of neighborhood disadvantage and cultural norms. Criminology, 51(2), 217–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12003