Welcome to the third edition of the Handbook of Research Methods in Social and Personality Psychology. The first two editions of this handbook – published in 2000 and 2014 – have played an important role in widening access to and utilization of cutting-edge methods in the field. Useful as these volumes have been, the science of personality/social psychology never sleeps when it comes to developing new and improved research methods. And so herewith we present a third edition, designed to capture some of the most influential and promising new methodological advances in our field.

This edition covers both traditional methodological topics that have seen advances in recent years and novel approaches of recent vintage. There are, of course, many other topics that could have been included. We’ve chosen content that we believe will be most relevant to the largest proportion of new scholars in the field.

Modern dentistry has made much progress in pain control and in providing a patient-friendly service, which has expanded the dentist’s ability to perform a wide range of treatments in a pain-free environment. Nevertheless, despite revolutionary new dental techniques, it is well recognized in the dental literature that substantial fear exists concerning seeking dental care. This fear can be so extensive that people from all races and socioeconomic categories can be affected by it in some form.

In most social psychological studies, researchers conduct analyses that treat participants as a random effect. This means that inferential statistics about the effects of manipulated variables address the question whether one can generalize effects from the sample of participants included in the research to other participants that might have been used. In many research domains, experiments actually involve multiple random variables (e.g., stimuli or items to which participants respond, experimental accomplices, interacting partners, groups). If analyses in these studies treat participants as the only random factor, then conclusions cannot be generalized to other stimuli, items, accomplices, partners, or groups. What are required are mixed models that allow multiple random factors. For studies with single experimental manipulations, we consider alternative designs with multiple random factors, analytic models, and power considerations. Additionally, we discuss how random factors that vary between studies, rather than within them, may induce effect size heterogeneity, with implications for power and the conduct of replication studies.

Certain patient populations requiring sedation for procedures present the clinician with challenging decisions regarding their care and management. Some underlying medical disease states, airway abnormalities, or extremes of age require cautious pre-procedural assessment and planning when sedation is required to minimize the incidence of morbidity or mortality. It should be noted that some of these higher-risk patients should only be sedated by trained anesthesia providers. The following commonly encountered conditions are considered high risk and are associated with a higher rate of complications: old age, obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease, and chronic renal failure. This chapter discusses important features of these higher-risk patients and practice management when sedation is required. In all cases, appropriate monitoring, prudent selection and dosing of sedative agents, and careful assessment are important to ensure the best outcome for these higher-risk patients.