How to Critically Read, Understand and Analyze Meta Analyses

In today’s episode, Greg and Eric discuss a new study reporting that 85% of highly cited meta-analyses in the field of strength and conditioning research contain at least one statistical error. The conversation covers common meta-analysis errors, how to spot them, and how to critically interpret meta-analyses. After that, Eric presents a segment on motivation and behavior change. He begins by reviewing evidence-based goal setting strategies, then discusses how we can leverage self-determination theory to get motivated to pursue our goals, and how we can lean on the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation, behavior) model to change behaviors in accordance with our goals. This leads to a unified, comprehensive, evidence-based model that covers goal setting, motivation, and behavior change from start to finish.

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TIME STAMPS

Intro/Announcements (0:00)

Origins of meta-analyses (6:15)

New study on meta-analysis errors (11:53)

• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-022-01766-0

The most common errors (17:10)

Interpretation and conclusions (29:22)

• https://www.strongerbyscience.com/meta-analyses/

Defining “motivation” (50:11)

Goal setting (52:51)

• https://www.strongerbyscience.com/goal-setting/
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01879/full

Motivation (1:00:43)

Self-determination theory (1:06:07)

• https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/research/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11392867/
• https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-68513-001

Psychological needs (competence, relatedness, autonomy) (1:11:18)

The COM-B model of behavior change (1:29:19)

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096582/

Practical application: a unified model combining goal hierarchies, self-determination theory, and the COM-B model of behavior change (1:37:30)

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